Old Man Motel is one of the most enjoyable rock albums I’ve heard in a long time. In fact, it’s near the top of my Top 10 of 1999 discs. Fernando is a Portland, Oregon, band fronted by Fernando Viciconte, formerly of Southern California. They make joyous, loud, raucous roots-rock with a Hispanic twist.
Viciconte, who wrote most or all of the band’s material on this disc, obviously has spent a lot of time listening to the classics of the Sixties and Seventies: Beatles, Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Beach Boys, Byrds, CSNY, Animals, Springsteen. He has put those worthy roots to work and grown some good old-fashioned rock and roll for the turn of the century.
All the elements of a great rock album are present: soaring three-part harmonies and “ooh-la-la-la” backing vocals straight out of the Beatles songbook; strident guitar over swampy atmosphere from Creedence; Stones swaggering country blues; Neil Young and Crazy Horse stomping guitar anthems; White Album-era organ noodling and Ringo-like drum fills; and laid-back So-Cal acoustic ballads.
But this isn’t an album of nostalgia. Old Man Motel is a joyous celebration of rock ‘n’ roll for today, delivered with a hook-laden pop sheen that’ll have you dancing and singing along. The sound is Summer of Love, but the themes are closer to Tijuana than Haight-Ashbury; more low riders than Easy Riders: God’s judgment; aging and death; love and cheating.
The album starts with the sound of an old beater of a car or pickup reluctantly cranking over, which segues into the Creedence-like “Ride.”
Next up is the “When I’m Sixty-Four” piano bounce of “Same Ol’ King.” This is an infectiously catchy song that’s apparently about the Devil; the chorus reels off several of Satan’s titles from the New Testament, including “the Liar” and “Deceiver of Men.” For balance, “Jesus” is a wailing anthem of existential despair that quotes freely from America’s original roots-rockers, The Band.
Fernando’s Hispanic roots show up especially strongly on the title track, with its gorgeous Byrds harmonies laid over a Mexican-rock two-step beat. The band’s previous release, 1997’s “Pacoima,” was an homage to Mexicali culture sung entirely in Spanish. There’s a hidden bonus track on _Old Man Motel_ that could very well be an outtake from the Pacoima sessions. Other songs vary from warm acoustic numbers like “Southern California” and “In the End,” to the Southern Gothic of “Swing Low” to the Los-Lobos-via-the-Rolling Stones blues of “Rainin’ Outside.”
Try as I might, I can’t find anything to not like about this disc. There’s just not a runt in this litter.
As with other Cravedog productions, Old Man Motel comes in a charming package with highly professional design and artwork. The inner sleeve has a charcoal drawing of the band that continues the Sixties feel: It’s the band as a group of Old West desperadoes, in the manner of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young on the cover of Deja Vu.
Old Man Motel was produced by Luther Russell, another regular on the Portland music scene with a solo album of his own on Cravedog. Russell’s stamp is all over this record, in fact. In addition to production work, he plays drums, keyboards, guitars, bass and contributes backing vocals.
Old Man Motel is available on Bandcamp.
(Cravedog, 1999)
