Our Fan Connection series continues with Joe A. and his appreciation for Saint Motel. Thanks to our week-early streaming preview of saintmotelevision and the insta-hook horn riffs on opening track “Move,” Joe’s become a huge fan of the LA indie-pop band and has used NoiseTrade to stay connected with everything they’ve got going on. Read on to find out more about Joe’s love for Saint Motel and how he employs NoiseTrade in a variety of other ways with some of his other favorite bands.
How did you first engage with NoiseTrade?
I was turned on to NoiseTrade by a friend who shares my obsession for music. He sent me a link in an email with the subject line “CHECK. THIS. OUT.” I followed the link and immediately understood why he had been so excited to share NoiseTrade with me. The depth of new and established artists covering a variety of genres was amazing. I was pretty much hooked from there on out.
What are the things that tend to grab your attention the most when you’re first discovering a new artist?
I really like the “For Fans Of” feature that NoiseTrade adds to each album’s overview. While I still check out artists that are being highlighted or might be working in a genre that I normally don’t gravitate toward, I will almost always preview an album that has been tagged as similar to the artists I really enjoy. For instance, if the album is tagged as “for fans of” The War On Drugs, The National, Iron and Wine, Wilco, The Beatles, Tom Waits, The Head and The Heart, Civil Wars, My Morning Jacket, J. Roddy Walston & The Business, Vintage Trouble, or now, thanks to NoiseTrade, Saint Motel it’s almost guaranteed that I am going to give it a listen.
Tell us about what specifically first drew you to St. Motel.
Honestly, it was the fact that NoiseTrade was giving users the opportunity to stream the album a week before its “official” release. I am a sucker for getting in on something early and when I saw that NoiseTrade was offering a stream of the “highly anticipated” album prior to its release I was immediately on board to give it a listen at least once and, lucky for me, this decision turned out to be a good one. As soon as the hard-as-nails horn section kicked up in the first few seconds of the first track “Move” I was hooked. I probably streamed the album on the NoiseTrade site a dozen times over the next few days, straight into heavy rotation.
How have you engaged with St. Motel since first discovering them on NoiseTrade?
I bought “saintmotelivision” the day it was released. Unfortunately, I was out of town when they came through my neck of the woods on tour but I am not concerned about catching them live due to one of the great features of NoiseTrade that I have really come to appreciate. Basically, when you choose to download music from artists on NoiseTrade you don’t just get their music, you get connected directly to the artists themselves. Thanks to NoiseTrade I routinely get emails from Zach Winters, William Wild, Sego, The Local Strangers, Justin Townes Earle, Major and the Monbacks, River/Saint, Joshua James, The Weeks, Tow’rs, The Wans, Shovels & Rope, Kaleo, Brett Newski, Arkells, The Orwells, and yes, Saint Motel, all artists that I discovered through NoiseTrade! These emails give me insider access to those artist’s new music, upcoming tour dates, etc. For instance, I just got an email from Brett Newski this week where I learned that he will be going on tour with The Violent Femmes, and that will be a show I am going to catch come hell or high water.
Has the way you’ve connected with artists via NoiseTrade changed the way you’ve engaged with other artists that you have discovered outside of NoiseTrade?
Yes, because if I find an artist through NoiseTrade whose work I really enjoy and they have been tagged with other artists that I am not familiar with I am much more likely to seek out those other artists and give them a listen. I am also finding that NoiseTrade has helped me to stretch my usual musical boundaries by trying new genres that I might not have looked into otherwise.
Finally, what’s your current musical obsession, NoiseTrade-related or otherwise?
I am currently obsessed with Led Zeppelin bootleg albums. You would not believe how many of them are out there and how varied and unique each one can be. For me, hunting down a pristine, soundboard recording of the 1972 LA Forum shows is like winning a heavyweight prize fight.
