Monroe Mustang
De Avonden 091099 (JagJaguwar)
It’s bad enough these five local shoegazers rarely play “The Live Music Capital of the World.” With their latest release recorded live-to-DAT at Dutch Public Radio’s De Avonden studios last year (10/09/99), they add insult to injury by traveling all the way to the Netherlands to make their sweetest sounds yet. Longer than last year’s stylistic grab-bag EP The Elephant Sound, yet shorter than their sonorous full-length debut, 1998’s Plain Sweeping Themes for the Unprepared, the 33-minute, seven-song De Avonden twinkles with the spontaneous studio warmth often alchemized live on the radio. From the elegiac opener “Evening” through to the hidden bonus track — Pete Townshend’s “Christmas” (from Tommy) — Monroe Mustang rides the sweet spot: an organ. Shimmering acoustic guitars, sleepy vox, and shiny harmonies melt together in a buttery mix throughout which runs a river of unifying keyboards that helps the album run the gamut from pre-DSOTM Pink Floyd to post-Lambchop Vic Chesnutt. Since the band features five singer-songwriter-composers (four of whom work for the Chronicle) all contributing their own songs and ideas, cohesion is a tricky line to stay on the right side of, but here, all lines are erased in favor of a warm, fuzzy whole. Now if only we didn’t have to travel to another continent to see them live…
This article appears in September 8 • 2000.
