MONARCHS ANNOUNCE THE RELEASE OF LP, “THE RISE AND FALL” THIS MAY 2011 NATIONAL SUMMER TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT COMING SOON
Monarchs is excited to announce the May 2011 self-release of their first full length record, The Rise and Fall. Monarchs, the darling of Alabama-bread song-bird, Celeste Griffin, is currently based out of Austin, Texas and features a shifting line-up of some of Birmingham and Austin’s finest musicians. Produced by Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Patty Griffin), The Rise and Fall presents considerable advancements in sound quality and song-writing for Monarchs. However, the record maintains the raw and unique sound of Monarchs’ previous EPs, Those Words, Those Frames and The Oak EP. Austinist says, “Can’t brush off Monarchs as another ‘pretty-girl-with-achinglysatisfying-vocals-fronting-tight-indie-outfit’ no matter how hard you try.” Monarchs will be featured at SXSW’s “Blackbird” showcase on March, 19th 2011 at 10 PM. See the shows section of Monarchs’ website for additional concert dates and tour details.
CONTACT: Management: Celeste Griffin | 205.613.5006 | monarchsfamily@gmail.com Morgan Catalina | 404.944.9004 | morgan@sxsw.com Press: Jessi Baker | 601.613.0862 | countrymousejb@gmail.com
TOUR DATES ...
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT: Website: http://monarchsfamily.com Myspace: http://myspace.com/monarchsfamily Facebook: http://facebook.com/monarhsfamily Twitter: http://twitter.com/monarchsfamily Youtube: http://youtube.com/user/monarchsfamily Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/monarchsfamily
MONARCHS BIO Music comes not from lesson or rote but the open soul. Celeste Griffin, the Monarchs lead singer, began her music education in the piano at age eight. It lasted less than a year. It was fifteen years later, on a sultry afternoon in Alabama, when Celeste again laid her untrained hands to her mother’s piano and stumbled upon her first song, Notes of Disease. The pot began to boil and Celeste yielded to the flame. Three years later Griffin’s recognized ability to whisper southern family secrets and belt the grief of lost love has landed her at the biggest venues in Austin, the “Live Music Capital of the World.” Griffin’s music is her own. It is dripping with thickly woven emotion, a personal testimony to a collective memory that bonds family, friends, and lovers. Monarchs blurs the genre lines, grazing soul, folk, rock, and southern boogie in any given song. Her voice is powerful and poetic, chords resonating in a distinctly Alabaman tune. With the occasional ‘Roll Tide!’ interspersing applause and her charming southern drawl coating song break commentary, its hard to forget Griffin’s southern roots. Monarchs’ first two albums glow with soft sunshine, intimate portraits of a young woman finding musical inspiration in the laughter of her friends, the lazy flight of Birmingham fireflies, and the joy of youthful optimism. Her first album, The Oak EP, was recorded in 2008 on a four-track tape recorder in a women’s bathhouse on an abandoned industrial site outside of Birmingham. Produced by Taylor Hollingsworth of Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, the release came a mere six months after that sultry June afternoon. Those Words, Those Frames was recorded in Birmingham in 2009, in an old grocery store repurposed into a music studio.
Griffin moved Monarchs to Austin in 2008 to study Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas. Its no fluke that Griffin wrote her Master’s thesis on the repurposing of old buildings into spaces promoting art, community, and economic development. She has put her faith in art as a uniting force, the point at which community and place intersect. For Griffin, music is family. The gravity of family plays an integral role in Griffin’s songwriting, songs often telling the story of great relatives that lived before her. The name Monarchs is itself derived from the dysfunctional and regal duality of royal families, the idea that we are all queens, kings, and members of the family that embodies our unified existence. The Monarchs project has been a success carried on the shoulders of many, with friends and family collaborating to assemble the creative, mosaic whole. This past summer, Monarchs recorded its first full length LP with producer and friend Mike McCarthy, producer of Patty Griffin, Spoon, and Heartless Bastards. Titled The Rise and Fall, the album holds major advancements in writing and production quality. Longtime friend and Swiss Army musician Van Hollingsworth, credited for his central role in the development of Monarchs and its unique sound, currently plays on guitar. Alongside him are band members Phil Aijarpu on bass and Josh Halpern on drums. Rise and Fall is slated to be released in the spring of 2011.
THE RISE AND FALL TRACK LISTING
1. Business Casual * 2. Arm’s Length * 3. Truths in the Ceiling* 4. Blvd.* 5. A Love Alive 6. Come a Little Bit Closer 7. Not Sure What’s Real 8. Date Night 9. The Silence of the Suburbs 10. The Rise and Fall 11. Sails * Suggested Tracks
ALBUM ART
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MONARCHS PRESS QUOTES: “IT’S LIKE ROCK AND ROLL ON A CLOUD”
— Laurie Gallardo, KUT Austin Radio and Texas Music Matters
“CAN’T BRUSH OFF MONARCHS AS ANOTHER “PRETTY-GIRL-WITH-ACHINGLY-SATISFYING-VOCALS-FRONTING-TIGHT-INDIE-OUTFIT” NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRY.” — Austinist
“GRIFFIN PACKS A DOUBLE PUNCH WITH HER VOICE AND HER LYRICS.” — KXAN Austin News
“MONARCHS PLAY MUSIC THAT’S BOTH POWERFUL AND ORGANIC. FAMILIAR, BUT DIFFICULT TO NAIL DOWN. A VERSION OF SOULFUL SOUTHERN-FOLK THAT WAVERS UNSPARINGLY BETWEEN BOOGIE AND DOWNTEMPO CONTEMPORARY BLUES. ONE THING IS FOR SURE, WHETHER THEY GOT YOUR HIPS SWINGING, OR FORCED YOU TO THOUGHTFULLY RETREAT INTO YOUR HEAD, THEIR MUSIC IS MOVING.” — Tape Bombs (Austin Music Blog)
“FROM SOULFUL TO POPPY, CELESTE GRIFFIN, AKA MONARCHS, HAS THE RANGE AND TALENT TO PULL OFF SEVERAL GENRES OF MUSIC.” — Austin is Burning
“HER VOCAL PROWESS IS ON PAR WITH ANY NUMBER OF FAMOUSLY DUBBED CHANTEUSES… BUT HER BLUESY AND SEDUCTIVELY TORCHED BALLADS FROM LAST YEAR’S ‘THOSE WORDS, THOSE FRAMES’ HAVE ESTABLISHED HER AS A FORCE IN HER OWN RIGHT, AND HER VERSATILITY IN SLIDING THROUGH AND MELDING GENRES IS EQUALLY MESMERIZING.” — Austin Sound
“THE SLOW-BURNING NO DEPRESSION FEEL OF OPENER “GO I’LL GO” PROVES GRIFFIN A TRUE-BLUE SOUTHERN SOUL IN LYRICS AND VOICE, AND HER WAY WITH WORDS ON THE TITLE TRACK POINTS TO A LONG LINE OF NOMADIC SINGER-SONGWRITERS...” — The Austin Chronicle on “Those Words, Those Frames”
“IT PLAYS LIKE A SUMMER EVENING ON A BACK PORCH WITH A GAGGLE OF FRIENDS – QUIET MOMENTS OF PONDERING SHADOWS AND COUNTING FIREFLIES, PARSED BY BURSTS OF LAUGHTER & ROLLING IN THE GRASS. THE WOMAN’S GOT RANGE ON HER SOUL AND THE TRIP IS JUST PLAIN FUN.0” — KVRX Radio on “Those Words, Those Frames”
Monarchs Interview: SXSW 2010 —Benjamin Williams While attending graduate school at the University Of Texas, Celeste Griffin, the mastermind of Monarchs, has carved her own path in the music industry. From her humble beginnings in the Yellow Hammer State to playing local venues in her adopted hometown of Austin, Texas, Celeste has released two successful albums, 2008’s ‘The Oak EP’ and 2009’s ‘Those Words, Those Frames.’ After making a name for herself locally, Celeste is on the verge of performing at this year’s SXSW to audiences from around the world. She spoke to Spinner about her musical style, her band and cookies.
“How would you describe your sound? Monarchs are soulful roots-rock. Sometimes folky, sometimes bluesy, sometimes mellow, and sometimes rocking, it is always soulful and it is always honest.
How did your band come together? I discovered my talent for songwriting and singing just three years ago. At that time, I was living in my hometown, Birmingham, Ala. and knew several musicians and began recruiting players. Monarchs have changed over time, but one aspect remains the same: Van Hollingsworth. He has played bass and guitar on both Monarchs’ EPs, co-writes songs with me and is my closest Monarchs collaborator. After I moved to Austin in 2008, I formed a Monarchs branch in my new Texas home -- this process involved fliers, Craigslist, word of mouth, friendships, etc., so, now, I basically have two Monarchs units: one in Birmingham and one in Austin. This SXSW, however, these bands will blend, as Van will be playing guitar along with my Austin bassist, Phil Ajjarapu, and Austin drummer, Josh Halpern.
What are your musical influences? Female: Aretha Franklin, Bonnie Raitt, Chan Marshall, Gillian Welch, Fiona Apple, Lauryn Hill. Male: Neil Young, Van Morrison, John Lennon, Conor Oberst, the Beatles, Jerry Garcia.
How did you come up with the name Monarchs? I love the concept and reality of family. I have always had this sort of vision of my family line and ancestry as royal with my grandmother Celeste Evans as the queen, and me as the princess. So, given that I was initially writing a lot of songs about stories of my family, I thought naming the band after a dysfunctional, royal family would be perfect. The concept of Monarchs has expanded now. I consider Monarchs to be a community project where the listeners, players, promoters, etc., are all members of the community or family. Even greater than the musical Monarchs, as people, we are all part of a family in this kingdom called universe.
What’s your biggest vice? Chocolate chip cookies, for sure.
What’s in your festival survival kit? Water! A SXSW schedule of shows I want to catch. Throat drops.
Who was your first celeb crush? When I was little, I thought that that Lee Montgomery, the guy in ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun,’ the movie, was just about the hottest thing on earth.
What’s your musical guilty pleasure? I am most definitely down with the TLC ‘CrazySexyCool’ album. I don’t feel guilty about it, though. When is the last time you jammed to ‘Creep’?
Beatles or Stones? The Beatles. That’s a mean question, though!
What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen or experienced while on tour? Well, I have yet to tour! After I finish my album this summer, the touring will begin and I will join the other soldiers of the great highway. Crazy stories to come ...
If you could trade in all of your creative control, for instant platinum-selling success, would you? No way. However, I would love to figure out how to have both!
Oreos with or without milk? With milk, for sure. Soggy Oreos are the way to go.
PAST RECOMMENDED SHOWS: —Audra Schroeder
12/10/10 @ United States Art Authority KVRX Holiday Show/Misprint Company Holiday Party ’Tis the season for local concerns and their holiday to-dos. The radio rebels of KVRX stay central in hosting orchestral sugar plums Mother Falcon, Cat Powerish Monarchs, Spoon-bending Bitter Birds, indie lounge merchants Mermaid Blonde, and more. To the East, the zine peddlers and beard enthusiasts of Misprint magazine crawl into Club 1808 with Marriage (members of the Awesome Cool Dudes/When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth/Expensive Shit ménage à trois) and Whitesquirrels.
11/22/10 @ Ruta Maya English Teeth, the Memphis Strange, Monarchs Three locals, three takes on rock and blues.
03/05/10 @ Lamberts Monarchs, the Sour Notes, Cowabunga Babes.
This local layer cake will go straight to your hips, in a good way. The sweet country ballads of Monarchs creep up on you, courtesy of rare songbird Celeste Griffin. The recent release of the Sour Notes’ It’s Not Gonna Be Pretty marks big things for the Austin fourpiece; the pop confections are easy on the ears, but they’ve got the chops to cover Jawbreaker. Openers Cowabunga Babes have returned from tour, ready to get their Kinks off.
01/15/10 @ Hole in the Wall Haunting Oboe Music.
The music of Austin’s pop genre-spanners neither featured an oboe nor was especially haunting, but it made great use of the quiet-loud formula. After five years and an ambitious 2008 EP-a-month project, they’ve put
out more music than most bands do in a decade, so they’re allowed to call it quits. Give them one last hurrah, as fellow locals Obsolete Machines, Salesman, and Monarchs see them out.
05/01/09 @ Emo’s Monarchs EP Release A night of Texas-bred country by the ladies. Local quintet Monarchs, led by the fluttering vocals of Celeste Griffin, christen gritty roots-rock ballads of brand new EP Those Words, Those Frames. Singer Dana Falconberry unspools an early 20th century thread from last year’s breezy Oh Skies of Grey. Opener Mara Lee Miller is Bosque Brown, and for her sophomore LP, the Denton singer-songwriter birthed a Baby – Miller’s voice drifts high and lonesome, like some ghost of Appalachia.
Texas Platters deEP end —Audra Schroeder
A thread of Annelle’s High Plains sigh can be heard in the new Monarchs EP, Those Words, Those Frames. Singer Celeste Griffin names her muse on “The Things You Build Yourself”: “I found my voice over Gillian Welch.” The slowburning No Depression feel of opener “Go I’ll Go” proves Griffin a true-blue Southern soul in lyrics and voice, and her way with words on the title track points to a long line of nomadic singersongwriters: “There’s joy in my dispatch; new grounds found unmapped are making me turn dials back.”
Austinist Show Preview: Monarchs Album Release at Emo’s! —Joshua Huck
Can’t brush off Monarchs as another “pretty-girl-with-achingly-satisfyingvocals-fronting-tight-indie-outfit” no matter how hard you try. Claiming both ATX and Birmingham, AL (BAL?) as their HQs, their self-proclaimed influences run a similarly interesting gamut, including both Jerry Garcia and Amy Winehouse. Fortunately, at this early point in their career, they’ve none of the contrived grit of the petrol-huffing, boyfriend-slicing latter yet some of the experience and good-nature of the former, relying on their admirable material to draw out lead hottie singer/ pianist Celeste Griffin’s pristine vocals to the dirtiest degree they seem capable of achieving, which is still a bottle of Wellbutrin short of Chan Marshall, and three cases of Jack shy of Janis Joplin’s historic howling. The result: something close to southwestern soul perfection, eclipsing and expanding on burned-out poseurs like Brightblack Morning Light with their brighter eyes and easy dynamics. Tonight, at Emo’s (?!) this troupe is celebrating the release of an album proper, including on the bill two luminous local singer-songwriters who also preach the soft-touch: Dana Falconberry and Bosque Brown. Bring a hanky.
Discovering the music of Monarchs — Stephen Humphreys
Can’t brush off Monarchs as another “ “Notes on Disease,” the first song on the Monarchs’ new EP, Oak, is written with what sounds like the coolest deliberation. The first lyrics come out in a slow drawl, punctuated in almost staccato succession: “Its – been – a – long – time – coming.” And it seems like it takes a relative eternity for that single thought to emerge over the slowly-shifting minor chord progression. But singer-songwriter Celeste Griffin in one sentence establishes a command that will put you on alert with anticipation for her next verbal and musical utterance. It is partly the haunting vibrato drawl of the voice, the slightly discordant plaintiveness that opens up to show quick flashes of disarming power. It is partly the simple poignancy of the feelings in “It’s Not Me” and “Open It Up,” the urgency belied by the slow and steady rhythms and almost conversational melodies. It is partly the accompanying instrumentation, especially the slow but insistently driving keyboards and wail of the violin. That is what I thought I heard, but to my surprise I learned a lot more when I asked Griffin my perfunctory interview questions about her musical training and previous band and songwriting experience. It turns out that Griffin, who plays keyboards on most Monarchs songs, took piano lessons in the third grade. She plays guitar on some songs, though she never had a lesson. “Notes” is the first song Griffin ever wrote, when she sat down at the piano at her mother’s house a year ago and started playing around with words and chords. Preston Lovinggood, lead singer for Wild Sweet Orange, happened to be sitting with her and heard something developing in the random musical musings. Lovinggood urged her to keep going. The result of this first effort is perhaps the best song on Oak, but in the last year Griffin has written a torrent of songs that have already bypassed the output of her first recording with songs like “Move Me.” The Oak EP evolved from that first session. First she got a drummer, then added a bass. Eventually she col-
lected a strong contingent to back her up, including Van Hollingsworth, currently on tour with Maria Taylor, on guitar. Oak was made in true garage style, recorded on Taylor Hollingsworth’s four-track tape recorder, with vocal tracks laid down in a shower at the women’s bath-house at Wade Sand & Gravel, drums at the abandoned Birmingham Hotel, keyboards on the piano at Griffin’s mother’s house where she wrote her first song. “Notes” emerged from a long period of struggle, according to Griffin. The succession of songs that has since flowed from her she considers a gift. Frankly, I cannot believe the poise with which she writes music and lyrics, plays and sings, and puts on a performance, for someone who has never done it before. It’s as if, as the song says, it has always been in her waiting to come out. My friend Olivia, with that eerie female prescience, commented that Griffin must have been keeping a journal for a long time. And that is exactly what Griffin told me. But her journaling was over-analytical, or “headheavy.” She says it really helps her work through her feelings to place them to music. It is a process of discovery through expression. “Putting words to a melody frees me,” Griffin says. As the Greeks and Gnostics knew, discovery and revelation come from somewhere else, we don’t know where, but these songs have been a long time forming, like wine in oak barrels, reaching a fine point before it is ever released. But just as no song springs from nowhere, every muse has its influences. Just as I detect notes of black currant in a wine, in Monarchs I can hear strains of Bright Eyes — though with less teenage male neurosis than Conor Oberst. Especially on “Open It Up” the lyrics have the lyrical, Southern-summer-night quality of Michael Stipe’s “Nightswimming.” She’s less nerdy and traumatized than Stipe (and Michael agrees that females are superior beings, anyway), and lacks the sexual confusion, too. Though Griffin’s songwriting skills must still be fledgling, her angst embodies more mature female emotion. It’s both more decisive and fatalistic than we earnest boys can muster. Another thread I hear in her music is Hope for Agoldensummer. Oh, and then there is Maria Taylor. What you hear in the Monarchs is a strong Athens, Ga., influence — an Alabama-Athens axis already pioneered by Maria and her Azure Ray cohort Orenda Fink, Drive By Truckers and others. Doubtless Griffin is a strong new songwriting talent. You can hear her confidence in “Here I Go Again.” If she keeps writing and keeps getting stronger she could go again and again and end up who knows where. The only criticism that comes to mind from Oak is the deliberate tone-poem tempo and lyrical drone of every song. Maybe in future efforts she can pump it up with a little more up-tempo Athens influence from The Whigs. Right now the music is more folksy, but she left no doubt she can belt it out in songs from a recent Cave 9 set that are not on the EP. Because on “Move Me,” when she sang she was ready to be moved, and practically screamed “Go and move me,” as if she had done it a thousand times, she moved me. You should already be waiting for better things from Celeste Griffin and Monarchs. I know I am.
CONTACT: Management: Celeste Griffin | 205.613.5006 | monarchsfamily@gmail.com Morgan Catalina | 404.944.9004 | morgan@sxsw.com Press: Jessi Baker | 601.613.0862 | countrymousejb@gmail.com