Friday, October 23, 2009

I Really Wouldn't Want To Be What You Are

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When someone asked me to post Monsterland's "Destroy What You Love" the other week I could've sworn it had been posted by Wilfully Obscure already, but that turned out not to be the case. So, I'll take honors, seeing as there aren't very many bands eating up more space in my record collection than Monsterland, anyway.

I could name any number of bands that started out with a string of great singles only to take a wicked nosedive on their first full-length, which isn't the case with Monsterland. Not only would I offer that "Destroy What You Love" is their best recording, it also has a lot of their best songs, even if about a third of them can also be found (in various forms) on some of their other EPs and 7"-ers. All of Monsterland's strong points are here, meaning heavy indie rock mixed with fuzzy shoegaze pop stuff (as a side note, you almost can't believe how much Sleepwall's "Tennessee Sun" sounds like something Monsterland would've done)... they even show off their metal moves with "Crashing Teenage Crush".

I'd always figured that the belch at the end of "Car on Fire" rightfully belonged to, you know, "Car on Fire"; it wasn't until I ripped the CD that I found out that the way the tracks were separated put it at the beginning of the next track, "Twice at the End". So, I did a bit of editing to restore it to its rightful place for the mp3 that I've posted below.

Of only minor personal interest: about a month ago I was in a hurry to get to JFK Airport and I had to take a bunch of side roads through the center of Danbury because of an hour-long backup caused by, ready for this, a car on fire by "Exit 7, 84", just like the song says. Even less interesting, a few years ago some idiot started a blog called Car on Fire, though I have no idea why anyone would do that.


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Monsterland -

(these files are now listen-only)

"Insulation"

"Nobody Loves You"

"Car On Fire"

"Angel Scraper"

"Crashing Teenage Crush"





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6 comments:

Jonathan said...

One of my favorite albums of all time, for sure. Angel Scraper is a personal favorite, that song is just great.

Jere said...

One of my favorite tapes! I'll never forget Pat saying "check out this band from Danbury" and me thinking "how could a *real* rock 'n' roll band be 'from Danbury'"?

And Jonathan, nice job being a Season to Risk fan! Besides my college roommate, you're the only other one I know. And actually, I made that same roommate a copy of Destr. WY Lov. and he wrote me a "letter" (this was 1994) over the summer saying "Monsterland Car on Fire rules!!" I know, dude.

Anonymous said...

I'll send your royalty check soon Dave!!!
thnx

Greg Vegas

Brushback said...

Sounds ominous!!

People should check out the Sleepwall song, there's a part right around the chorus where the guitar and bass sounds just like a Monsterland part...

John Howard said...

They put a Bailter Space cover on a major label release, for that alone they are geniuses. At One With Time is a personal fave.

Brushback said...

The mp3 files on this post are now listen-only (non-downloadable) files. Sorry, but I need the file space!