Monroe Mustang
I Am the Only Running Footman (Emperor Jones)
Hot on the fuzzy slipper heels of De Avonden 091099, a warm, half-hour live set for Dutch public radio released earlier this fall, the 20-minute I Am the Only Running Footman keeps pace with the rest of Monroe Mustang’s psychedelically introverted and fast-blossoming catalog. Lo in volume, but fi on sleepy — hi with creeping melodies — the five-track Footman EP disassembles the group’s gauzy musical netherworld by having each member of the Austin quintet stitch in their own composition to the collective quilt. Not only does the sum total all the parts, oft-repeated spins reveal a unified bleeding of the band’s subversive pop instincts across the length of their fourth disc. Bedhead goes tête-à-tête with Kid A. J. Stout’s best-of-show opener, “F.L.N.W.K.” (“Funny Little New Wave Kid”), floats along on an organ wave encircling Syd Barrett’s moat, while C. Linnen’s “Weren’t Gone” casts a deliciously dysfunctional acoustic pall in the second slot, and leads the way for the group’s melodic mastermind B. Barry and his downcast and droning “Spirits of Unfreedom.” C’s brother M. Linnen finishes back in the field with “Your Shapeless Head,” instrumentally advanced but harmonically askew, and T. Holland finishes the race with a short, sweet (relative) burst of speed on the chrome-polished “The Ford Chevy Debate.” Win, place, or show, Monroe Mustang is off to the races.
This article appears in November 24 • 2000.
