Photo by Lizzy Sullivan / lizzysullivan.com
Monogold
From: Brooklyn, NY
RIYL: Wild Beasts, Dappled Cities, early Radiohead
By the end of 2009, I was starting to feel my old age. 27 years old and after 3 straight years of an average of 3-5 concerts a week, I was finally growing tired, choosing to stay in and listen to a record instead of going out. Part of this was because the music scene in New York was becoming over-saturated with decent bands who kept multiplying into a bunch of bands with the same members. It became boring, hard to keep up with, and blogs like Brooklyn Vegan couldn’t get enough of it. How many side projects can Real Estate and Vivian Girls have, and are any of them all that enjoyable to see perform live? I think they should focus on one thing and make it good. It’s all been one big magic trick, keeping people too distracted with new material for them to really focus on the fact that something is lacking. Every new band I’ve been hearing about in Brooklyn sounds the same, and they’re all side projects of the bands they sound like.
Then, last night I caught Monogold open for Hooray For Earth at Pianos. For the first time in quite a while I saw a band play with no prior knowledge of their music and was immediately hooked. This is why I do what I do. This is why I love what I do. Seeing new bands all the time is a gamble. Even if their recordings are good they could be lacking with their live performance. Seconds into their performance, Monogold had lit up the room. Last time I saw that happen was with The Drums, and they’ve become one of the biggest stars of our scene with an upcoming headline gig at Bowery Ballroom in less than a week.
Monogold sounds like the American counterpart to England’s Wild Beasts or Australia’s Dappled Cities. The songs have a theatric quality mostly due to lovely, playful vocal interplay. They may not be as developed as Wild Beasts, or as theatrical as Dappled Cities, but Monogold is onto something really great and refreshing for a city heavy with 3 chord bands that sound like they’re playing from within garbage cans.
Because of Monogold, my adventurous spirit is returning. They have reminded me that there are great new bands still here waiting to be heard by a crowd of people outside of their circle of friends. For Monogold, the immediacy of their sound suggests that success could happen sooner than later.
And don’t just take my word for it. The girls at For The Beat felt the same way.