The return of the Monolators (& other astounding tales)

I am so excited for tonight’s Pehrpsace show because it marks the return of one of my favorite 21st Century bands, The Monolators. The Monolators are like this magic machine that takes in the roots of rock, pop and punk, transmutates the best parts, and then makes those goodies SHINE. It’s really hard to add to the rock canon at this late date, but the Monolators have done so quite successfully. They radiate an energy that feels so good…you have to dance (even though the group’s best song to date, “Don’t Dance,” ironically requests the opposite).

So you may be saying to yourself, I’ve seen Eli and Mary (Monolators’ married vox/gtr + drums team) all over town, where did the band go?

Eli explains on his blog:

This is going to be the Monolators’ comeback show. We last played in…I wanna say…the beginning of July? Sometime around there. We have been on hiatus. Ray, our guitar player, broke his wrist and collarbone in a biking accident and we have been out of action for what seems like forever. We haven’t had a break like this for something like 6 years and I am extremely eager for it to be over! We did want our comeback show to be special and so I am proud and honored that this show will be the end of our hiatus.

So don’t miss this comeback show (details after the jump).

And keep reading—Eli Monolator’s tale of how he met tonight’s bill mate D. Bene Tleilaxu at a Modesto gay bar in 2006 is fucking incredible.

Watch the Tleilaxu Music Machine remix of the Monolators (above), and read Eli Monolator’s surprising story of how they met:

I first met D. Bene Tleilax…um…4 years ago in Modesto, California, at a club called The Mustang. The internet tells me that the Mustang stopped doing shows in December 2007, which doesn’t really surprise me too much. This would have been in Summer ’06, while we were on our very first tour.

So, yes. The Mustang. The Mustang was (is?) advertised as The Only Gay Club in Modesto. It was a cinderblock bunker near the train tracks by the freeway. The only indication of gayness was a xerox of a Chippendales dancer taped up over the bar. Friends of ours who had previously played there told us in no uncertain terms NOT TO BOTHER, but we didn’t listen because we needed a show and were desperate. This turned out to be a mistake, sort of, as the Mustang show turned out to be spectacularly awful, but there were two highlights that are etched into my brain: (a) a lady performing tuneless, solo sub-Enya new age elevator synth pop while playing flute with an electric fan blowing her hair back (and I think I am doing Enya herself a disservice by that comparison), and (b) getting to meet Romak and the Space Pirates, sporting D. Bene himself on keyboards. R&TSP lacked the flute and electric fan, but were far more entertaining than the fan lady, which is saying something indeed!

Since then both Mary and I have followed Romak and Bene’s solo music as Tleilaxu Music Machine, and we were extremely happy when Bene agreed to remix one of our songs for New Years last year. His version of Don’t Dance was so rad that it pretty much superseded our own in my mind–at least, it’s his version that I hear when I think of that song in my brain. So! I have been waiting for a whole album of Tleilaxu Music Machine for a long time and I am very very happy to say that it is coming! Pehrspace will celebrate the release of “Diamond Eyed Coyote” on Monday, October 11, presented by Sean Carnage and KXLU Demolisten!

Do not miss the Monolators tonight: