Drag City
So … how about thank you
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 | musiX | 4 Comments
Did you miss me? Even if you didn’t you should lie to me and say you did … I’m very fragile. Real life has taken me away from my duties as a professional blogger (real life = working for a paltry pence; professional blogger = sitting around in holy boxers writing about music). Stupid real life.
Needless to say my mind is backlogged with all sorts of rants and musings and witticisms (rants and musings and witticisms = my 2 cents). But I’m going to ease into it, or something might pop. I’ll start with the new video from Bonnie “Prince” Billy for the song “How About Thank You” off his Chijimi 10-inch. It’s a good example of Will Oldham’s quirkiness and coming together with another one of his stunning and sad tunes. Worth it just to see Oldham do a little hip-sway in Dance Dance Revolution.
As for the rest of this week … let’s just say Christmas is coming early this year at TDoL.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy, “How About Thank You”
Monotonix lets its freak flag fly
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 | musiX | 2 Comments
Bat-shit crazy has always been my go-to description for Tel Aviv rock trio Monotonix. I’ve seen the band lay waste to three different venues, I’ve seen cymbals lit on fire, the drummer hoisted by crowds atop his kick drum, and I’ve witnessed vocalist Ami Shalev use audience members as tackle-dummies, scale a 12-foot wall and turn a trash can into a pogo stick … does that qualify as bat-shit crazy?
Monotonix on wax will never top Monotonix on stage. But there’s something beyond the excessive bombast (excessive being just a notch or two below a GG Allin performance). Yonatan Gat, more than any other guitarist I’ve seen in recent years, captures the swagger of Page and Townshend—playing intricate, endearingly sloppy riffs while somehow making the way his axe hangs around his neck even look cool.
Now I’m not sure when Monotonix found the time to record its forthcoming album Where Were You When It Happened? (out Sept. 8 on Drag City) since the band seems to be perpetually on tour. The first single “Set Me Free” rolls out another one of Gat’s fuzzed-out riffs, which writhes alongside Shalev’s vocals in a sweaty mass. It might be the closest Monotonix has come to replicating the live energy, and it’s one of the band’s best songs since “Heartbeat” off one of their early demos.
Monotonix is hitting the road again—go figure—and will play at Portland’s Roseland Theater with reggae-punk godfathers Bad Brains on Sept. 18. It’s a slightly larger venue than the band normally plays, but I have a feeling they’re up to the challenge. And if you don’t get a chance to see the band live, here’s what you do: Don’t bathe for three, four days; turn the heater on high; turn the stereo as loud as it will go and proceed to punch yourself repeatedly in the face.
“Set Me Free” - Monotonix
“Heartbeat” - Monotonix (early demo)
Search
Assorted fun facts & features
Recent Posts
Currently getting the spins
Music Bloggerrhea
- Absolut Noise
- Aquarium Drunkard
- Cooking With Rockstars
- Counting Backwards
- Daytrotter
- Dryvetyme Onlyne
- Flowers & Cream
- Fluxblog
- Fresh Cherries from Yakima
- Fuck Yeah! Go Team!
- Ghetto Web Blaster
- Glorious Noise
- Gorilla vs. Bear
- Hi-Fi Hangover
- High Water Everywhere
- I Am Fuel, You Are Friends
- I Heart Noise
- La Blogotheque
- Largehearted Boy
- Last Plane to Jakarta
- MaxOneMillion
- Mental Pirate
- MetalSucks
- Monitor Down
- Monitor Mix
- Mr. Heart Attack!!!
- My Old Kentucky Blog
- Naturalismo
- Ohh! So Famous!
- Raven Sings the Blues
- Rawkblog
- RipFork
- Rose Quartz
- Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers
- Said the Gramophone
- Song, By Toad
- Sound On the Sound
- Swedesplease
- The Devil Has the Best Tuna
- The Torture Garden
- The Vinyl District
- The Voice of Energy
- Tuning
- Ve
- Victim of Time
- Visitation Rites
- Western Swing on 78
- WFMU’s Beware of the Blog
- You Ain’t No Picasso
- Your New Favorite Song
- Z Gun
PDX BLGZ
- Another Portland Blog
- Basement of Our Brain
- Beer & Blog
- Born Into Becoming
- End Hits (Portland Mercury music blog)
- Idle Wanderer
- Inching Forward
- It Goes to 11
- John Erik Pattison
- Lacunae
- Local Cut (Willamette Week music blog)
- opbmusic
- Oregon Music News
- Pampelmoose
- PDX Pipeline
- Perhaps Reverie
- poor old dirt farmer
- Reading Local
- Recipes for Laughter
- The Deli Portland
- The Sound and the Nerdy
- Travel Oregon