MASTODON's BRENT HINDS Readies WEST END MOTEL's Sophomore Release

 

MASTODON guitarist Brent Hinds is gearing up for the release of his sophomore album with side-project WEST END MOTEL. Due October 30 on Warner Bros. Records, "Only Time Can Tell" is the highly-anticipated follow-up to Hinds' acclaimed 2011 debut, "Don't Shiver, You're A Winner" which SPIN dubbed "a welcome departure from MASTODON's thrashy, progged-out fare...sounds like Tom Waits and Tim Burton co-hosting the creepiest vaudeville show ever," and Pitchfork lauded for its "playfulness and off-the-cuff amiability."

Rolling Stone is streaming the album's first single "Burn It Down", praising its "brightly shout-out-loud vocals, warm and soulful
textures, swooning funk melodies and a breezy beat that's downright
feel-good music."

WEST END MOTEL began in 1993 under a bridge in Atlanta, where Hinds first met longtime friend Tom Cheshire. Describing themselves as a "conglomerate of losers, poets and
hobo-sexuals," the pair write acoustic-guitar driven songs enriched with horns and keys, with the end result sounding like Nick Cave fronting GOGOL BORDELLO. The project pre-dates MASTODON and offers an important glimpse into Hinds' musical influences.

"I grew up listening to Chet Atkins play guitar, and I grew up listening to Brian Setzer play guitar," explains Hinds. "Jimmy Bryant, Speedy West, all these country-chicken-pickin'-flying-'round-the-guitar-neck guitar
players. I got really inspired by it. I'm from way down in the country.
It was pretty common to have the interests I had when I was that age. MTV had some hair metal on there, but I was more interested in this rockabilly vibe. STRAY CATS were really big at the time, in the '80s. It was epic."
"Only Time Can Tell" track listing:

01. Burn It Down
02. El Myr
03. Witch Is Dead
04. If I Only Had Tomorrow (Second Chances)
05. Forgiveness
06. Only Time Can Tell
07. Valentine
08. Bite