Tuesday, April 28, 2009
There seems to be a troubling pattern with indie-rock bands these days; the longer and more obscure their names are, the worse their music is. Happily, this isn’t the case with Los Angeles rockers The Western States Motel. Their second EP, also bearing an unnecessarily long title, is a solid, if a bit derivative, record. The songs are light, filled with upbeat sunshine pop and jangling acoustic melodies. And singer-songwriter Carl Jordan doesn’t take himself too seriously, something other indie-rockers should take due note of. However, Painted Birds Flying in the Orange Mirror Sun sometimes blurs the line between inspiration and imitation. Jordan borrows a bit (okay, a lot) from The Shins and Elliot Smith and in doing so fails to find a true, original artistic voice. Ultimately, the record finds itself, like so many others, under Oh, Inverted World’s strangely shaped shadow.