The Paradise Motel

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I've been relistening to all my Paradise Motel cds a lot over the past few days and remembering how much I used to absolutely adore this band. Totally unheralded now of course, which is partly because they were Australian I guess but I also think because it was easy to just incorrectly pigeonhole them; listening again they sound as magical and singular as Insides or prime Piano Magic.

So this is a bid for discussion and especially any information of where the band's wealth of talented songwriters (Bickford, Aulich, Austen, Bailey, Sussex) have all ended up, if anywhere...

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 3 May 2004 00:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I saw them live only the once, and was fascinated by the singer's stage prescence. She was arresting, mainly because she looked so ... disturbed, somehow. Like she could barely cope with being onstage, exposing herself emotionally. She was almost shaking with concentration. Great stuff, I like them a lot, I never did get around to buying an of their work though. I should remedy this.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I was thinking that the band's Please Keep Me Safe EP must have been my indie highwatermark. Which is not to say that late '97 was my indie-est moment, or that this is the indie-est release I have; rather, perhaps, that I can't think of a release whose essential indieness was so attractive to me, whose vision I wanted to invest myself in so passionately (if this all sounds like a good deal of unnecessary handwringing, please read it in a tone of observation rather than confession).

It's a great collection though: one where you can actually hear the vision of the group unfolding and expanding in front of you, with five different songwriters all tailoring a consistent (almost archaic) lyrical and musical vision into distinct shapes - pastoral splendour, spaghetti western, punk scrawl, pulsing ambience, Eleanor Rigby high drama, Bark Psychosis fluidity. It's one of those releases that makes you feel like you're standing on the edge of a precipice holding hands with the bandmembers.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:16 (twenty-one years ago)

not entirely sure if any of them are doing much in the way of music these days - my understanding is that merida isn't doing music now, i think charles is still in the UK and Matt Bailey has played with Sir..

― the surface noise (electricsound), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:17 (twenty-one years ago)

"flight paths" has the most synthesised-sounding real strings i've ever heard in my life. how it's possible to make real instruments sound so unintentionally artificial i can only wonder

― the surface noise (electricsound), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I agree if we're talking about "Drive" but I wouldn't necessarily agree for "Four Degrees" or "Derwent River Star", say, both of which I think make gorgeous use of strings.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:21 (twenty-one years ago)

wasn't there also Arrosa? like, a post Paradise Motel project?

― OCP (OCP), Monday, 3 May 2004 06:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember Arrosa.. they had a single called "Womb". I didn't much care for it, but The Paradise Motel were never quite my thing apart from one or two songs here and there.

― edward o (edwardo), Monday, 3 May 2004 06:50 (twenty-one years ago)

arrosa = adam cole and andria prudente (and two others whose names elude me). their PM connection was being labelmates with PM and a couple of their released tracks were produced by bickford..

― the surface noise (electricsound), Monday, 3 May 2004 07:17 (twenty-one years ago)

the 4-track demos were the best things on those arrosa singles. i used to think they were awful live.

― the surface noise (electricsound), Monday, 3 May 2004 07:18 (twenty-one years ago)

how availabe are Paradise Motel cds in Melbourne? can't find much on the internet - I'd made a note to try & track some down after reading one of Tim's posts on a Piano Magic thread last month . . .

― etc, Monday, 3 May 2004 08:57 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't see them around all that often these days really. it's quite a weird phenomenon with melbourne secondhand stores, one day the stores are overflowing with them and a couple of years down the line there's not one to be had anywhere at all.

― the surface noise (electricsound), Monday, 3 May 2004 08:59 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't even have a copy of "flight paths" myself, i snoozed on it at the time because i found the versions on the singles really damn disappointing next to their stunning live set.

― the surface noise (electricsound), Monday, 3 May 2004 08:59 (twenty-one years ago)

And without Tim I would have never heard of this lot -- and to echo all the above posts, I think them the spiff, though o' course I never had a chance to see them live.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 3 May 2004 12:00 (twenty-one years ago)

weirdly enough i have been listening to them loads recently and have been meaning to start a thread. i'll say more about the music though, but for now i'll just note that i'm 99% sure charles is married to a friend of a friend of mine and living in london. i'll try to find out more.

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 3 May 2004 13:05 (twenty-one years ago)

One thing I very much enjoyed about following this band was the sense of watching them grow over a very quick period of time. I think the band acknowledged themselves that their early work sounded a bit too pristine, most notably with Merida's artificially enhanced vocals (esp. the stuff on the original Left Over Life To Kill EP - UK fans think "German Girl" and "Ashes"); and the sound/style they were going for was so specific/deliberate, so premeditated (the drowsy guitar, the humming organ, the lonely string quartets etc.). And then it just seemed to expand with each release. The Still Life album added that level of high drama and menace, and the skill of moving fluidly between a number of different moods on the one track. And by Please Keep Me Safe and Flight Paths Merida's voice especially seemed so flexible, expressive and perfectly judged - the understated throatiness on "Aeroplanes" for example, or the slightly off-key raucousness of "Skip Bins". The only thing that prevents me from saying Flight Paths their culmination is how much it drops off in the last third; the sense of promisei n the first two thirds, coupled with Bickford talking about how the next album was going to be focused around medieval physicians, made their sudden dissolution particularly disappointing for me.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 01:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Tim, do you think you could send me some CD-Rs of their albums? I've never had any luck finding anything by them...

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 02:10 (twenty-one years ago)

loved them. loved them live. funny though my fav has to be "the left over life to live ep". in particular german girl.

wasn't there some sort of remix record at one stage. never heard it though.

can we start and earthmen thread next.

― gallantseagull, Tuesday, 4 May 2004 02:11 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, there was a remix album entitled "reworkings", which i never wanted to hear.

― the surface noise (electricsound), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 02:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I wouldn't mind hearing the track Luke Sutherland/Bows remixed (& maybe the Lee Ranaldo, or, um, Mogwai reworkings) . . . I'll try & get some of my ~~minions~~ friends in Melbourne to keep their eyes open on my behalf; I'm pretty sure I can get a 6-track EP for less than NZ$50 from England.

― etc, Tuesday, 4 May 2004 02:33 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www9.gemm.com/ddc/search.pl?sid=363196917&key=16041&a_refno=GML617628540

― the surface noise (electricsound), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 02:39 (twenty-one years ago)

thanx, but I was talking about http://www9.gemm.com/ddc/search.pl?sid=367212061&key=13370&a_refno=GML606393190 - I'd only bother checking out the remix album once I'd grabbed everything else, if I was heading down that path.
tho I think our exchange rate is actually really good at the moment . . . probably be more like NZ$35 instead of NZ$50.

― etc, Tuesday, 4 May 2004 02:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah etc get Please Keep Me Safe - their finest moment in my opinion. Four of its six tracks ended up on the UK version of Left Over Life To Kill, but my favourite track "Rise Road" was left off.

I like Left Over Life To Kill (the original Oz EP from '95) a lot too but I do think that Merida's singing improved enormously over the following two years or so. There's something a bit impersonal about the purity of her voice on the early stuff - though some might hear it as ethereal ghostliness I guess.

Melissa e-mail me.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 04:45 (twenty-one years ago)

argh, I sold these a few months ago (but ripped them first) because I hadn't really listened to them at all since buying them a few years ago; listening back to the mp3s I realize I made a mistake, both flight paths and left over life are excellent records.

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 05:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a 5-track album sampler of flight paths kicking around somewhere. If I find it it's whoevers.

― ipsofacto (ipsofacto), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 05:25 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

I forgot just how amazing the double punch of "Daniel" followed by the cover of "Drive" is.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 17:20 (nineteen years ago)

Tim, I don't think you ever sent me those CD-Rs, did you?

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 17:28 (nineteen years ago)

Good grief, how did I also forget the sampling of the opening of Visage's "Fade to Grey" on "Caravans"!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 17:29 (nineteen years ago)

Melissa I did not! I am a bad person. Send me your details again.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

Guys, did the new album ever get released?

― Salvador Dali Parton (Turangalila), Sunday, 6 December 2009 20:14 (sixteen years ago)

no idea. I need to dig out my old cds, not heard them in years.

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Sunday, 6 December 2009 23:25 (sixteen years ago)

nope not yet

― an error has occurred (electricsound), Sunday, 6 December 2009 23:28 (sixteen years ago)

one month passes...

discussions elsewhere seem to indicate the hold-up may be related to the death of their current drummer..

― journey to the center of fat butt (electricsound), Monday, 11 January 2010 02:41 (fifteen years ago)

jeeze these guys just do not seem to get good luck do they.

― Tim F, Monday, 11 January 2010 03:00 (fifteen years ago)

― Salvador Dali Parton (Turangalila), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 14:41 (fifteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

movement in the station

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=450827330013

― a place to bury st edmunds (electricsound), Thursday, 4 February 2010 04:11 (fifteen years ago)

mp3 snippets here: http://the-paradise-motel.com/

― a place to bury st edmunds (electricsound), Thursday, 4 February 2010 04:12 (fifteen years ago)

That would be amazing, especially at Teh Toff.

― Rockefellatio (SeekAltRoute), Thursday, 4 February 2010 04:53 (fifteen years ago)

one month passes...

The Paradise Motel announces

A Tuesday Residency in April 2010
Northcote Social Club
301 High Street, Northcote 3070
T: 9489 3917
http://www.northcotesocialclub.com

$10 on the door, no presales

In the lead up to the June 2010 release of their forthcoming album, Australian Ghost Story, The Paradise Motel announces a Tuesday night residency in April at the NSC.

Presenting Australian Ghost Story in full, there will be a different guest support each night, and a small gift for each of the first thirty in attendance. A limited quantity of support material created for the NSC shows will also be available.

Having introduced the new songs with a live-to-air radio broadcast on 3RRR as part of the Autumn Almanac series in early March, followed by a packed gig at The Toff in Town, The Paradise Motel now draws to a close the last ten years of hiatus.

The Paradise Motel is Merida Sussex (vocals), Charles Bickford (guitar/mouth organ), Matthew Aulich (guitar), Mark Austin (keyboards, pedal steel), Esme Macdonald (bass), Andy Hazel (drums) and Campbell Shaw (violin).

Sign up to the mailing list at http://the-paradise-motel.com for further updates.

― parm goin' ham (sic), Wednesday, 17 March 2010 00:37 (fifteen years ago)

Excitement! Definitely gonna go to one of the NSC shows.

― Tim F, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 10:34 (fifteen years ago)

Had no idea they were back together! This has made my day!

― Attention please, a child has been lost in the tunnel of goats. (James Morrison), Thursday, 18 March 2010 01:06 (fifteen years ago)

And I find that various bits and bobs can be downloaded at http://www.charleschairs.com/ozghost/public_html/ozghost/_Media/

― Attention please, a child has been lost in the tunnel of goats. (James Morrison), Thursday, 18 March 2010 01:17 (fifteen years ago)

I missed the Toff gig and word was it was pretty excellent. Might have to pop along to one of these shows.

― ABBAcab (Trayce), Thursday, 18 March 2010 02:39 (fifteen years ago)

two months pass...

australian ghost story now available

http://www.the-paradise-motel.com/

― nailed the presentation to the cross (electricsound), Friday, 11 June 2010 01:57 (fifteen years ago)

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