The Monsters are a Swiss band that have been releasing music since 1989, so I should definately have heard of them. The name rang a bell, but they probably do not play my kind of music. Yesterday I was at Coffin Carnival, a rockabilly/psychobilly festival in Eindhoven and there I saw Te Monsters. They are not really a psychobilly band. They describe their own music in different ways. “wild primitive chainsaw massacre teenage trash garage clonedrum fuzz rock’n’roll”, “Their sound is a fuzzedout mix between 60ies garage punk, wild teenage trash rockabilly and primitive rock‘n‘roll. Its 187% no MTV and top 100 shit!” also “garage punk” and “blues trash” are terms that can be found on the website, shirts or merchandise. Also funny: “if it’s too loud, you’re too old” (110+ db). Their show in the Effenaar was brilliant. There are too guys with a guitar or bass and a microphone, both I estimate over 50 years old. One (the one steady band member, Beat-Man) has a funny haircut, but the other one (Janosh) looks like a professor. Then there are two drummers, or to clarify: “clonedrum: means 2 drummers with only 1 1/2 drums, hitting thhe same bassdrum from each side”. The result is extremely energetic and very raw “punk’n’roll”. Sometimes Motörhead is in the sound, but The Monsters are much more punky and aggressive. The basis is indeed rock’n’roll and according to Beat-Man this is what psychobilly sounds like in Switserland contrary to German or Dutch psychobilly. In any case, “Pop Up Your!” seems to be the first album since 2002 and in most tracks The Monsters deliver the energy that they have on stage. Brought with humor and a massive deal of enjoyment. It was great to see four ‘old people’ (but what is old eh?) having so much fun on stage and delivering such raw rock’n’roll.
The Monsters, Voody Rhythm
