JETSET MOTEL s/t - Coming 2009
While on the road heading to a gig in London, Ontario, four Newfoundland musicians, in a van loaded down with Fender gear, passed a sign advertising Ingersoll’s Jet Set Motel. The band was touring in support of David Picco’s debut solo album, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, and the sign typified their aesthetic perfectly. Songs of heartbreak and longing mingled with ambition and a dedication to fine musicianship. The sound of smoky bars and cross-country trips by many a band - from Neil Young and The Flying Burrito Brothers to Songs: Ohia and Wilco - this van was on that same path of sincere music and dedication to the craft that so many greats have travelled in the past.
Jetset Motel are four displaced East Coasters who found themselves and each other through various bands playing around Toronto at places like the Legendary Horseshoe, Silver Dollar, Cadillac Lounge and Dakota Tavern. Last year the band started to work on a eponymous debutalbum at Orchard Studios just outside the city. Long hours of rehearsing, tracking, re-writing and re-working the songs they had been honing in the live setting were finally paying off. Mixing with Laurence Currie was next and after all that work something of great importance to them had emerged: an album.
Now in 2009 all that blood, sweat and toil will be pressed onto plastic discs and sold in small shops around the country, uploaded to countless social networking sites and sent to festivals, magazines, blogs and newspapers so that all this hard work can finally be heard by the fresh ears of an audience.
Jetset Motel’s debut will be released this fall and followed by shows across the country and south of the border. Keep an eye out for that van loaded with gear on a highway near you.
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Here's what people have to say about David Picco's debut, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning
"Positively Heart-melting"- Eye Weekly, Toronto
"Classic alt-country and rock n roll, recommended for fans of Wilco, Son Volt and Uncle Tupelo"- Left Hip Magazine, Montreal
"His way with melody, lyrics, and Saturday Night, Sunday Morning's overall sound puts him squarely in that place where Uncle Tupelo ended it all: Anodyne." - Jeff Weiss, Miles of Music, L.A
"Overall the talent is unmistakeable, the individual songs well chosen, and the performances outstanding" - Bart Ebisch, Hanx.net, The Netherlands
"Top 10 of 2006" - Andrew Carver, pennyblackmusic.co.uk
"****"- Francois Braeken, Rootstime E Magazine, Belguim
"***"- Rene Leverink, Altcountry.nl, The Netherlands
Saturday Night, Sunday Morning
is available at these Fine Record Stores:
ONLINE
Scratch Records (CANADA)
INTERPUNK (USA)
Toronto, ON
Soundscapes
572 College St.
She Said Boom
372 College St.
St. John's, NL
Fred's Records
198 Duckworth Street
David Picco played in a number of bands on the St. Johns, NFLD club circuit before relocating to Toronto in the spring of 2002. Upon arriving, he began to write his own music, formed a band and starting playing at clubs all over.
In 2004, David handed a five song demo to Don Kerr, an acclaimed musician and producer who has played with and recorded some of the countrys finest songwriters, including Kyp Harness and Ron Sexsmith. Six months later, they were recording at The Gas Station a now-legendary studio located on Toronto Island. Using analog equipment, Don and the studio provided David with an environment that allowed the songs to sound the way music should: honest, unpolished and heartfelt. Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, Davids debut album, was born.
Co-produced, engineered and mixed by Don, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning is made up of 10 original songs. Each one is different from the next, still they work together to form a cohesive listen with a country-rock feel. With musical appearances from Don, Tim Bovaconti, Dale Morningstar and Davids brother Chris Picco, who is also a songwriter, the album features lyrics that are sincere and crafted - each one a story hidden in a catchy melody.
The first track, Beyond Repair, kicks everything off with a moody tale of a lonely, middle-aged dreamer living in a dirty basement apartment with nothing but his imagination and a record collection to keep him company. David knows how to sing about pain, but his sense of humour is also present. The lyrics to Hometown were written by eldest brother Charles Picco, an acclaimed writer for theatre, film and television. The album finishes quietly with Beneath The Trees, a reflection of what it feels like to leave your childhood behind.
David has been compared to Steve Earle and Bob Dylan, and his sound shows hints of The Velvet Underground and Wilco. People inevitably find similarities, but the truth is that David is an individual with an undeniably original voice and unique approach to songwriting.
In late 2004, David ran into guitarist Jimmy Rose, another Newfoundlander relocated to Toronto. They remembered each other from doing a show together in St. Johns a few years back, and decided to form a band. After some line-up changes the addition of Corner Brook native Dennis Keough on drums and Newfoundland-born Sheldon Kelly on bass the band was christened Jetset Motel.
Saturday Night, Sunday Morning has sold well from the stage while the band toured around both Ontario and the East Coast and was also picked up by Mag Wheel Records, an indie label based in Toronto run by yet another Newfoundlander, Woody Whelan.