Brent Hinds of Mastodon gets busy with another of his side projects with Only Time Can Tell, the second effort by West End Motel. As Metalsucks.com so aptly put it, “Ever wondered what it might be like to watch a lounge band while tripping on acid? Now’s your chance to find out”.
Hinds says this about where the inspiration comes from, “I grew up listening to Chet Atkins play guitar, and I grew up listening to Brian Setzer play guitar, Jimmy Bryant, Speedy West, all these country-chicken-pickin’-flying-‘round-the-guitar-neck guitar players. I got really inspired by it. I’m from way down in the country. It was pretty common to have the interests I had when I was that age. MTV had some hair metal on there, but I was more interested in this rockabilly vibe. Stray Cats were really big at the time, in the ‘80s. It was epic”.
Hinds and Tom Cheshire (of the Rent Boys and All Night Drug Prowling Wolves) work well together here and have a twenty year history together. There certainly is an invokation of the past, but with a new polish on it. Don’t come in expecting to find the ferocity of Mastodon, but do expect incredible guitar work from Hinds. More Tom Waits than Tom Araya, West End Motel is pure stripped down rock n roll in the purest sense. Check out some of their stuff here: