NEW: Two 7-inches by Monotonix Recorded by Steve Albini in 2010. These sessions will make the next Monotonix album, set for release in the beginning of 2011 Special limited edition vinyl only. Artwork hand-drawn by Haggai
"Fun Fun Fun/Try Try Try" out June 29th! Pre-Order
"Never Died Before/Lazy Boy" out now. Order / Download
"Where Were You When It Happened" LP came out September 2009 -
"A thrilling throwdown. Israeli fire-breathers translate mosh mania" - Spin
"Querulous, somewhat deranged vocals battle with the rampant groove of 'Flesh And Blood', the lo-fi studio echo of 'As Noise' and the hypnotic drum-powered minimalism of 'Set Me Free' to create a record that spices rock classicism with the odd anarchic thrill. Keep an extinguisher handy" - NME
"The stories of the lyrics are brilliantly, blusey and carry the flavour of something different. Monotonix have taken a template and beaten it into their own image without mercy." - Kerrang Magazine
"Monotonix packs so much pure simian power that its legendarily wild performances can compress all cosmic meaning into the moment at hand. Somehow, they’ve managed to capture it here, in focus and in hi-def no less. It’s an impossibly vibrant capture of the most virile rock and roll band in the universe." - Flagpole Magazine
"If there was a spectrum on which every shade of chaos was ranked hierarchically, you would have to peg a Monotonix show somewhere to the left of total, complete and utter mayhem. Maybe you could call it demented pandemonium. Supposedly they are banned from half the live venues in Israel, at one place because a couple became so aroused that the man started to give his girlfriend oral sex. At a Tennessee show on their current tour, a man is said to have purposely set himself on fire.
I saw them first in an enclosed-on-three-sides backyard at a funky east Austin venue called the Austin Typewriter Museum. You could smell the band before you could see ‘em – as soon as their van doors opened a wave of body odor permeated the entire yard. The drummer, a dead ringer for Borat with a gold dookie chain around his neck, proceeded to set up his badly battered, minimal kit in the dusty ground in front of the stage. Yonatan Gat, the guitarist, looks like Bob Dylan circa the Newport Folk Festival, plugged in his Fender (literally held together with electrical tape) to an amp, which was also on the ground in front of the stage. And that was it for set-up.
And then it gets weird. There are absolutely no barriers between crowd and band. Singer Ami Shalev climbs whatever structures or other high vantage points are in the vicinity – could be a building or a tree, whatever – and hollers words in either English or Hebrew or maybe just primal screams. Or maybe he’s rolling around in the dirt, keeping time on the bass drum with his forehead. Or maybe he’s flying around in the crowd, knocking beers over or head-butting more garbage cans or blowing snot out of his nose. And the thing about it is, the pandemonium never ceases, never so much as lets up for a second, throughout. Often the show closes with the crowd spontaneously picking up the bass drum, with the drummer perched on top of it, still banging away on his remaining kit, and carrying him over their heads to the van.
These guys did six of these shows in one day on Saturday. They have to be simultaneously the most physically fit and mentally deranged band I have ever seen, and already I have seen them three times.
these shows are something beyond chaos. In fact, they are the perfect band for our time, the soundtrack and visual representation of a world that seems to be slipping out of control." - John Lomax, Houston Press
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"Most exciting live band in rock'n'roll" - Spin
"Unlike anything you've ever witnessed." - Washington Post
"Unforgettable and thrilling chaos." - Now Toronto
"You hit my girlfriend in the head with a trash can, and as much as i love her, you were still the best fucking band i've seen in ages.
don't stay away from raleigh long, ok?" - "Siobhan", Raliegh NC
"During the trio's riotous encore, the mob carried Shalev out into the freezing night air atop a bass drum. He is probably still out there, on the wilds of Exmoor, howling at the Moon like some blood-drenched Viking warrior." London Times
To the Aussie girl at the Highdive show, who told me about the concert in Melbourne where she got a facefull of Ami in golden underpants, (and to her friend), why did you leave without even telling me your name!?!? Also, amazing f-ing show!