Any love for this incredibly versatile Norwegian band? I discovered them by way of a Prog Magazine CD sampler last April and was floored. I've had a blast acquiring vinyl from them for the few months. No easy task. I've never heard a band drift so effortlessly from hard rock to jazz to stoner rock to prog to southern rock to bluegrass to classical.
Interesting. What would you recommend to start with - their 90's & 00's stuff? Or 2010's Heavy Metal Fruit?
Heavy Metal Fruit is superb psychedelic/stoner rock. Their newest is The Death Defying Unicorn, which has a good bit of prog and even classical.
I'd suggest "Angels and Daemons at Play", "Timothy's Monster", "Trust Us", or "Blissard" as good starting points. Motorpsycho is one of those bands where their discography is so wide and varied that it's daunting to even get started with them if you're unfamiliar with their work.
Thanks jmpatrick and GodShifter. Looks like I'll be having an exciting musical journey soon, it's all very intriguing
I do, too, jmpatrick. I've heard they put on an incredible live show. In some sense, they're almost like a jam band in that their shows are legendary for their length and improvisation. I actually had a chance to seem them in Germany in 99, but wussed out and went and saw Entombed instead! What a mistake! I've always had a soft spot for Blissard personally. "Manmower" is one of their finest songs, imo, and the second half of that album is simply sublime.
Don´t miss the live CDs roadwork vol 4: intrepid skronk (2008-2010) and Roadwork vol 1: Heavy Metall iz a poze, hardt rock iz a laifschteil (1998) ! Also, little lucid moments (2008) is great - and of course heavy metal fruit (2010). Rock-prog is the genre!!
I saw them lots of times (during the 90s) when I lived in The Netherlands. Terrific live band, and well worth seeing from night to night, as they could play completely differently (and completely different material). Where to start? Depends on what you like, and which side of Motorpsycho you think you want to hear. For studio stuff, I would agree with Angels & Daemons At Play (but you need the 3 CD EP version!) or Trust Us. The 3 disc Angels has the lengthy A K-9 Suite, which shows off their Echoes-like side, while also having their more usual heavy songs. You can also get both sides with Roadwork Vol. 1, which is one of my favorite live albums (I'm in the audience for some of it). Check out these samples from it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts1HnVUq1Kg and the 30+ minutes of A K-9 Suite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91ZXdnvRNmI Do not overlook their many singles/EPs! I see they have also released box set versions of Blissard and Timothy's Monster. Does anyone have them? Comments on sound quality, etc.? Then, of course, there are the alter-egos like the Country-rock of The Tussler soundtrack (expanded in 2003 with material by The International Tussler Society), the Americana/Bluegrass of HGH, the experimental/free jazz live album with The Source, and the electric jazz of their collaboration with Jaga Jazzist Horns. Did I miss anything? I would say that the place NOT to start is Roadwork Vol. 2, unless you are coming to Motorpsycho from the likes of Derek Bailey or Ornette Coleman! Yowza! I just discovered this: https://soundcloud.com/motorgigs/sets/motorpsycho-strings-of-stroop I was at the shows for the first two songs! Stroop, BTW, is a treacle-like syrup, very popular in Holland.
I've spent the whole day listening to the German band Colour Haze. Wow. If you're into some of the lengthy Motorpsycho pieces, you'll probably enjoy the album Los Sounds de Krauts. Fabulous extended stoner-infused psychedelic prog!
I was listening to Death Defying Unicorn today and wondering if anyone had said anything at all about Motorpsycho in this forum. I love them. They're one of the most interesting bands of today.
So I'm listening to Behind The Sun on vinyl for the first time in a few months and was idly reading up on Motorpsycho online to see if they've a new album (it has been almost a year!) and found out that side A has two hidden instrumental tracks, depending where you place the needle. I thought it was an etching!
Yes, depending on where you place the needle, one of the two will play. Drone-y instrumentals, but very atmospheric.
Great movie too. Crazy Vietnam Vets terrorize a town on scooters! . "Those punks look like they had a ball!" A forgotten Russ Meyer classic.
If you can listen to two hidden tracks depending on where you place the needle, then I assume the pressing is really good. How's the mastering for the vinyl? I have it on CD, and it sounds fine. My Motorpsycho vinyl collection includes Blissard (golden vinyl), Trust Us, The Death Defying Unicorn (probably the worst sounding of all, but the music is a masterpiece imho) and Still Life With Eggplant. All of them sound quite good. They're not amazing, but you can't complain much either.
Also big fan of Motorpsycho, I think their two masterpieces are "Timothy`s Monster" and "Blissard", but also "Demon Box" and "Trust us" are amazingly good. Extraordinary good to come from a little sleepy town in Norway. The best of the best IMO:
I recommend these two albums to anyone who likes the Allman Brothers Band's Brothers and Sisters or Grateful Dead's Workingman's Dead - two brilliant country rock albums from Norway , the latter comes with a free dvd documentary about the recording sessions in a remote barn in the middle of the Norwegian winter
Motorpsycho's new album Here Be Monsters came out on Friday. Really, really strong record (again) with a mellower side A and finishes with a gargantuan 17-minute prog epic. The vinyl sounds fantastic too.
I will definitely give it a serious listen, especially that they floored me with their last live recording En Konsert For Folk Flest.
