Motorists (CAN) / Tuppenny Bunters (UK)

Motorists – Touched By The Stuff (Bobo Integral / We Are Time)
Inspired by the big shiny tunes flooding FM radio airwaves in the 1990s, Toronto trio Motorists go full
throttle on their sophomore album. Now propelled by powerhouse drummer Nick Mckinlay, guitarist
Craig Fahner and bassist Matt Learoyd channel stadium-sized power-pop through the gauzy fuzz of
‘90s alt rock, like Big Star swerving into Hotline TNT.
Touched By The Stuff hits the gas with “Decider,” Fahner’s voice adopting a Britpop swagger as he
zigzags through strident riffs, sudden key changes, and sweet vocal coos. “Back To The Q” picks up
speed as Learoyd sings about sinking with the ship, summoning his strength just to lose. “Embers” is
a tender, lovelorn ballad about the breath that ignites flames, while “The Folded Plan” is a verbose,
Tom Petty-style rocker, juxtaposing squelching electronics with trilling doo-doo-doos. “L.O.W” cranks
up the volume with Siamese Dream-inspired headbanger riffs, while the warbling synths and
thunderous drums of “Light Against The Shade” close the record on a sweeter note.
“Our first record essentially emerged in the rehearsal space,” says Fahner. “It was a simpler vibe of
getting together with ideas and just seeing what happened. For this album, Matt and I wrote a lot more
individually and brought more composed songs. We were really feeling that early ’90s alt-rock on the
radio sensibility, with sensitive power-pop that’s made to sound hit-like and huge.”
Motorists’ second album had a lengthy gestation period, written in the year following their 2021
self-produced debut, Surrounded, which Allmusic described as “an abundance of thoughtfully
arranged hooks.” In the six months leading to their recording sessions for Touched By The Stuff, the
band picked up the pace, with both Learoyd and Fahner barely sneaking songs under the wire.
Instrumentals were recorded live off the floor, before the trio ran wild with overdubs, weaving organs,
vibraphones, and handclaps into their mellifluous harmonies.
“That’s something we’re really committed to,” says Fahner, who has been singing with Learoyd since
the days of their high school bands. “We both have pretty unique timbres in our voices, and every
song on the album has both of us singing.” Even McKinlay gets a turn with the cinematic spoken word
passage of “Barking at the Gates,” written from the perspective of a dog running along the side of a
highway to rescue his family from their burning home. “I tried to perform the spoken word part for a
while, but my voice is nasal and a bit comical,” laughs Learoyd. “Let’s just say I wouldn’t be first on the
list for a Cormac McCarthy audiobook.”
“Call Control” was one of the final songs written for the album, documenting the life of drummer
McKinlay and other underworked musicians struggling to survive. Even when they’re biting into a stale
bagel or working part time at the Skyline (a beloved diner in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood that
also inspired Andy Shauf’s 2020 album), they “do it all for the rock ‘n’ roll.” According to Learoyd, “my
other songs are going for the literary award and trying to get heady with it. For this one, I wanted a
song that was simple, hummable, and doesn’t get lost in the weeds with a thesaurus.”
“Phone Booth in the Desert of the Mind” is another immediately ear-catching salvo, sung in unison,
and written while Fahner was cooped up with COVID in summer 2022. Continuing a lyrical theme
from Surrounded, he explains how it explores the desire to escape society, followed by the realisation
that you’ve given up the things that nurture and sustain you. “It’s a hitting the road song about wanting
to keep driving with no destination, but also feeling like you’re lost in the desert. Matt and I both sing
the whole time, so it brings us together, and feels like a perfect statement of the Motorists sound.”

 Dave and Fi Dulake became TUPPENNY BUNTERS in 2012, the same year they got married. Fi had been the Hammond player in Dave’s previous band, The Virgo Intacta, who were on The White Stripes “Satan” tour as 1st support. Parallel to running a notorious Southend music pub, The Railway Hotel, the duo, after naming themselves after Regency prostitutes, set about capturing the sound they perceived, a piano dripping garage/pop wall of melodies and chord shifts. Their first album was recorded live to a Studer in the cellar of the pub. They released it on their own label, Dansettual.  Called “A Tuppenny Upright”, the results, while sketchy, present them well. At times, the piano (a Bluthner upright) threatens to cuddle you to death, at others it appears to be absently flipping you off, and the drums are tuned high, dirty and loonar. If they were cleverer, or could be bothered, they’d be prog. Cooler, or if they both dressed like Fi, they’d be psyche, and if they didn’t constantly feel the need to burst into song, for their sheer sonic nerve they’d be garage. The Bunters songwriting is all the way down the cracks between Pete Ham, Syd Barrett and Lionel Bart, but their live performance sits precariously on a web spun by X Ray Spex, The White Stripes, Wings and, well, Sparks, I guess – in that, you’re never quite sure who to watch. She smashes shit out of the kit with her hair going everywhere, while he, 20 years older and desperate to keep up, pounds the Fender Rhodes and screams his fucking head off, trying always for a snarling Steve Marriott but coming off more like an enraged Dean Friedman. Then they swap, and now you’re totally on the back foot, cos now he’s laying into the kit, and she’s up…her intense brown eyes staring you down; melodies from an age way before her time and a piercing, shrieking voice that only ever seems at home above top C.   Fingernails scraping down a Marmite smeared blackboard. You won’t go to the bar though, cos then there are the songs, which, possibly against your better judgement, will tick one of your boxes. They’ll take you on an uncomfortable switchback ride through pop music’s wheat and chaff, and just when you think you’ve dissed it or nailed it, when you think “I can hear a bit of 10CC and The Damned in there…” then Billy Childish pops in with Julie Andrews and you still won’t know whether they’re tossers or visionarys. A review for Dave’s “Butterfingers” album in The Face back in 2003 called it “annoying and refreshing in equal parts”. In 2021, no lessons have been learnt, and the Bunters continue to baffle, irritate and spellbind wherever they go.

 TUPPENNY BUNTERS 2nd album “The Tuppenny Hangover” was recorded at Gizzard Studios, and came out in March 2022 on the Dansettual label.

The Bunters’ comedy play – FIFTEEN MINUTE BREAK appeared at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe festival. Also performed in Margate, London and Southend. The run has now ended however The Bunters are now working on their new play. More info on that to be announced shortly.

In the mena time, they will be touring the UK this March, Sept & Oct 2024 and Europe April/May 2024

Check out the where and whens.