Named for the West Texas sandhills, Austin-based Monahans began in 2006 as an offshoot project by Milton Mapes collaborators Greg Vanderpool, Roberto Sanchez, Jim Fredley and Britton Beisenherz. As Monahans, the group expanded on their landscape rock-and-roll with an intense, rhythmic, yet decisively apolitical pulse.
The band's first release, Low Pining (Undertow 2007), was born mostly out of nameless instrumental soundtracks (Explosions In The Sky meets Califone) and later weaved with lyrical strands of detachment and Cold War Era urgency in the spirit of early U2, R.E.M., The Police and everyone's hero, Neil Young.
With the consistent support of regional radio airplay, the record gradually found its way to various year-end favorites lists. Magnet Magazine listed Low Pining as one of its "10 Hidden Treasures of 2007" and Harp Magazine called it an "under-the-radar gem".
The album also features multi-instrumentalist Chris Dye, Todd Pertll on pedal steel, and Margo Timmins of Cowboy Junkies as harmony vocalist on “When You’re Down”.
Monahans have recently contributed a recording to the musical project entitled Of Great and Mortal Men: 43 Songs For 43 U.S. Presidencies (available Sept 9, 2008 via Standard Recording Co.). The band releases its second album, Dim The Aurora, on May 19, 2009 on Misra.
To order Dim The Aurora from Misra Records, please visit:
www.misrarecords.com/monahans
To purchase Low Pining from the Undertow Music store, please visit: www.undertowstore.com
Thanks for the add, boys. I an green with envy that you are playing with Cowboy Junkies! Wish I could sit at the side of the stage and list to 'em night after night...Sigh...
BY the way, some new tunes should be up on mah site soon, so stop by again...
Maybe I bin running on a horizontal plane/Lost, forever travellin' through the smokin' black remains....
