Thought we would try something new here. A blog. So, read it, or don’t. But tell us if you did or didn’t, or if you think it is a good idea or a dumb idea. Really, we want to know what you think. In fact, feel free to tell us what you might like to see here. For now, we’ll start with some thoughts for the new year and what we have going on. Here goes!

Welcome to 2012! We have high hopes for this year even though some think it may be the last year ever (way to go Mayans!). For us, it’s the best year yet! We are hitting it hard booking as much as we can. We want to play as many live shows as we can get ourselves into, both local and out and about.

So far, we have hit the local scene by playing at Sequoia Brewing in the Tower District. That was a ton of fun. We’ll go back there again for sure. We then rocked the ladies of California Women in Agriculture at their annual gala. And yes, it was as awesome as it sounds! We hit the airwaves with KMPH just yesterday. That’s one of those situations where you have no idea if anyone is watching or not. Just us and a few camera guys. No crowd to feed off. But we saw your comments on Facebook and Twitter and got several text messages that let us know you were there. That helped us get through that freaking early morning.

We hit the road shortly after and found ourselves in Fullerton playing at Big’s Bar and Grill. We played a couple long sets and had a great time. Saw some friends out and that made it even more fun—and, of course, we made some new friends as we love to do. We will be back there for sure. Up at 5am to get to the studio and after a late night we finally got to sleep round 3:30am at Grandma Goodwin’s beautiful home. What a day!

And JD’s grandma is a sweetheart. She showed us some pictures of her late husband and her kids and some of the things Grandpa Goodwin collected. While there we met JD’s aunt Jody and uncle Rob, also great people. We wished them well and jumped back in the van to head east.

Jake took the wheel and drove us through the California desert on our way to Phoenix. Jake loves to drive, especially in the desert. Jake and his gal make regular trips out to Joshua Tree to stay in the Gram Parsons room at the Joshua Tree Inn. Ask Jake to show you his calf next time you see him. Gram is alive and well and living beneath the flaxen fur on that calf! Jake is also made us listen to radio preachers. Ya gotta love that guy!

We played two shows in Arizona, the first at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix at a benefit for Lucky Dog Rescue (luckydogrescue.org). Rhinestone was excited about this show. He has a passion for animal rescue and his kick drum now rocks the Fresno Bully Rescue logo. If you want him to talk your ear off, ask him about his pitbull, Chiquita. Something we forgot to think about was the time change going to Arizona. We arrived and were told we were on. We set up in record time, played a hot set, and then found our friends. Unfortunately we weren’t able to stick around for long after. We had to pack up and drive north to make it to Flagstaff.

Our second show was at Flagstaff Brewing in, you guessed it, Flagstaff. Flag Brew is one of our favorite places to play outside our home venues. Last year on our way back from Austin, we had a gig fall through. We jumped on the phone and sent some emails out. Our buddy Aaron Wall in 40 Watt Hype recommended contacting Flag Brew. We are so glad we did. We stopped in on a Wednesday night when they don’t normally have bands playing, rocked the house, and immediately started looking for a time to come back. We played their outdoor stage this last summer to 100 people or so. A good crowd came out for a little rock and roll heat (it’s a bit cold out these days). The crowd got bigger once Social D let out down the street. Then things really got hot. We absolutely love Flag Brew!

We are nearing getting home finally. Jake is at the wheel again and we are making our last gas stop. This van sure can suck the gas down.

Looking forward, in Frebruary and March we have shows lined up in Oakhurst, Hollywood (Hard Rock Cafe!), Hanford (The Fox Theater!), Clovis, Fresno, Sacramento, Stockton, Long Beach, and Lompoc. And we still have some room to fill in the blanks as well so look out California! We are coming for you! Check our website for details and come say hello. Something else to watch out for is some new recording. We’ll be pressing our full-length CD again soon with fresh remixing to bring out a little more of the energy in the live tracking. It sounds great, and we can’t wait for you to hear it. We’ll also start recording some new songs soon. We have several written and ready for tracking. We want to get them into your hands soon as well. Lastly, be on the lookout for an interview going up on Badass Bands Blog with Motel Drive. Should be a fun one.

Hey, there you have it. Motel Drive’s first blog. What do you think? Should there be a second? Did you even make it this far? If so, here’s a treat for you: until Feb 5, One More Shot is available for a free download here: http://t.co/2NUpgbUm

MD