Saint Motel (2026)

One Liner: Sunny pop rock purveyors who created "My Type"
Wikipedia Genre: Indie pop, indie rock, funk rock
Home: L.A.

Poster Position: Top Quarter - Line 6
Day: Sunday at 5:30
Both Weekends.

Miller Lite Stage

Thoughts:  Last here in 2016.  And unfortunately for them, the top song back then is still their top song today.  Not sure that bodes so well for the arc of their career.  But it is fun music, kind of like Foster the People or something where it is usually a bright and sunny pop rock thing.

So, these dudes made one of my favorite tunes of 2014, the buoyantly fun and shiny "My Type."  I think I found that track because of Keith Law's great playlists and musical tastes, so I'll shout out to him. This track is, by far, their most popular tune (503.6 M spins), and for good reason.

So much funky sax.  So much cowbell.  So much funky bassline.  You need to strip off your long and flowy coverup dress thing that looks like the colors of the ocean and then groove in your hip huggers until you must knock over pineapples and cavort on a coffee table.  These things are biological and cannot be stopped.  This makes me think of the Shut Up and Dance With Me people who had one kick ass song that had to be enjoyed.

They've got a handful of albums by now, with a 6-song offering from 2009 (ForPlay), 2012's Voyeur, 2016's saintmoteltelevision, 2021's The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, and then 2025's Afterglow and 2025's Saint Motel & the Symphony in the Sky.  Interestingly, the 2009 album/EP is more straight-forward rock/alternative, as opposed to what you are hearing on the 2012 album or the 2014 My Type EP.  Kind of reminds me of Cage the Elephant now that I have been listening to them a bunch.  Here is a track from that early EP/single, "Butch."  15.3 million.

I like that song quite a bit too, even though it is nothing like the "My Type" action.  The 2012 album is a little less rocking, and starts to feel a little more like the rollicking goodness of the big single.  "Puzzle Pieces" is good, as is "Cold Cold Man."  My lady decided that Bridgerton might have used that last one in some remixed period-piece dance thing.

They also do some of that sound that is indebted to classical music.  You know how Vampire Weekend sometimes just sounds like they are interpolating an old classical tune?  They do that too, sometimes very explicitly like in "For Elise" or "Diane Mozart" but also in other spots.

The band was formed in L.A., which makes complete sense.  You don't sound like you are having this much fun without all day sunshine.  Two of the guys met while they were in film school, then they met the bassist at a sushi restaurant where he worked and the final guy who went to a school nearby.  I guess other people are even more outgoing than me, because I can't imagine the circumstances that would lead to me finding out that a waiter at a sushi joint was a good bassist.  They got good press from Voyeur, but it was "My Type" that blew it all up (that song is platinum in Italy, for some reason).

I'd go watch this.  Feels like the exact sort of thing you should see at the Festival - upbeat rock with poppy, catchy flourishes.