Photo by Ryan Ritchie
Moncton band The Motorleague is looking to the future.
The promotional cycle behind their acclaimed 2013 release Acknowledge, Acknowledge is complete, and the band will work on a new album in the New Year, but in the meantime The Motorleague will say goodbye to 2014 with a performance at Moncton’s Esquire Tavern on Friday, Dec. 19. Also performing will be Halifax groups SpaceAge and Gloryhound.
Motorleague guitarist-vocalist Don Levandier says their upcoming show has been dubbed Festivus 2014. For the uninitiated, Festivus is a parody of the Christmas holiday. Celebrated on December 23 each year, Festivus gained widespread attention after having been a part of a late ’90s episode of Seinfeld.
Forgoing the usual holiday traditions of a holiday tree, Festivus instead uses a metal pole while celebrants are encouraged to practice the airing of grievances.
In other words, it stands in total contrast to virtually everything that Christmas stands for.
“We are really looking forward to conducting a Festivus celebration,” Levandier says before noting the group had tried the grievance airing at a previous holiday show with less than exceptional results.
“We like having fun at our shows and enjoy having those ridiculous, fun things to make people laugh. But this one girl got up to air her grievances, we played a song and then she got back up to air even more grievances. We eventually had to cut her off.”
While The Motorleague’s performance on Friday night will be their final scheduled show of the year in Metro Moncton, it may also be one of the last opportunities that fans of the band will be able to catch the group live before they begin work on the aforementioned new studio album.
Levandier says the group’s new songs don’t see the band undertaking any radical changes in terms of their sound but notes that, unlike much of the material on Acknowledge, Acknowledge, all four members of the group had a hand in writing their new material.
“I don’t think any of us expected there to be a third Motorleague record, in all honesty. There were various things that lead toAcknowledge, Acknowledge being significantly delayed, one of which was the fact that we had a rotating line-up in the time leading up to the making of that album,” he says.
“All in all, I think there are seven different people that perform on Acknowledge, Acknowledge where going into the making of this new album, it has been the same four guys all along. I feel that we are considerably more settled on being a rock band and that’s not a bad place to be.”
One defining characteristic of The Motorleague that fans can safely anticipate being carried over to their next studio album is their continued demonstrated passion for the video medium. As Levandier notes, only two songs from Acknowledge, Acknowledge did not have some kind of video made.
Regardless of whether the band has pursued making a professional video or simply relied on doing something at home on their computers, the music video is a realm in which the group has found a significant degree of success.
“The minute we start writing lyrics, what the accompanying video looks like is one of the first things that pop into our heads,” he says.
“YouTube has become the go-to source for people looking for music. I’d argue that it’s even more important than posting your music on Bandcamp at this point. If you’re in a band and don’t have the time and/or resources to make a music video, you should seriously consider just posting the audio of your song along with the cover art. If you don’t do it, I can almost guarantee that someone else will.”
What: The Motorleague with Gloryhound and SpaceAge
When: Friday, Dec. 19, 9 p.m.
Where: Esquire Tavern, 2 Reade St., Moncton
Advanced tickets are $10, $15 at the door. Advanced tickets are available for purchase at Spin It Records (467 Main St., Moncton)