Track Premiere: Bart & the Bedazzled “Blue Motel”

Whitest Boy Alive and Kings of Convenience singer, Erlend Øye, once referred to Bart & the Bedazzled’s front man Bart Davenport the best one-guy-and-guitar performer there is. That’s truly high praise, especially considering the source, but now on his second album with his current band he’s really hit his stride. That band consists of some of the finest players from the L.A. indiepop scene – Jessica Espeleta, Andres Renteria, and Wayne Faler. The result of this collaboration has been a collection of pristine jangle pop, my personal favorite of which is the title track from their new record Blue Motel. We’re thrilled to be premiering that one for you right here, right now.

Davenport does a great job of describing the song in the quote below so I’ll keep my words on the subject brief. Quite simply, this song is pretty. All of the elements from the vocals, to the shimmering guitar sound, to the intriguing story it tells add up to paint a beautiful portrait of “the blue motel.”

“This is track number one of the new album by the same name. It was recorded in Boyle Heights at Palomino Sound Studios and at least 2/3 of that onto analog tape. The Jangly guitars are curtesy of Wayne Faler (Dream Boys). We like to fuse 80s sounds with subtle jazz undertones in our chord voicing and a more 60s approach to song structure. Comparisons are made to Prefab Sprout and Cleaners From Venus and while that is super flattering, the lyrics are pure L.A. noire. It’s a song of regret and redemption, of losing and finding oneself in a city that forgives and forgets. The motel is a place to land, somewhere to hideout while you plot your next move. It’s a very west coast story. I see the protagonist as someone with a checkered past coming to terms with a strange, bewildering present and accepting it. The album had to start here before getting into any other stories.”

Blue Motel is out this Friday, April 27th via Lovemonk.

(Full band header image by Carlie Kennear, carousel image by Piper Ferguson)