The Motels

The Motels are an American new wave band formed in 1971 in Berkeley, California. Founded by lead singer Martha Davis, the group started performing as the Warfield Foxes and later renamed themselves The Motels after relocating to Los Angeles. Following a series of lineup changes, and frustrated by the lack of interest from labels, Davis disbanded The Motels in 1976. A second incarnation of the band emerged in 1978 and signed to Capitol, releasing a self-titled LP that featured the hit single “Total Control,” which cracked the Australian Top 10 and hit Number 109 on the Billboard Hot 100. More success followed with the albums Careful (1980) and All Four One (1982), a more commercially appealing record that reached Number 16 on the Hot 100 propelled by the Top 10 US hit “Only the Lonely.” After two albums that achieved moderate success in the United States—Little Robbers (1983) and Shock (1985)—Martha Davis decided to embark on a solo career, thus breaking up the band once again. She would reform the group for a third time under the name The Motels featuring Martha Davis during the late 90s, releasing the full-lengths Clean Modern and Reasonable (2007), This (2008), and Apocalypso (2011), an album that was originally scrapped by the label back in the early 80s. In 2013, they rechristened themselves as Martha Davis and The Motels and issued the long-player The Last Few Beautiful Days four years later.