Calling All Monsters...

Turn Records has a lot going for them as far as I'm concerned. 1) They have a great roster of bands (Thee More Shallows and The Dying Californian would be enough for most but Turn adds Dealership and Calling All Monsters to their musical juggernaut) 2) They're SF Bay Area and support bands in the region 3) Jeff from Turn is (at least via email) a very nice man. What more could you want?

Now about Calling All Monsters. Calling All Monsters has risen from the ashes of the fabulous Track Star. Helmed by that band's Matthew Troy Calling All Monsters bears only a minimal resemblance to Track Star. The difference is simply that where Track Star tended to whisper and caress their guitars, Calling All Monsters screams and beats the shit out of them. Turn is using the tag line "putting the rock back in indie rock" and I'll buy that. Calling All Monsters' The Traps That Work Best feels raw and torn open: the vocals are far from pretty but just melodic enough to push the songs past the initial impression that the band is all loud and no subtle. Repeated listens will convince you that The Traps That Work Best isn't just loud but also full of nuance and texture. This has been in heavy rotation for a couple of weeks now and shows little sign of letting up. Highly recommended by the entire staff here at Bars & Guitars.

The Turn Records site has a couple of mp3's from The Traps That Work Best but this song is my favorite:

Calling All Monsters - The Station Agent

The beard is coming along fine, thanks for asking. I'm kind of reluctant to move beyond the homeless guy phase because sympathetic folks have given me just over $17 in the last week.