MYTHICAL MOTORS “This Is What the Twilight Zone Was Preparing Us For” (Fall Break Records)

This is it. This is EXACTLY what The Twilight Zone was preparing us for. We are living at a time when the surreal and unbelievable happens around us all the time. Does it cause panic, stress, discomfort? Sure, just like all those characters on the show, we’re constantly battling confusing headwinds, trying to get our bearings in order to make sense of everything. Are we succeeding? Heck no!

But that’s OK when you’ve got Matt Addison’s Mythical Motors project to back you up and give you some sort of shelter throughout the storm. Always at full tilt and with an unending store of optimism, Addison and crew blast through lo-fi power pop anthems like GBV or early Sloan without a studio budget. Don’t let that fool you – it all sounds great. Addison has proven over [*counts on fingers*] a bunch of releases that he’s quite the able songwriter, and his chops just keep improving. I love tunes like “Bloodwork Tactics” and “Motorcade Shapes,” crammed back to back in the middle of the tape, fuzz-driven tunes that burst fully formed before quickly fizzing out. That’s right – only two of the twenty-two tracks here stretch beyond two minutes, and those don’t even break 2:10.

Students of GBV indeed!

Students of putting a smile on your face too. Combating that TZ weirdness. Giving us an out. So think about this: you can either spend your life worrying, fighting that uphill battle, or you can choose positive vibes, always and forever. You can choose Mythical Motors.

https://mythicalmotors.bandcamp.com/

https://store.fallbreakrecords.com/

--Ryan

MYTHICAL MOTORS “Elevated Levels” (self-released)

Julie Christie, the rumors are true! Zeroed in on my indie rock past (I was an indie rock kid, I was always an indie rock kid), I experienced a cold jolt with “Elevated Levels,” the latest tape from Chattanooga pop darlings Mythical Motors. The rumors, indeed: guitar rock is back, if it was ever gone, and it can still be awesome.

It was never gone, don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. (Some of it sucked hard though.)

I mean, yeah – it’s a total blast, a jangle pop delight, dripping with reverb, even mastered by Todd Tobias himself. Who’s Todd Tobias?! I just about spat out a mouthful of coffee there, son. Todd Tobias ONLY plays in the greatest lo-fi faux-arena band ever, Guided By Voices. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to mention them. Mythical Motors’ Matt Addison is definitely a Pollard disciple, and that’s a good thing these days. There aren’t enough of them around.

The Motors are as influenced by XTC as they are GBV, marrying the late-80s/early 90s indie vibe with the C86 set. Cramming insane hooks into criminally short songs (most less than two minutes), Addison and crew ebb and flow along with their whims, following their muses, pouncing on their inspiration. And let’s face it – short songs are perfect within this idiom. “Elevated Levels” – of volume, of adrenaline, of sugar – hits all the right spots, probably all of the time. I don’t know that for sure though, since I don’t play this tape 24/7 (duh).

Mythical Motors

--Ryan

MYTHICAL MOTORS “Running the Shine” (self-released)

Mythical Motors, Chattanooga’s favorite indie-pop outfit, are back, this time in pog form! Not really, though – they’re just back with a new tape, RUNNING THE SHINE, continuing along the same rock action path as their previous work, such as SELECTIONS FROM THE PSYCHIC’S MUSEUM, reviewed by me not terribly long ago. (And remember pogs? I was a little old for them when they came out, but whatevs.) EQ in the red? Check. Guitars blazing a power-pop trail? Check. Melodies to die and/or kill for? Double check. In fact, the quartet sounds particularly energized in this iteration, as always led by the probably-GBV-worshipping Matt Addison. The sixteen songs are crisp, delivered effortlessly, and fuzzed out for maximum eardrum poppage at the right volumes. Any one of the tunes would be safely snuggled in good and tight on the CHILDREN OF NUGGETS tracklist. Or on one of Bob Pollard’s mixtapes, if he made mixtapes instead of tirelessly making the music of other people’s mixtapes instead. Which is sort of what Addison and crew do: tirelessly make side A/track 1s for all us proles whose guitars are hidden under beds or in closets, cases covered in dust and strings rusty from disuse. I am one of those of us. My guitar strings are rusty. I listen to Mythical Motors and I think to myself, “Gee, I should really bust out the old guitar and tune that thing up.” Then I remember that takes actual effort, so I’ll leave that effort to the professional rock-and-rollers. When there are tapes like RUNNING THE SHINE around, who needs to do anything besides kick back, strap in, and feel the Gs. Or maybe go out to one of Mythical Motors’s live shows – I bet when they’re plugged in they can really shake some teeth. In a super catch way.

Mythical Motors

-- Ryan Masteller

MYTHICAL MOTORS “Selections from the Psychic’s Museum" C52 (Fall Break Records)

Holy crap, this is a lot of material from a band that I’ve only just heard about in the past year. You can’t fault me for that – I don’t go looking for many jangle pop/indie rock tapes, but now that Fall Break Records is on the scene, I may have to adjust my search parameters. (Who am I kidding, I’m a music writer – I don’t have to lift a finger [well, except to type], and I get my records for free!) Chattanooga’s Mythical Motors has been around for a long time in band years, since 2006, and they’ve released a butt ton of material in the interim. That’s actually not surprising when you’re as indebted to Guided By Voices and The Apples in Stereo and bands like that – you’re practically born with pop songwriting in your DNA. You wake up, brush your teeth, and knock out about fifty tunes before breakfast. It’s just what you do.

It’s what Matt Addison does, and he and his band of merry guitar slingers have perfected their power pop formula in basements and bedrooms and home studios and whatever else like machines on an assembly line. Write hook, record, move on. Remember I.R.S. Records? Flying Nun? Yeah, they’re represented here too, and Mythical Motors would have slid right in to the each label’s roster if they were twenty years older. But right now, it seems that Tennessee – the whole state mind you, not just Chattanooga – is the new hotbed for this type of tunage. It’s the new Athens, Georgia, which is weird because Fall Break Records is based out of Athens, and they probably have something to say about that. Maybe we can get their label staff to Wrestlemania-style grudge match against Mythical Motors and bands like Commander Keen and others. I honestly don’t know who’d win (mainly because I don’t know how big the FBR staff is).

Doesn’t matter, though, because you still have to get your hands on this sweet tape. Did I mention there are twenty-two songs on it? I didn’t? Well there are, and that’s a lot, and they restlessly refuse to stay at one point on the rock-and-roll map. Addison and co. keep it fresh, which might be surprising after so much time, but here they are. Selections plays like an album instead of a compilation, and you can’t ask for anything more from your music curators. Have you ordered the tape yet? Why not? I’ve given you over four hundred words worth of time. You don’t have to read this to the end. It’s not like I’m monitoring your internet usage.

Mythical Motors

Fall Break Records

--Ryan Masteller