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.
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 Record, 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 unusual places like Vietnam or Sicily, Italy. 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 in the band 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, it was 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 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.
This is 187% trash. No top 100. This is no hit and no melody at 110 dezibels. The Monsters will play songs from the latest albums. And new stuff. And ballads. Some in our Swiss-German mother tongue. And metal, too. But we’ll drop in some of the old ones as well… and we fuck those up even more that you probably can’t recognize them anymore. All our songs are little creatures and always sound different. And we make up new lyrics on stage, too. Maybe.
A Monster’s show is mostly sweat, smell, and spit. And love. It doesn’t matter who you are; you’re welcome, the stranger you are. You’ll meet the whole crazy-nut Monsters family that night, and we all hope you come to the shows. We can’t wait to trash out with you!
Sincerely yours,
The Monsters
Follow The Monsters on Instagram, Facebook, and their official website for all their latest news. The new album from The Monsters, You’re Class, I’m Trash, is available through Voodoo Rhythm Records, Slovenly Recordings, and Sounds of Subterrania.
The Monsters Mexico & US West Coast Tour
April 25th – Gato Calavera (Mexico City, MX)
April 26th – El Taller (Izcalli, MEX)
April 27 – La Mezcal (Mexico City, MX)
April 28 – Black Box (Tijuana, MEX)
April 30 – Zebulon (Los Angeles, CA – USA) – Tickets
May 1 – The Usual Place (Las Vegas, NV – USA) – Tickets
May 2 – Transplants Brewing CO (Palmdale, CA – USA) – Tickets
May 3 – The Crepe Place (Santa Cruz, CA – USA)
May 4 – Thee Parkside (San Francisco, CA – USA – Tickets
May 5 – The Cellar (Reno, NV – USA)
May 7 – The Big Dirty (Eugene, OR – USA)
May 8 – Mano Oculta (Portland, OR – USA)
May 9 – The Crypt (Olympia, WA – USA)
May 10 – Bearded Monkey (Yakima, WA – USA)
May 11 – Clock-Out Lounge (Seattle, WA – USA)
Photography by Cendre Noire
Poster by Jan Indermuehle
