MONOSHOCK: Runnin' Ape-Like From The Backwards Superman: 1989-1995 (Cardinal Fuzz/Feeding Tube)
MONOSHOCK: So much to unpack in the band name alone, a reading we also sense matters to the pull quote/title of this fantastic compilation, originally released on CD via Sacramento’s S-S Records, circa 2004. Ape. Superman. Running Backwards. Mano de mono.
MONO: Lots of bands playing in total and/or relative isolation in the late 1980s and early 1990s. “Total isolation,” we would know nothing about. Relative isolation, however, approximates where some of us were back then; these Isla Vista-meets-Oakland, California folks definitely were doing their own thing, albeit within the wider context of fantastic CA weirdness from contemporaries like Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 and Truman’s Water, among others.
SHOCK: When those of us on the East Coast finally caught wind of Monoshock through their first two singles (one of which was released on Womb, an exceptionally short-lived label run by Jay Hinman of Superdope and Dynamite Hemorrhage fanzines), the music hit us hard and at an angle.
The band obviously owes a great debt to Detroit and Cleveland proto-punk. But Monoshock were noisy and wiry in ways that embody and make challenging so much on these rougher edges of rock music. Grady Runyan’s guitar playing runs all over the place, utilizing wah-wah and distortion to mask or bury the melody and lead. The bass and drums have been described by many as “jazzy,” though that doesn’t quite fit. The way Scott Derr (bass) and Rubin Fiberglass (drums) play off one another rethinks the garage and surf genres the band so actively broke open. Consensus in the shop involves linking the longer form pieces in Monoshock’s catalog to Hawkwind and Amon Duul II, though if/when vocals emerge, there is something attitudinally Mark Arm and Pacific NW, circa 1989 about the delivery and impact.
Can’t recommend this compilation enough. Believe copies are already running low at distro.
*This double-LP collects all their 7"s and comp tracks together with seven previously unreleased tunes and two songs from their ultra-rare 1989 demo tape and two added digi bonus live tracks from their reunion shows.
**Scott Derr also ran Blackjack Records, the label that released Monoshock’s Walk to the Fire debut full-length in 1996. If you come across any releases from this imprint, grab it. Blackjack was an amazing and wide-ranging label. Our in-house label, Amish Records, released a record by Metabolismus at the very same moment, almost to the month, that Blackjack issued Terra Incognita. This was an era prior to the internet and before email, so the serendipity of those releases has always felt almost fraternal (or Siamese?). Metabolismus sounds nothing like Monoshock, but seek those records out just the same.