SONG PREMIERE: Rat Motel Evoke Painful Memories on Heavy Rocker “Blanket”

Rat Motel is the Columbus-based buzz rock duo of Seth and Clayton Peacock. The brothers released their debut album in 2023, cementing their droney, artfully orchestrated nightscapes and massive, dual-cylinder live sets as an integral part of Ohio’s rock scene. The band went on to open for The Beths, Pile, The Dirty Nil, and Twen among others, playing support as well as headline shows across the Midwest and East Coast. Now half-based in Brooklyn, Rat Motel returns with a new single. 

This is the first in a set of forthcoming singles, with Rat Motel’s sophomore album expected in 2026. The band will host their fourth annual RATFEST music festival in Columbus this fall. 

Today, Glide is offering an exclusive premiere of “Blanket,” a gritty, dizzying, and phantasmal song written in reference to an intense memory from the Peacocks’ childhood. While visiting family in Alaska, the brothers became separated from the group in the wilderness. “We were surrounded by white in every direction,” Seth recalls. “Completely lost.” With “Blanket,” they aim to evoke that intense, omnidirectional confusion to musically capture the paralyzing bewilderment the band has never forgotten. With hints of shoegaze and alt-rock woven into the song, there is a heaviness that comes through as they lyrically reflect on this dark moment. The song came out of an improvising session as if by instinct, which is interesting because of the traumatic backstory. The underlying heaviness of the tune shines through both in the guitar-driven instrumentation and in the vocals.

The brothers describe the inspiration behind the song:

“Nearly twenty years ago, while visiting family in northern Alaska, we got separated from everyone else and became completely lost, surrounded by nothing but white in every direction. Blanket is about that omnidirectional blankness. I think the song lodged itself in the bottom of both of our minds and waited there until one serendipitous day in our practice studio. We started playing, and what came out naturally in the moment is almost identical to the recording. The lyrics came almost as easily, each of us writing parts that fit into a cohesive whole, without ever discussing what it meant to us, until it was finished.”

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