Five men in suits cornered me outside of Egan’s on Saturday night. Normally, this is petrifying for a human being, as it seems like the beginning of every mob movie ever made. Thankfully, the guys weren’t mobsters sent to kill me and I wasn’t the dead schlub.
They were the members of the Columbus, Miss. band The Motions.
Despite their location, The Motions are practically considered residents of Tuscaloosa because of how well they have been received here.
“I would say that Tuscaloosa was the first town we played outside of Columbus that embraced us,” vocalist/guitarist Toby Hartleroad said. “But to be honest, we would say that Columbus didn’t even really embrace us. We played as much as we could, but it wasn’t like we had a following.”
The Motions, which also features Toby’s brother Max on drums, Miles Jordan on bass and Kyle Bennett on guitar, are shockingly young. The oldest member is Toby, who is a mere 20 years of age, and yet the boys have rocked the bar scene of Tuscaloosa for the past few years. Even the 21 and up Egan’s has welcomed them to the stage for a little over two years now.
“I was probably 15 [when we started playing Egan’s],” Jordan said.
I am personally envious, because when I was Jordan’s age, I had just gotten introduced to music I thought was edgy, like Muse and the Arctic Monkeys. But perhaps the relatively rural world of Mississippi is averted from listening to music that is “cool at the time.”
Toby’s Southern accent is strong, which naturally means he and his band mates love the work of Tom Petty.
“We had an old Volvo station wagon,” Toby said, “and we had Petty’s greatest hits album on tape. My mom and I would sing ‘American Girl.’ That was big.”
Instead of sounding like present trends, once again, they embrace of the past. This supposed “throwback sound” happens a lot in Tuscaloosa, but it’s also our finest work. It’s easy to replicate the sound of an Of Montreal, but bands like that rely on the insanity of their leaders. Rock ‘n’ roll holds no pretensions and no need for insanity. If you’re good at it, then you’re just good. (And these kids are damn good.)
Still, Toby sees their performances as divisive because of that sound.
“I don’t think we necessarily sound like anything that’s made today,” he said. “We stick to pretty old stuff. A lot of people give us [crap] for it. The hipster population does.”
The audience is taken seriously at Motions shows. It’s all in an old-fashioned commitment to entertain, even to the point that they closed the show Saturday night with some fantastic covers that blended well with the originals instead of overshadowing them. When that happens, it’s proof that a band has molded a sound for themselves instead of merely taking a sound.
“I don’t want to sound self-centered or egotistical,” Toby said, “but I believe in what we do. I think we all believe in it. When we come out to play live it’s fun, but this is a business. People gravitate towards that. As far as I can tell, we look like a good time because we’re having a good time. We believe in what we’re doing.”
The Motions will be playing Green Bar at Temerson Square on March 12 at 10 p.m. There is no cover, and the show is 21 and up.
The Tuscaloosa Music Diary is an ongoing series of discussions about interesting and great local artists, which I hope exposes you to someone whose stuff you’ve never heard.
If You Go
What: The Motions
Where: Green Bar at Temerson Square
When: March 12 at 10 p.m.
Cost: Free
