"Jetset Motel’s debut album brims with rootsy goodness... the four-piece has lots going for it – like David Picco’s appealing voice, which is coarse-edged without being weary. Their melodies are top-drawer, and their songs – even the higher-energy rockers in the middle – retain a gentle, unforced feel." - Carla Gillis, NOW Magazine
“A Motel worth checking out.” – Kerry Doole, Exclaim!
"The 10-track album is a happy discovery, full of well-written and played rootsy guitar rock... I'll give it an 8/10." - Steve McLean, Toronto Music Journalist and Blogger
-------------------------------
While on the road heading to a gig in London, Ontario, four Newfoundland musicians, in a van loaded down with Fender gear, passed a sign advertising Ingersoll’s Jet Set Motel. The band was touring in support of David Picco’s debut solo album, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, and the sign typified their aesthetic perfectly. The band was playing songs of heartbreak and longing which told the tales of weary and restless protagonists. Theirs is the sound of smoky bars and cross-country trips by many a band - a legacy of great North American music from Neil Young and The Flying Burrito Brothers to Songs: Ohia and Wilco - this van was on that same path of sincerity and dedication to the craft that so many greats have travelled in the past and it was those artists' albums playing out the long rides in between gigs.
Jetset Motel are four displaced East Coasters who found themselves and each other through various bands playing around Toronto at places like the Legendary Horseshoe, Silver Dollar, Cadillac Lounge and Dakota Tavern. Last year the band started to work on a eponymous debut album at Orchard Studios just outside the city. Long hours of rehearsing, tracking, re-writing and re-working the songs they had been honing in the live setting were finally paying off. Mixing with Laurence Currie was next and after all that work something of great importance to them had emerged: an album.
Now in 2010 all that blood, sweat and toil will be pressed onto plastic discs and sold in small shops around the country, uploaded to countless social networking sites and sent to festivals, magazines, blogs and newspapers so that all this hard work can finally be heard by the fresh ears of an audience.
Bringing the bands story full-circle they have licensed three songs for use in CBCs hit show Republic of Doyle set and filmed in their home province of Newfoundland.
Jetset Motel’s self-titled debut released April 20th spawned the first single "Way It's Been", which has received regular play on CBC Radio 1&2 as well as spending 8 weeks on CBC Radio 3's R3-30 chart peaking at #4. The band followed this up with many successful shows in Ontario, Quebec and on the east coast. While Jetset Motel continue to tour the album the band is writing more material for a new record in 2011. In the meantime, keep an eye out for that van loaded with gear on a highway near you.