If mainstream rock fans in Dallas had better taste,
Red Monroe would already be one of the most popular bands in the metroplex. Of course, this isn't to say that they're the best band in the area, or even one of the ten best, but thats kind of missing the point. There are a handful of other things going on in Dallas and Denton right now that are more interesting, unique, and exciting than Red Monroe, and I probably don't have to tell most of you about them. But as everyone already knows, popularity often has little to do with artistic merit, and in Dallas, the presence of the first trait usually all but guarantees the absence of the second, meaning that good art often goes unnoticed, nice guys usually finish last, and shitty bands are given the royal treatment by the local music press time and time again. This is why Red Monroe's ratio of talent to commercial appeal is pleasantly surprising, and its why you should be glad that they are probably about to become bigger than a lot of the popular Dallas rock bands that have helped turn this town into a snore fest.
It was recently
announced that the band's self titled debut EP has been placed on the
Grammy Award nomination list for best "Alternative Album," and one quick listen to its eight songs provides a pretty clear explanation as to how this happened. Simply put, if there is a musical formula for "indie" success these days, Red Monroe probably comes as close as anyone in the metroplex to following it perfectly, producing a record that will satisfy a portion of the music geeks while simultaneously thrilling enough Greenville bar hoppers to earn the band some attention from people that usually don't give a shit.
if "indie" is indeed an actual musical genre as opposed to an abstract, indefinable marketing concept used purely to sell us fake "West Virginia is for Lovers" t-shirts, Red Monroe sums up the sound well enough. If you take most of the fashionable influence lists that have popped up this millennium (post-punk, space rock, psychedelic,
Radiohead, Brit pop, bits of Americana and blues, 60's garage, glam,
Talking Heads,
The Strokes,
The Walkmen etc.) and mix them up until they're all audibly present but jumbled to the point of being almost indistinguishable, you would probably get a sound that could fairly be described as contemporary "indie" rock, and you would also be pretty close to what Red Monroe sounds like. I know, I know, this description probably isn't thrilling to many of you, and admittedly, I'm usually not too excited to hear a band that sounds like bits and pieces of just about every "next big thing" that has come and gone over the past five years. But somehow, Red Monroe pulls it off more often than not, and sometimes, the results are quite impressive.
The Ep opens with the short, bouncing thump of "Shotgun Heart," and almost immediately transitions into the Wolf Paradesque organ-lead stomp of "Fingertips," a song that serves as the Ep's most accessible track while providing a proper showcase for Eric Steele's lead vocals, which are clearly the band's strongest selling point. Steele's influences probably won't be much of a mystery to many, as echoes of
Ziggy era
Bowie,
David Byrne, and contemporaries such as
Alec Ounsworth, Hamilton Leithauser and
Spencer Krug make themselves apparent from the get go. However, the singer's excited, slightly shrieking delivery is urgent, powerful and quite effective throughout the album, constantly demanding the listener's attention and revealing an emotional depth that you'll be hard pressed to find in most local albums. The life of the band's music seems to be packed into his confidently damaged vocals, and his emotions on sleeve presentation almost always seem to bring the band to a slightly higher level, setting them apart almost immediately from other locals that might share similar influences.
Musically, the band seems to be willing to explore a bit, but never ventures far enough to truly break any new ground. Fortunately, this restraint isn't often a problem. "A Return to the Old Way of Thinking," the EP's best track, starts with a shimmering march reminiscent of
PIL's "Rise" before following an efficiently funky bassline into a soul infected breakdown shift that emphasizes the band's strong command of rhythm and reveals their willingness to play around with structure a bit. The band also tries its hand with
Nigel Godrich atmospherics on the slow building "Carolina Cigarette," where choppy post-punk pop guitar gives way to swirling synths and guitar noise in a convincing if slightly rushed build up. Elsewhere, acoustic psychedelics make a welcome appearance on "Blue Mountain Air," and the Radiohead infected shoegaze guitar of closer "Broken Wall Carnival" reveals bits and pieces of all the things Red Monroe does well, playing off a bouncing bass line and a well placed organ wall that lends the song an effective texture.
As you might expect, the band at times tends to get bogged down in predictable guitar playing and chord changes, and there are a few points where lyrics become a bit trite and tired, but nothing truly offensive or completely boring ever really emerges, even if there are a couple of slow patches to be found. For the most part, the playing is tight, well crafted and powerful enough to hold attention throughout, with sufficiently memorable stretches that ensure accessibility. Again, the slight been there done that feel that you'll find on
Red Monroe probably holds this album back a bit, but its clear that the band has the good taste and requisite talent to take their music in different, more interesting directions if they choose. At its core, Red Monroe's EP is populist in nature, and I wouldn't be surprised to see these guys shift to headliner status in the next few months. But for once, an accessible Dallas rock record is actually quite enjoyable, and if a few more bands like Red Monroe began to take hold in the Dallas mainstream, checking the Observer's local concert listings could become significantly less embarrassing for everyone.
