Status: Single
City: Austin
State: Texas
Country: US
Signup Date: 8/24/2006
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
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Hi -
It's been several months since the release of Dim The Aurora and so we thought we'd check in and talk about plans for the remainder of the year as well as post some of the album reviews we've been receiving.
First, we are working on some tour dates for the Fall. Plans are shaping up for a run of the West Coast in November. We'll be announcing dates and cities soon and we are excited to see all our friends out there in Arizona and California. Of course, we'll be up in North TX playing Denton Sept 18 and Dallas Sept 19. We're super excited for those shows and always good to be back up there in the 'hood. Dinner and beers at Adair's before the Dallas show for whoever is interested!
Next, we'll be taking a long weekend in October and heading out to West Texas, secluding ourselves in a ranch house for a few days and writing some new material. It's going to be nice to be out there in the landscape that inspires us most and I'm sure we'll be posting some thoughts and pictures from that trip. We truly can't wait! Many, many thanks to our good friend Callie.
Finally, we thought we'd post some of the reviews of Dim The Aurora which have come out over the last several months, with many thanks to all of these publications and e-zines for their continued support >>>>>>
"The finest bands create not only great songs but also mood, and no one gets that like Austin’s Monahans. The four-piece group named itself after the tranquil West Texas oasis, but the band’s tone is dark and unnerving, like a storm rolling in— all pounding drums and big guitar riffs, alternately thunderous and eerily ambient. Monahans morphed from Milton Mapes, an Austin band led by Greg Vanderpool and Roberto Sánchez, and yet despite the name change, it is essentially the same outfit, a bit less alt country and a bit more bombastic. Vanderpool has an uncanny knack for juxtaposing beautiful melodies over sonic fireballs, and his bandmates have clearly listened to their Crazy Horse and U2 albums. At first listen, Dim the Aurora (Misra) sounds unfinished; most songs are short and stop abruptly, and of the album’s hour, 29 minutes are taken up by instrumentals. But this lends a fascination and mystery to the band’s second album that you wouldn’t find on a more conventional recording. When the best songs end before you want them to, you’re left hungry for more."
- Texas Monthly, June 2009
"“It’s Enough To Leave You” is the opening track on Dim The Aurora, and it packs about a quarter-century of alt-rock reference points into its four-minute running time. From the awkwardly soaring chorus and the chunky, quirky, handclaps-and-piano rhythm line to the dynamic buildup that goes nowhere but is expansive and elegant getting there, “It’s Enough To Leave You” manages to subtly point fingers at everyone from Michael Stipe to Spoon to the Hold Steady, all while managing to sound quite unique...Monahans have made an album that’s richly rooted in American rock traditionalism but also lurching noisily forward into something far more intriguing."
- Magnet Magazine
"Amidst bands with engineered, electric sounds, Monahans’ second album and debut for Misra, Dim the Aurora, takes a back-to-basics sound as simple and secluded as the West Texas sand dunes that the band is named after. Monahans has wholly encompassed the traditional American rock, while simultaneously making it relevant and fresh for a modern music scene."
- austinsound.net
"It's Enough to Leave You...", which opens Dim the Aurora, their second album as Monahans and first for Misra, puts Roberto Sánchez's drums right at the forefront, with a desperately steady beat that pushes the songs forward at a midtempo that wants to-- but never does-- break free into a full gallop. Sánchez is more than simply a timekeeper here, but an instrumentalist on equal footing with the guitars: That tambourine puts the jangle in "It's Enough to Leave You...", his toms ratchet the tension on the clockwork instrumental "Night #3" and bleed into the mandolin strums on "Over Fields". On "Fit for Fire", his drums and Britton Beisenherz's Bad Seeds-style bassline provide the latticework on which Greg Vanderpool and Jim Fredley hang their darting guitar licks. It's not so much that Monahans' new sound allows for greater rhythmic presence, but that Sánchez's elevated position in the group allows them to create that new sound, to pivot in new directions. Bouncing on that drumbeat, "It's Enough to Leave You..." immediately showcases their ability to write dusty, concise hooks and to resolve melodies in interesting, unexpected ways. Monahans turn "Slow Burn" and "The Low Light" into surprisingly tender slow-dance numbers that echo any of Will Johnson's projects (unsurprisingly, he sings harmonies on the latter), and the messier, more abrasive "Fit for Fire" sets Vanderpool and Fredley's tight harmonies against a maelstrom of horns and feedback. OnDim the Aurora, atmosphere takes as much priority as songwriting, as the band makes the music do as much as the lyrics."
- Pitchfork
"Monahans is one of Austin's best-kept secrets. Its 2007 debut album, Low Pining, was a moody, atmospheric take on rootsy Americana, an album whose lonely soundscapes painted rust-colored pictures of desolate southwestern highways at dusk. Although this year's Dim the Aurora finds Monahans retaining Pining's sprawling ethereal beauty, the LP also features moments of urgent, driving pop — a sound that draws as much from I.R.S.-era R.E.M. as it does from the brooding emotion of Nick Cave. The combination of these two creative dispositions, along with smart song sequencing, makes for a more complete album experience, while also expanding the scope of the band's excellent live show."
- Riverfront Times, St. Louis
"No strangers to roads less traveled, Monahans' sophomore outing could be the soundtrack for a trip to the center of the Permian Basin. It's an expansive work of heated, highway contemplation and weathered longing that, in the anthemic streak of "It's Enough to Leave You ..." and "I Run to You," recalls a Southern gothic translation of U2's The Unforgettable Fire. Most impressive is the way the local quartet manages to balance the tidal pull of its oceanic debut, 2007's Low Pining, with the more immediate and ruminative burn of singer Greg Vanderpool's previous outfit, Milton Mapes, diffusing the crooked carnival bent of "Slow Burn" and the title track's Springsteen dustup with aptly titled instrumental sections. That idea pays off in the end when "Terrene (Instrumental)," 21 minutes of dry creek bed scenery and languorous calm-before-the-storm ambience, is eclipsed by the ruminative ballad "Distorted Signals," which sounds like a long-distance call home from a West Texas phone booth."
- Austin Chronicle
"Formerly Milton Mapes, Austin/San Francisco band Monahans started to slowly shake some of the dust lingering from its alt-country output on 2007’s Low Pining, which balanced its usual ragged Americana with slightly more cinematic atmospherics not unlike the similarly West Texas-obsessed Explosions In The Sky and experiments in straightforward anthemic pop. The band’s new Misra debut, Dim The Aurora, finds it still working out the kinks in its evolution, with a fresh emphasis on steady, less languid drumbeats and gritty hooks in the style of frequent tourmate Centro-Matic, but with an equal amount of perpetual-twilight, instrumental vagabonding snaking down those same old back roads leading to nowhere."
- (The Onion) Decider
"There's more than a hint of Wilco coursing through the sonic DNA of Austin's Monahans, from the warmingly inviting, Tweedy-esque vocals to a keen ability to juggle pop inclinations with more experimental ones - proof of the latter, especially, discerned in three probing instrumentals (one of them a 21-minute journey across kosmiche terrain) that punctuate the tracklist of this, their second full-length. Too, the fact that until 2007 the group had spent the decade operating as alt-country twangers Milton Mapes makes their transformation into something more urgently anthemic, at times overtly psychedelic, rather Wilco-esque. Beyond all that, though, the aforementioned space-rock epic ("Terrene"), along with such numbers as the pulsing, brooding "I Run To You," the polygot worldbeat/freejazz of "Fit For Fire" and the buoyant title track, additionally puts the group in rubbing-shoulders distance of My Morning Jacket and Arcade Fire. Not bad company to be keeping, and a remarkable musical evolution to boot."
- Blurt Magazine, Fall 2009
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
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http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2009/05/28/record-review-monahans-dim-the-aurora/
“It’s Enough To Leave You” is the opening track on Dim The Aurora, and it packs about a quarter-century of alt-rock reference points into its four-minute running time. From the awkwardly soaring chorus and the chunky, quirky, handclaps-and-piano rhythm line to the dynamic buildup that goes nowhere but is expansive and elegant getting there, “It’s Enough To Leave You” manages to subtly point fingers at everyone from Michael Stipe to Spoon to the Hold Steady, all while managing to sound quite unique. To these ears, however, Austin’sMonahans evoke nothing as much as the rambling sonic winsomeness of their Lone Star neighbor Will Johnson, although the 11 tracks on Dim The Aurora are decidedly more put-together and structurally sound than anything Johnson has ever done. Monahans graft singer/songwriter-type warbling and classic-rock guitar figures onto messy and gratifying beds of sound that incorporate regular instrumentation in highly irregular ways. There’s a definite sense that the sprawling guitars on cuts like “I Run To You” and the catchy, melancholy title track want to stretch out even further and that the buzz and howl of the three instrumental songs are a clarion signal as to the group’s real intent. In the same way that Johnson makes deceptively dense music that only seems simple and straightforward, Monahans have made an album that’s richly rooted in American rock traditionalism but also lurching noisily forward into something far more intriguing. [Misra]
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
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http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13056-dim-the-aurora/
"It's Enough to Leave You...", which opens Dim the Aurora, their second album as Monahans and first for Misra, puts Roberto Sánchez's drums right at the forefront, with a desperately steady beat that pushes the songs forward at a midtempo that wants to-- but never does-- break free into a full gallop. Sánchez is more than simply a timekeeper here, but an instrumentalist on equal footing with the guitars: That tambourine puts the jangle in "It's Enough to Leave You...", his toms ratchet the tension on the clockwork instrumental "Night #3" and bleed into the mandolin strums on "Over Fields". On "Fit for Fire", his drums and Britton Beisenherz's Bad Seeds-style bassline provide the latticework on which Greg Vanderpool and Jim Fredley hang their darting guitar licks.It's not so much that Monahans' new sound allows for greater rhythmic presence, but that Sánchez's elevated position in the group allows them to create that new sound, to pivot in new directions. Bouncing on that drumbeat, "It's Enough to Leave You..." immediately showcases their ability to write dusty, concise hooks and to resolve melodies in interesting, unexpected ways. Monahans turn "Slow Burn" and "The Low Light" into surprisingly tender slow-dance numbers that echo any of Will Johnson's projects (he sings on the latter), and the messier, more abrasive "Fit for Fire" sets Vanderpool and Fredley's tight harmonies against a maelstrom of horns and feedback. On Dim the Aurora, atmosphere takes as much priority as songwriting, as the band makes the music do as much as the lyrics.But ambience is easy, and Monahans occasionally use it as a crutch. The instrumental "Terrene" consists primarily of guitar scribbles and half-hearted timekeeping, reminiscent of Danel Lanois' dull Belladonna or, worse, Eric Clapton'sRush soundtrack. Except it goes on and on and on, finally fading out after 21 minutes. In all that time, they never wander in the path of an oncoming melody or really develop a theme, but simply sustain an easy high-desert mood that's not compelling five minutes in and even less so 15 minutes later. Most bands relegate this kind of indulgence to the final or hidden track (see Neko Case's "Marais le Nuit"), but there's one more song to go on Dim the Aurora, the slow-motion amble "Distorted Signals". It's hardly worth the wait. In 20 minutes Monahans squander all the goodwill those drums bought them.— Stephen M. Deusner, May 28, 2009
NOTE: Monahans is very impressed that Pitchfork picked up on the Eric Clapton Rush Soundtrack reference!!! Nailed it.
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Monday, September 29, 2008
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http://ofgreatandmortalmen.wordpress.com/
On September 9, 2008, Standard Recording Company released the release of a triple CD Of Great and Mortal Men: 43 Songs for 43 U.S. Presidencies, a collection penned by songwriters J. Matthew Gerken (of Nice Monster), Christian Kiefer, and Jefferson Pitcher (formerly of Above the Orange Trees). The set features a slew of special studio guests including Califone, Rosie Thomas, Bill Callahan (Smog), Alan Sparhawk (Low), Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon), Marla Hansen (Sufjan Stevens), Steve Dawson (Dolly Varden), Vince DiFiore (Cake), MONAHANS, James Jackson Toth (Wooden Wand), and Tom Carter (Charalambides). This project initially came about as part of "February Album Writing Month," a website (www.fawm.com) that challenges songwriters to write 14 songs in 28 days. The three songwriters wrote and recorded rough demos of the first 42 songs in February 2006 (leaving only George W. Bush for later). "It was an amazing challenge to get that many songs written, even split three ways," notes Kiefer. "Blasting the first four or five is easy and then you've used up all the ideas that have been floating around and have to come up with new ones. And you have to come up with those new ideas right now." It was decided soon after that the project was too interesting to leave in the demo stage and so the recording process began anew with guests coming into the fray as time and schedules allowed. The project is now in its final phases. "It's a walk through American history and an inquiry into what makes us Americans as filtered through the lens of our highest public office. There's heartbreak and beauty and criticism and revelation. We're trying to make it work like a big beautiful historical novel." The released project includes a 100+ page book featuring individual images of the Presidents by 43 different artists, all hand-selected by art curator Pitcher to be included in the project. To quote from Kiefer's song about President Tyler: "Oh! Hell yes!" CD 1 1. George Washington (Washington Dreams of the Hippopotamus) feat. Vince DiFiore (of Cake)
2. John Adams (Armed with Only Wit and the Vigor of the U.S. Navy) feat. These United States
3. Thomas Jefferson (The Mouldboard of Least Resistance)
4. James Madison (Zinger)
5. James Monroe (The Last Cocked Hat) feat. Marla Hansen
6. John Quincy Adams (Death in the Speaker's Room)
7. Andrew Jackson (Benevolence) feat. Califone
8. Martin Van Buren (The Little Magician) feat. Tom Brosseau
9. William Henry Harrison (So You Don't Have To)
10. John Tyler (In Hindsight) feat. Bill Callahan (of Smog)
11. James Knox Polk (The Other Is Better / The Landscape to Transform) feat. MONAHANS
12. Zachary Taylor (Rough and Ready)
13. Millard Fillmore (The Proof Is in the Pudding)
14. Franklin Pierce (My Only Enemy Is Myself) feat. Stephen Yerkey CD 2 1. James Buchanan (God Will Strike You Down) feat. Reid Maclean
2. Abraham Lincoln (Malice, Charity, and the Oath of God) feat. Wooden Wand
3. Andrew Johnson (Was Ever Alone?)
4. Ulysses Simpson Grant (Helicopters Above Oakland)
5. Rutherford Birchard Hayes (The Beard of God)
6. James Abram Garfield (Seven Months)
7. Chester Alan Arthur (The Epitome of Dignity)
8. Stephen Grover Cleveland (Bees and Honey) feat. Tetuzi Akiyama
9. Benjamin Harrison (Kid Gloves Hands Surplus to Big Sugar)
10. Stephen Grover Cleveland (Rubbermouth)
11. William McKinley (Czolgosz's Dream) feat. Magnolia Summer
12. Theodore Roosevelt (The Sherman Act Does Not Care) feat. Dean Haakenson (of Be Brave Bold Robot)
13. William Howard Taft (There Was No Longer Use to Hide the Fact That It Was Gout)
14. Thomas Woodrow Wilson (A Life Among Men) feat. Jamie Stewart (of Xiu Xiu) CD 3 1. Warren Gamaliel Harding (An Army of Pompous Phrases)
2. John Calvin Coolidge (On Silence) feat. Radar Bros.
3. Herbert Clark Hoover (Woe Is a Spoon-Shaped Heart)
4. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Illuminating the Bright Lines)
5. Harry S. Truman (Suits and Fine Trousers vs. Hiroshima) feat. Denison Witmer
6. Dwight David Eisenhower (When Ike Walked the Land) feat. Mark Kozelek and Alan Sparhawk
7. John Fitzgerald Kennedy (There Is No Plan)
8. Lyndon Baines Johnson (Ladybird Take Me Home) feat. Steve Dawson
9. Richard Milhous Nixon (2 Under Pay Off the Coast of Africa) feat. Tom Carter
10. Gerald Rudolph Ford (Now You See It, Now You Don't See It)
11. James Earl Carter, Jr. (A Great Beam of Light) feat. Rosie Thomas
12. Ronald Reagan (Such a Marvelous Dream) feat. Califone
13. George Herbert Walker Bush (It Was Foreshadowed Here: The Beginning of the End)
14. William Jefferson Clinton (The Mighty Lion Will Not Roar Again)
15. George Walker Bush (Though the Night) TO PURCHASE A PHYSICAL COPY (w/ 100+ PG BOOKLET): www.standardrecording.com (direct from record label) OR www.amazon.com OR PURCHASE DIGITALLY THROUGH iTUNES OR AMAZON.COM
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Wednesday, July 30, 2008
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Jason Lent followed Cowboy Junkies around on a recent tour where we were opening shows for them. He recently wrote a very nice blog article about us and the tour, as well as an interview he did with our own Greg V:
http://whatweneedismusic.wordpress.com/2008/07/16/low-pining-an-interview-with-the-monahans/
Thanks for the love Jason!
 | Currently listening:
Closer
By Joy Division
Release date: 1990-10-25 |
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Friday, March 07, 2008
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"The debut by these Austin slowcore cowboys has all the dread and beauty of storm clouds gathering over Texas' hill country. Featuring laconic vocals, sun-blistered guitar freakouts and the occasional church organ drone, Low Pining sounds like Friends of Dean Martinez resting under the lush sonic boughs of The Joshua Tree."
- Magnet Magazine, 2007 Hidden Treasures
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Monday, July 23, 2007
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from the Jul/Aug issue of HARP magaizine:
URL: http://harpmagazine.com/reviews/cd_reviews/detail.cfm?article_id=5870
Monahans
Low Pining
The Austin-San Francisco band Monahans grew out of Austin's Milton Mapes and walks along a similar sonic landscape. Patient, cinematic song structure is given a deeply human, emotional quality by the vocals of Greg Vanderpool. Low Pining, the band's debut, describes the longing found within, highlighted on tracks like the guitar-heavy "Traveling Song" and the sparse, lonesome "When You're Down" (featuring Cowboy Junkies' Margo Timmins). Although the majority of the tempos are brought way down, "Undiscovered" thumps like classic R.E.M. (if Stipe was from Dallas), or even a more mature Band of Horses. While the inclusion of lyrics was a wise decision—the band was considering making this all instrumentals—it's the brooding, dissonant guitars and ominous rhythms bringing visions of storm clouds and waves across the ocean that make this an under the radar gem. If given the chance, it will win you over. By Aaron Kayce
First printed in Jul/Aug 2007
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