Magnolia Motel

Knoxville, meet Magnolia Motel, an upbeat funky five-piece band from your back yard. With crunchy bass grooves, and a hint of blues influence, they make songs that lends itself to danceable extended instrumentals. Like a biscuit from Tupelo Honey, Magnolia Motel's music goes best with a tasteful amount of jam. - Knoxville Music Warehouse

Just when you think you know all the bands in Knoxville is when another new player in the scene hits you with a debut EP. With the release of their groove-laced EP Big Big World, Magnolia Motel joins the squad of funk-rock bands with a bluesy influence a la Gran Torino, Left Foot Down, and more recently Treetops.
This four song collection has kind of a meet me at Pres Pub to dance the night away vibe. However, there's a versatility there, blending their crankable blues-rock, that makes them showing up on a lineup with the likes of Far Far Away and Falloir make total sense.
If you like what you hear, you can keep up with Magnolia Motel on Facebook, and be on the lookout for their CD Release Show at Open Chord Brewhouse on December 2nd. They'll continue to nail down their sound and their voice as all bands do, but for now their hybrid funk-rock / alt-rock bent has them in a pretty interesting and exciting place, especially for seeing them perform live. - Knoxville Music Warehouse

The irony never fails to amuse Corey DuBose and Mark Booher, the respective singer and lead guitarist for local rock band Magnolia Motel: They grew up in the same neighborhood, living one street apart from one another, but never met until they were in college.
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By that point, DuBose was attending Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, and Booher was at East Tennessee State in Johnson City. After meeting online, they both wound up in Knoxville and struck up a friendship; mutual acquaintances were brought into the mix, and it wasn’t long before Magnolia Motel came together, the guys told The Daily Times this week.
“Throughout the years, my interest in music, genre-wise, has just grown,” said DuBose, who started writing and playing songs around 12. “I really started to diversify my sound and what I was writing, and I finally got together a good collection of songs. Whenever I met Mark, he was kind of the missing piece to fill in the gaps in my songs. When we first started jamming, he knew exactly what to play. It worked perfectly.”
“Meeting Corey was perfect, because I was never interested in being a frontman or a singer,” Booher added. “Meeting up was the missing link to getting everything moving in the right direction.”
Originally from Morristown, the guys soon moved to a practice house in Knoxville and started streamlining their influences into a cohesive sound. At its core, Magnolia Motel is an indie rock band, but there are heavy funk and soul influences that give the songs an undeniable groove. Booher draws on the Red Hot Chili Peppers for some of that sound, and bass player Daniel Crisp has perfected the art of locking down the chords the songs require to pop and bounce with a freshness that’s different in the local scene.
“Mark and Dan have been jamming together for about five years now, and they’ve developed a groove that’s really funky,” DuBose said. “I absolutely love it, and I knew it would do something cool to my songs, because that’s what they were lacking — that funkiness. Dan’s just a very solid, creative bass player, and Mark just builds off those funk chords.”
Rounded out by keyboardist Preston Husk and drummer Doug Kuhns, Magnolia Motel has spent the last several years raising its flag in the local scene. A new album, “Big Big World,” was recently completed at local studio The Sound Lair, and next week the guys will celebrate its release with a show at The Open Chord in West Knoxville. And if the studio songs are any indication, the live show should further win over local fans to what Magnolia Motel is doing.
“I’ve been told we’ve got so much energy and passion; yeah, the songs are rehearsed, but we do them a little different every time,” DuBose said.
“Live, there’s a new take on everything, because we feed off of that energy and the crowd,” Booher added. “It’s a lot of fun.” - The Daily Times

Big Big World by Magnolia Motel is an EP of a mixture of roots and alternative rock with lots of energy and passion throughout.
The EP opens with “Old Apartment,” a bluesy roots rock song in the vein of The Band or Kings Of Leon. The drums and guitar are way upfront in the mix giving lots of energy to the song with crisp hi-hat hits. The organ is a little soft in the mix, but adds some nice swells when it’s present. The chorus is quite catchy, and the outro has some nice guitar work reminiscent of some ‘90s alternative rock. The song could be a bit more concise but the energy is certainly present throughout.
“Aztec Gold” is based around a funky rock synth riff. The lead vocal has some Anthony Kiedes influences in its speak-sung vibe but with some real grit. Halfway through the song, the band slows down to a sludgy early Soundgarden heavy riff that really sounds huge and digs into some great places. The transition back into the first section is a little rough but it is nice to hear the slide-y Jimmy Page guitars again.
The title track is a minor blues straight out of a smoky roadhouse. The backing vocals are a nice touch on this track in particular adding some nice subtle harmonies without ever distracting from the vibe. The breakdown is abrupt but it is nice to bring the bass and piano to the forefront for a moment and hear the triplet subdivision within the band.
The EP closes with Picasso, full of large synth pads, a great contrapuntal bass line, and lots of interesting drum work. Halfway through the introduction of a shaker gives some nice contrast to the timbre and the guitar tones sear through with raw electricity.
Overall, Magnolia Motel has lots going for them in their passion and energy. Some editing down of the songs, tightening up certain sections and making them a bit more concise might help some of those strengths shine even more. - The Even Ground