For those not in the know, their manager handled Crosby, Stills and Nash. Stephen Stills jammed with them onstage at the Starwood. And yet the album deal never came.

Bates Motel played every club on the Sunset Strip — the Starwood, the Whisky, Gazzari’s, Madame Wong’s — while labels signed The Knack and The Plimsouls and told them a rock band couldn’t have three vocalists. The problem, apparently, was one harmony too many.

Onstage they were sharp, restless and built for the room: three-part vocals, wiry guitars from Bob Haag and Dave Draves, Les Bohem’s melodic bass and David Kendrick’s powerhouse drumming. The songs moved from hook-heavy power pop to the edgier side of LA new wave without losing their nerve.

When the album deal passed them by, Bohem, Haag and Kendrick were recruited into Sparks. Bohem and Kendrick also became the core of Gleaming Spires; Kendrick later joined Devo, while Bohem became a Hollywood screenwriter.

For Sparks listeners, Live in LA 1980 offers the sound of musicians whose shared history helped them step into an established band. For anyone coming to Bates Motel fresh, it offers something simpler: sharp songs, three voices and a group used to winning over a room.

The live tapes waited in Kendrick’s archive for 46 years while everyone got on with becoming somebody else.

1. My Time
2. Pretty Boys
3. Unexpected Overnighters
4. New Suit
5. Real Time
6. Dedication
7. Live Among The Dancers
8. The Way Marlena Moves
9. Another Way Of Talking
10. Only The Young Die Young
11. I Wake Up Screaming
12. Nowhere Else To Go But Tomorrow
13. A Boy And A Girl
14. I Want More
15. Stop! In The Name Of Love

These previously unreleased live recordings from Bates Motel, that clearly show the Los Angeles new wave band fully deserved oh-so much more from their fledgling band career, open on the gritty My Time, the melodious rocker Pretty Boys, the strident guitar fare of Unexpected Overnighters and then come the rhythmic New Suit, and the alt-pop sound of Real Time, the alt-punk vibe of Dedication, with The Jam-esque sounds of Live Among The Dancers.

Along next is the forthright alt-rocker The Way Marlena Moves, the jangling guitars of Another Way Of Talking, the evocatively muscular Only The Young Die Young and the impish rocker I Wake Up Screaming and they are in turned backed by the accordant Nowhere Else To Go But Tomorrow and a mid-tempo yean that threads throughout A Boy And A Girl, the live set rounding out on The Knack-imbibed beats of I Want More, coming to a close on their enthralling cover of the Motown hit Stop! In The Name Of Love.

Sparks Entertainment and Art (53): Bates Motel and their new live recording! [Official Video]

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