So This is MONTE

We're often reviewing EPs up in here, but I feel like no genre is better suited for the format than Punk music - Find me someone that disagrees and then jab MONTE's third EP in their face. It's fast, it's loud, and it's chunky and full of flavor in a bite-sized package that you can just throw in any time. It's perfect.

MONTE (All caps) is a Brooklyn-based LGBTQ+ Punk Rock band made of singer and lead guitarist Caitlin Montclare, drummer and audio engineer, Ismael Baiz, and bassist Meghan Rose. After listening to this EP, i can confidently say that each of them are the perfect line-up for this band, they all impress, they all kick ass… may they have many, many more successful years together!

“This Is MONTE” features platinum record producer Barb Morrison, it's also tracked and mixed by Grammy Award-nominated Jonathan Jetter, Jeremy Kinney & Matt Graf.

Now, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that punk, in general, has been flying a bit under my radar for the past couple of years, however, if the release of this EP is anything like a "State of the Union" (har har) for what the Punk scene is offering right now, I don't think I got any more excuses to keep myself from diving into whatever racket these young'uns are making nowadays.

Now the punk that I am used to listening to is on the lo-fi side of the spectrum, something that MONTE... really isn't. It's in fact quite the opposite story with the band, as their sound is immaculately crips and crystal clear, letting the inherent sleaze and grime of the genre come more from the vernacular rather than the technical aspects. It's a very gripping listening experience, almost closer to modern thrash Metal than to any of my own -as of now- obviously outdated expectations of what the state of the scene is.

Now you've already read the word Sleaze once, and In my book, that word goes hand-in-hand with punk, no way around it, that's just how it is, and that's actually part of the praise that I have for MONTE now that I've discovered them- and I don't think they would take offense to that either, as the EP can easily be described as a compendium of Tragically Horny punk-rock ballads, especially with tracks like “T. D .T .T .M” being such a huge centerpiece for the 5-song compilation.

But “T. D .T .T .M” (we'll get to it) is just one piece of the whole puzzle. What about the rest of the songs? Well, part of the reason why the EP is such a gripping experience is that it goes from 0 to 60 right away and doesn't really let go of the throttle at any point.

Anthemic and hella catchy "Parasite" is MONTE's opening jab, and it's like taking a big gulp of what you think it's water but ends up being straight-up Tequila, particularly with its absolutely devastating (if a bit short) guitar solo. I wasn’t really expecting any shredding whatsoever, but Montclare delivers face-melters like it’s nobody’s business. Sick.

Following up with "Bad Girl" is a show that MONTE is about as catchy as Fly Paper on a butcher shop, and it also sets up this nice flip-flop rythm I noticed in the EP where one song is very punk (Parasite) and it's followed by a more rock & roll tune, which this would be. An awesome acid-tongued track.

Following “Bad Girl” is a more hardcore and heavier Punk sound this time around with "I Hate Me More", a song that -unsurprisingly- deals with self-loathing in a very rage-a-holic kinda way. Not sure what a Therapist would say, but if it kicks ass there ain't no room to argue nothing else as far as I'm concerned. And yeah, this song is also horny -and the Bass is f a t, probably correlated.

“T. D .T .T .M” stands for what else if not "Too Depressed To Touch Myself". A very wry song with a devastating Thrash Metal riff and a touch of rockabilly that not only pokes fun at feeling too depressed to act on the aforementioned tragic hornyness but also reflects the inability to let go of a strong memory of a romance gone... again, tragic but forgoing all melodrama in favor of the sardonic humor Punk is so well suited to.

"Friends Not Food" had me fooled at first (after the kickass Motörhead-like intro) because I thought, "oh well, maybe this is like an Anti-meat-eating song? maybe they're vegetarians or something? am I about to hear a punk song about frolicking with cows?" Nope. Horny again...

...Well, not exactly. See, I've been making light of it this whole while, but if you've been paying attention to the lyrics, you can tell that it's not nearly as crude as "sex, get it?", and I think this song in particular is a great send-off to the EP in the way that it wraps up the more nuanced points in the album which. I believe tie into the LGBTQ+ thing that I made a point of bringing up earlier, here's why:

I think Punk in general is a lot about taking anger and humor alike and using them to vent out a deep dissatisfaction or frustration in a way that’s -for lack of a less cliché word- empowering. Now this particular song feels the most genuine and the heaviest in that regard because Caitlin talks a lot about what it's like to be, well... used and perhaps even objectified sexually by straight girls just out to "explore" - Once bitten twice shy I guess you could say.

Now this feels more explicitly said in this track, but there are a lot of elements spread out evenly across the whole EP. It's not all some glorification of a pointless hedonistic carnival, or an edgy bunch of naughty, immature songs, . What can be more vulnerable than talking openly about one's own sexuality? and in the process of this opening-up to complete random strangers, I suppose that MONTE can claim back some power and confidence out of the often tortuous complexities of life.

That’s what I think MONTE is.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Samuel Aponte is Venezuelan-born, raised and based. 

I joined Rival Magazine after a few years of doing PR work for independent musicians of all stripes; understanding their struggles to be heard in a sea of constant  ADHD noise and paywalled access to platforms, I now bring a willingness to always appreciate and encourage the effort and creativity that artists put into their work. Can also find some of my writings on LADYGUNN and We Found New Music.