Stereoboard's Band Of The Week 'Mona' Release Debut Single
Monday, 13 September 2010
Written by Jon Stickler
It’s rare that a band comes along with a locker room full of incredible songs that sound like they’ve been around making records for years. But they haven’t. Mona’s debut single ‘Listen To Your Love’ is out on September 13th through their own label, Zion Noiz Recordings.
Nick Brown is the enigmatic lead singer of four piece Ohio raised/Nashville based band Mona, whose fractious musical and spiritual upbringing, combined with his unrelenting drive to create something special has resulted in anthemic, emotionally charged vintage rock’n’roll of epic proportions. “Along the way I saw how a song could enrage, heal, speak love, seduce, calm, provoke, challenge and surrender. All in three minutes. That’s what we’re all about.”
Most bands in the current age of technology have demos and songs up on the internet for months, sometimes years before they find a fan base. Mona have had over 180,000 profile views without (until this week) even posting up a single note; testament to the interest in this band right now. The absence of any songs wasn’t because they’re lacking material, but because they believed in honing their craft, in the same way the Beatles cut their teeth in Hamburg. Mona have written more than 750 songs over the past 12 months by Nick’s rough calculations. “It was half not being able to trust anyone with our music,” says Nick explaining why the band held their music back, “and half just not wanting to play any music to anyone until we felt we were absolutely ready for this”.
Their silence has finally been broken and a demo of their Buckley-esque torch song ‘Lines in the Sand’ has recently gone up onto their Myspace page as a warning shot to the world that they’re coming...
Mona’s debut single ‘Listen to Your Love’ is an unyielding songwriting tour-de-force, driven by a gritty southern chainsaw guitar riff, pounding drums and Brown’s soaring, emotive vocals that thump you straight in the heart; it’s like a musical emancipation, originally recorded live in Nick’s basement giving it a rare and classic authenticity. It could easily be the closing song of a headline slot at the Reading Festival tomorrow.
‘Listen to your Love’ will be released on Sept 13th as a limited 300 only 7-inch through Rough Trade shops and other key stores with an exclusive b-side ‘All This Time’ (only available on the vinyl). ‘Listen To Your Love’ will also be available as a standalone single download on the same day.
You can read Stereoboard's feature on Mona here which also includes three free tracks as well as the video to 'Listen to Your Love'.
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
