Legendary garage punks The Monsters will tour through Mexico and the US West Coast in late April through May, beginning their trek in Mexico City and concluding up the Pacific Coastline in Seattle. This string of shows is their first-ever tour through western America and marks the band’s return to the New World since their 2014 Midwestern tour anchored by a headlining appearance at the Muddy Roots Festival. In two, with the Swiss quartet, Slovenly Recordings founder Pete Menchetti will DJ punk, garage, and exotica 45s during the pre-show and after-parties.
It’s common to read names like Celtic Frost, LiLiPUT, and The Young Gods as pioneers of Switzerland’s fringe rock movements. However, The Monsters are justifiably well deserving to be included in this category due to their creation of an off-branch rock genre they dub “trash rock, a subgenre that’s influenced a whole new generation of underground punk groups since the band formed in 1986. This genre is a strange mix of rockabilly grooves fused with chainsaw-fury speed punk, and The Monsters have only become faster, funnier, and more furious with age with their proof on their recent album, You’re Class, I’m Trash, which saw release via Voodoo Rhythm Records, Slovenly Recordings, and Sounds of Subterrania.
The Monsters have performed on stages across the continents of North/South America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. Their first run across the West Coast holds special meaning for the quartet, with the band sharing their thoughts below.
The Monsters are a Garage-Trash band out of Switzerland. We’ve played almost everywhere in the world, from Tomsoe, Norway, above the Arctic Circle, down to Buenos Aires, Argentina. From Japan to Mexico and to unusual places like Vietnam, Sicily, and more. But we never played the US West Coast, although that’s where a lot of inspiration for what we do comes from. Time to change that, for good!
The Monsters have a long history with the West Coast of the USA. Jan – the drummer – was born in San Luis Obispo in the summer of love, and Beat-Man – the CEO – even has family in Los Angeles. It’s like coming home, and we wanna show what we do and present to you our Super-1-Riff-Rock’n’Roll-Boogie-Trash.
The Monsters were formed in Berne, Switzerland, and that’s as un-American as a town can be. From the very beginning, we were unsatisfied with the music scene in general, and spezialy the music scene in Switzerland. At first, we were against pop music. Now it’s the copycats, the bands living and celebrating the past. We can’t stand it and hate it today as much as we hated it yesterday.
But instead of complaining, we create new music, a new listening experience for you and your brain, and it will be so loud that we can’t hear you complaining about it.
That’s our goal; you’ve been warned. – Beat-Man, Janosh, Swan Lee, and Pumi.
Keep your mind open.
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[Thanks to Matthew at Shattered Platter.]
