I should point out at this juncture that if you have any inkling whatsoever that you might stop by the silver factory show on saturday, you must give us your name or else they won't let you in the door. LA Underground sez:
IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to recent vandalism, Silver Factory Studios is now a private gated venue. You MUST RSVP to attend this show or you will not be allowed entrance. Sorry for the inconvenience this may cause (we hate guestlists too). Message any of the bands or us to get on the list. It's only $5.
Saw the inaugural Music Go Music show at Bordello last night. If you haven't heard, this is David and Meredith (of Bodies Of Water)'s new disco-pop/prog side project. I recognize some of the other band members (the 1970's-looking BOW lead guitarist...the 1970's-looking Mezzanine Owls bassist), not others (the drummer, the pair of Fleetwood Mac-esque backing singers). Apparently they had their own custom sound person working the board at Bordello, because (as Josh from Les Blanks said) it basically sounded like a record onstage--Meredith had some kind of automatic harmonizer on her vocals, so everything sounded like a duet between her and some invisible elves. I need one of those. She also came on in what I can only describe as an early David Bowie perm and a dress with giant gold lamé hand silhouettes on it. Some pics here.
They have some really super-strong ABBA-esque disco pop songs, some stuff that sounds like Donna Summer, a sort of Olivia Newton-John ballad, some proggy stuff that Josh described as Wizzard-esque. Lots of jamming. Everything sounded like a time capsule from 1975 or thereabouts. Josh and I both agree they will be huge.
There is a nice long writeup on LA Underground about the release of We All Fell Dead--won't you look at it here? Thank you!!
Also, another track was added to the LA Loves Records myspace page: The Shark That Ate My Friend Clobber Mix. This (to our great regret) does not appear on We All Fell Dead because, as far as I understand, it was never finished, but you should definitely listen to it anyway. It's by (natch) our old pals from the Cocaine days The Shark That Ate My Friend, who no longer live in Orange County but rather up in San Francisco these days and we don't get to see them anymore, which is sad.
We we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we weeeee...
A little note: we've learned that the cover for Saturday's record release show is $8, but we do have a $5 discount list you can get on. The trick is that you have to send us your name(s) to get on said list via email/facebook/myspace/whatever makes you happy.
email address is: mail (at) themonolators (dot) com
...and we will take care of you.
Also note: it appears likely that The Sweet Hurt may not perform that night. It seems that SH mistress Wendy Wang, who also plays in The Bird and The Bee, is opening with TB&TB for some lady named Katy Perry at the Palladium that very same night. So, our loss is 1 billion trillion screaming tweens' gain. Good luck there, Tiger!
We are very proud and excited to announce, along with LA Loves Records, the release of We All Fell Dead this Saturday night at Silver Factory Studios in Downtown LA.
For those of you who hadn't heard, this is a 12" vinyl record of remixes and a very amazing cover version of our song "We Fell Dead," from our 2005 album Our Tears Have Wings. Apart from our contribution to the Plastic Snow charity compilation last year this is the first time anyone outside of ourselves has put out a Monolators-related record and we couldn't be happier. Please please please go over right now to the LA Loves Records myspace page and listen to two of the tracks off of the forthcoming 12", boxViolet's awe-inspiring "Drop Dead Gorgeous Redux" and the spunky "Vanina's Fancy Remix" courtesy of Odd Modern!
Now also seems like a good time to announce the release show this Saturday, September 29, at Silver Factory Studios, in which, yes, we'll play a set, alongside We All Fell Dead contributors boxViolet, Odd Modern, The Sweet Hurt, and Boy Without Orange.
Like so:
We would love to see you there! More details to follow...
We won the lookalike contest at the Eagle and Talon cover show. I was Kim, Mary was Alice, Ashley was Andrew. We won pillows and some kinda red hair braid thing that I totally don't understand. We rule!
Are there pictures of this event? Lord I hope so. Thanks Kim & Alice for having us! And for the presents!
Some friends of ours in NYC need your help to win the Deli Magazine poll--they're called the Shivers. I seem to recall a certain other poll from about a year ago...well now they, not us, need your help. They are awesome and need to win. Tell your friends! VOTE VOTE VOTE
I have been listening to ill-founded rumor. Roooooomor. Alice from E.A.T. just got in touch and said, ACTUALLY YES, they ARE playing a set after all of the covers. I am so so so sorry for any confusion this may have caused.
SO--EAGLE AND TALON DOES PLAY AT THEIR RELEASE SHOW ON SATURDAY. That is final.
Do you know Alice and Kim from Eagle and Talon? Sure you do! Well. This Saturday is Eagle and Talon's record release show at Echo Curio--and they have what is essentially the best idea for a release show ever: they are not actually playing at the show themselves, but rather they are(yes they are playing) getting other bands to play songs from Thracian, their new album, for them! WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THIS MYSELF?
Anyway, that aside, we Monolators are lucky enough to be one of those bands! We are playing two of E&T's new songs, "Moisturizer" and "Tight Score," in our own Monolatory way. So, just to be clear--we are not playing a full set of our songs! We are playing two awesome Eagle and Talon songs! We are honored to be invited to take part in this amazingly wonderful show!
Here is Kim and Alice's description of what you shall encounter:
This is a costume party, but you don’t have to wear a costume to come... the new record THRACIAN will be covered by some of our favorite east LA bands including The Monolators! Learning Music! Cats of the World West (Sarah Negahdari and HAJ Jeffords)! Mooey Moobau! Fascinoma! Scott and JC! Jogger! and much’s more..... with a performance by VIDEO / Hosted by KXLU’S OCTAVIUS, DJing by Joe Fielder,, **SPECIAL PRIZE WILL BE AWARDED AT THE END OF THE NIGHT TO THE BEST eagle and talon LOOK ALIKE COSTUME*** >>come dressed as your favorite/least favorite member of E.A.T. and go home with something to show off to your friends, partners encouraged ;)
I have to admit I have no idea as of yet when we're going on. I will try to clarify this soon.
PS--you can support them and buy Thracianhere! Or send them tacos! Who knows, I bet they'd like that too!
Ben from Modern Time Machines shot this clip of We Fell Dead from Sunday's show at Spaceland--this is where I broke the tone control off of my bass (from throwing and kicking it, a mere nothing). Thanks Ben!
PS The dancing guy throwing down in the front is the one and only Jack Gibson of Tenlons Fort fame. We love you Jack!
Ha--just found this clip, I was at this show the week before last with Ray (it was his birthday) and the Maxwell Demon boys. What this video doesn't show, unfortunately, is that there were about 300 people crammed into the Redwood, which can't really hold that many. At punk shows I usually try to get out of the way once the moshing starts, but this time it was so crammed with people that there was NO WAY TO GET OUT. Bodies were packed in right on top of another and once the shoving started (from all directions) people were only being held upright by the people next to them. At one point I almost fell over and grabbed onto a punk rocker to stay upright, which I feel bad about. Lots of interesting people in the audience, some kids, some people who I imagine were at the Zeros shows 30 years ago. Great show.
Zeros circa 1977. I was not at this one, unfortunately.
Us Monolators are playing a Hellya! show this Sunday at Spaceland! It's free! We gots the 11 pm spot. NOT MIDNIGHT. 11. Please please for God's sake don't come up to us at midnight and say "aren't you playing at midnight?" Because we're not. No no no no. 11.
Last night I watched a film by Fred Kiko (of KXLU Demolisten Fame) called The Blues Hotel Documentary. Back in 1991 Fred shot some footage of infamous fellow KXLU DJ Chris Checkman, whose Blues Hotel show ran for nearly 20 years before its demise in 2006 (the show's demise, that is, not Chris's--I gather he is stillalive) . If you've heard Demolisten anytime in the past few years, that's Chris's low, slow, despairing intro at the head of each show (you know--"that’s one big overblown sense of entitlement you got there, Whitey." That guy.)
Because the footage dates from the early '90's it doesn't cover Checkman's dismissal from the station, and although audio from his last broadcast is included in the DVD's extras, nothing is ever fully explained--was it just for being drunk and profane on the air? But anyway. Checkman is that guy who you knew in school who was way smarter and funnier than you and was destined to work at an obscure arthouse video rental store arguing about silent German Expressionist epics for the rest of time. He looks like a cross between ex-Monolators bass player Andy Bollas and Tiny Tim. He has integrity. Poise. Character. Fred's movie is mesmerizing and, if nothing else, serves as a time capsule of really, really unfortunate choices in clothes and hair.
You can watch the whole thing here. This is the trailer:
Our pal FoxyDrea was kind enough to record KROQ's airing of "Anxiety" that I referred to a while back--and now she's put it up on the youtubes, and so here it is! Thanks Andrea, you're the bestest!
Sorry for the silence, we just got back from the great state of Michigan and were without the internets for a while there. It was remote but kind of perfect. More on that later.
