Gods and Monsters
Gig Seeker Pro

Gods and Monsters

| INDIE | AFM

| INDIE | AFM
Band Rock Alternative

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


This band has no press

Discography

http://garylucas.com/www/disc/gods/godMAIN.html
http://garylucas.com/www/disc/bad/badMAIN.html
http://garylucas.com/www/media/audio/Astronomy_Domine.mp3
http://garylucas.com/www/media/audio/Chinese_Auto_Pilot_soundcheck.mp3

Photos

Bio

http://garylucas.com/www/gdmn/

Gary Lucas’ Gods and Monsters play intense psychedelic art-rock centered around the formidable virtuosity and Grammy-nominated songwriting of former Captain Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas.

"THE GROUP IS MINDBLOWING!"
--Time Out NY

"AN UNDERGROUND ROCK FAN'S DREAM TEAM"
--The New Yorker

"Coming Clean", the first new Gary Lucas & Gods and Monsters album in some time is about to be unleashed this Oct. 4th on Side Salad/Universal in the UK, with licenses pending for the USA, Canada, Japan, France and Benelux territories.

The new album features Gary on guitar and vocals along with Ernie Brooks (Modern Lovers) on bass, Billy Ficca (Television) and Jonathan Kane (Swans) on drums, Jason Candler (Hungry March Band) on alto sax and Joe Hendel on trombone -- with special guest vocalists David Johansen (New York Dolls), sultry French superstar Elli Medeiros, and Richard Barone.

The album, 5 years in the making, features the title track mixed by the legendary Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads), with the remainder of the album in the expert hands of mixologist extraordinaire Harold Burgon, who recorded some of Gary's best known early Gods and Monsters tracks ("Skin the Rabbit" and "Astronomie Domine").

Jerry Harrison is also now regularly playing keyboards in the group, and recently toured with the band on very successful shows in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. A hit record producer (including multiplatinum albums for the band Live) Jerry Harrison is currently producing their followup album in NYC.

Gods and Monsters has been Lucas' baby since 1989, and has featured such luminaries as Jeff Buckley and Matthew Sweet. In Gods and Monsters, Lucas' exceptional songwriting talents get a thorough workout, and with the help of Ernie, Billy, Jerry, Jason and Joe, Gary Lucas' Gods and Monsters becomes an all-out jam, blowing the roof off of virtually every show they play.
Gods and Monsters (l-r: Gary Lucas, Ernie Brooks, Billy Ficca), NYC, 10/04, photo by Dave Bias
Gary Lucas put the first version of Gods and Monsters together in 1989, as an all-instrumental aggregation, making their debut at the Welcome Back to Brooklyn Festival.

Envisioning a loose collective of instrumental (and later vocal) provocateurs along the lines of groups such as Material and The Golden Palominos, Lucas' band of merry men took their name from a line of dialogue from the 1932 horror film classic "The Bride of Frankenstein" (Ernest Thesiger toasts Colin Clive: "To a new world of GODS AND MONSTERS!" -- a line that was sampled and played during these early shows).
The group then featured two bassists, Paul Now and Jared Nickerson, and drum ace Tony "Thunder" Smith (Jeff Beck, Lou Reed, Nina Hagen).

Realizing that despite the positive response he received he would need to develop his songwriting in order to expand his audience beyond the rock/jazz/experimental instrumental crowd, Lucas began writing his own twisted brand of art-pop songs and bringing in male and female singers (and even a rapper and scratcher!) to augment his live shows.

The results can be heard on his last two albums for Enemy Records, 1992's Gods and Monsters ("4 stars," Rolling Stone) and 1994's Bad Boys of the Arctic ("Lucas reinvents Led Zeppelin III," Guitar Player).

Among the talented members who have passed through the ranks of Gods and Monsters are singers Rolo McGinty (Woodentops), Matthew Sweet, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Dina Emerson, Richard Barone (The Bongos) Jeff Buckley, and longtime drummer Jonathan Kane.

The title song of Buckley's album "Grace" and the first track "Mojo Pin" were both co-written by Gary Lucas who also played on the tracks. Both were originally in the Gods and Monsters songbook of 1991-92. "Grace" was recently named the #1 Modern Classic Album in MOJO magazine, over albums by U2, Radiohead, and others.