Local band Motel Mattress used to be called Motel Matches (after the Elvis Costello tune), before another outfit of same name threatened legal action. No matter. The two—drummer Jacob Gaulin and guitarist Zach Peckham—have decided they prefer the new moniker anyway.
“We didn’t mind,” says Peckham. “We like the new name better, and the other Matches aren’t really our cup of Darjeeling anyway. Some say ‘mattress’ is skeezier and more fitting. We’ve been told that there’s a lot of sexual tension in our live show.”
The pair will be channeling some of that tension onto the Flywheel stage on Jan. 29 in celebration of a new full-length.
The two friends began playing in punk bands together as young kids in central Massachusetts before they even knew how to play their instruments.
“We like to think things have progressed since then,” Peckham says.
Motel Mattress gets called all sorts of things, and lumped into all sorts of genres.
“We get things like math rock, post-rock, all the other rocks,” says Peckham. “We’ve gotten ‘Like the middle of a Pink Floyd song’; ‘You guys sound kinda like Yes’; and ‘Now you just need a singer.'”
Gaulin and Peckham draw inspiration from all sorts of bands, but most importantly from sources closer to home.
“Our biggest influences are our friends,” Peckham says. “We also really like Hella, Battles, Giraffes? Giraffes!, Lightning Bolt, Godspeed, and Noxagt. But the music we listen to isn’t always very reflective of how we sound. For instance, [I’ve] mostly been listening to The Mountain Goats and Fall of Efrafa. Jake’s mostly been listening to Dave Brubeck, Dave Bowie, and Fever Ray.”
The impending Motel Mattress CD is “self-pressed” and mastered by Adam Kozak with artwork by Dan Nott. They’ve dubbed it Jazz Impressions of Cordyceps Fungi.
“It’s a fungus that infects insects’ central nervous systems and causes them to climb higher and higher, as high as they can, until they explode, releasing a cloud of spores that will potentially destroy the entire species,” explains Peckham.
The boys are planning some small tours and a vinyl record split with their friends Tremarche from Worcester. They say they’ll also be working on some live recordings, producing some new material, and scheduling as many shows as possible throughout the Valley and beyond.
Motel Mattress kicks things off at the aforementioned release show at Flywheel in Easthampton Jan. 29 with Tremarche, Goddard, and Giraffes? Giraffes!
For songs and more information, visit www.myspace.com/themotelmatches.
