Mastodon’s Brent Hinds Announces Tour Dates For Side Project West End Motel

Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds has just announced a 3-week tour with his side project West End Motel in support of their sophomore release Only Time Can Tell (out October 30 on Warner Bros). Kicking off November 28 in Washington, D.C., the tour will make stops in New York, Boston, Chicago, and more, wrapping up December 15 in Hinds’ hometown of Atlanta.

Only Time Can Tell is the highly-anticipated follow-up to Hinds’ acclaimed 2011 debut Don’t Shiver, You’re A Winner which SPIN proclaimed “a welcome departure from Mastodon’s thrashy, progged-out fare…sounds like Tom Waits and Tim Burton co-hosting the creepiest vaudeville show ever,” and Pitchfork praised for its “playfulness and off-the-cuff amiability.”

The 8-song set is now available to preorder on iTunes. Rolling Stone is streaming the album’s first single “Burn It Down,” praising its “brightly shout-out-loud vocals, warm and soulful textures, swooning funk melodies and a breezy beat that’s downright feel-good music.”

“Burn It Down” is available to stream and embed via Soundcloud here.

West End Motel began in 1993 under a bridge in Atlanta, where Hinds first met longtime friend Tom Cheshire. Describing themselves as a “conglomerate of losers, poets and hobo-sexuals,” the pair write acoustic-guitar driven songs enriched with horns and keys, with the end result sounding like Nick Cave fronting Gogol Bordello. The project pre-dates Mastodon and offers an important glimpse into Hinds’ musical influences.

“I grew up listening to Chet Atkins play guitar, and I grew up listening to Brian Setzer play guitar,” explains Hinds. “Jimmy Bryant, Speedy West, all these country-chicken-pickin’-flying-‘round-the-guitar-neck guitar players. I got really inspired by it. I’m from way down in the country. It was pretty common to have the interests I had when I was that age. MTV had some hair metal on there, but I was more interested in this rockabilly vibe. Stray Cats were really big at the time, in the ‘80s. It was epic.”

West End Motel Tour Dates:

Nov 28 Vienna, VA Jammin’ Java
Nov 29 New York, NY Mercury Lounge
Nov 30 West Chester, PA The Note
Dec 1 Winooski, VT The Monkey House
Dec 2 Allston, MA Great Scott
Dec 4 Brooklyn, NY Union Pool
Dec 5 Cleveland, OH The Grog Shop
Dec 6 Bloomington, IN The Bishop
Dec 7 Milwaukee, WI Cactus Club
Dec 8 Chicago, IL Double Door
Dec 9 Minneapolis, MN 7th Street Entry
Dec 11 Kansas City, MO The Riot Room
Dec 13 Knoxville, TN Pilot Light
Dec 14 Birmingham, AL The Nick
Dec 15 Atlanta, GA 529

Only Time Can Tell Track Listing:
1. Burn It Down
2. El Myr
3. Witch Is Dead
4. If I Only Had Tomorrow (Second Chances)
5. Forgiveness
6. Only Time Can Tell
7. Valentine
8. Bite