Sputnik Monroe

ALBUM: Sputnik Monroe - We're Doomed
Defined, I assume, by themselves, Sputnik Monroe are allegedly a "electronic electric rock band". I feel somewhat awkward typing such words, as there is little evidence suggesting anything close to such title in their music. However, here I am, sitting at the laptop, dreary eyed, eagerly listening intently to each track repeatedly, despite being the only one in the silent household awake.

I've been proved wrong. Once again. 'Standing in Rank' is a mixed up, scatterbrained monster of a track, sounding like The Cooper Temple Clause fed through a disjointed synthesiser. Yelpy vocals and apocalyptic space riffs combine to make a rousing attack of intense musical mastermind, with layers upon layers of tantalizingly precise epic-prog rock.

'Ocean' lives up to expectations, sounding like an alt-rock frenzy preparing for angular war. Filled with instruments battling each other in ultimately clashing harmony, and alarming fret-work, Sputnik Monroe have mastered the art of creating a wholly anthemic, yet spiky sound.
As chords and drums clash and bang, contagious energetic twists and turns dotted in each song come alive, in a way that almost predicts a long and successful future for this criminally under-hyped group. Inventive, yet deadly rhythms set the music alight, creating a raucous yet beautifully mysterious edge to the band's distinctive edge.

Enigmatically entrancing, Sputnik Monroe have defined themselves and their unforgettable sound in a way that many current bands could only dream of. Exciting to the point of the unbelievable, this band are mind-blowingly awesome. Whatever you do, don't ever forget them. As if that was possible.

Olivia Jaremi
Posted by Neon Buzz at 01:38
Labels: Album - Neon Buzz

Artist Spotlight

Liz Ohanesian, Mirror Contributing Writer Sputnik Monroe
On Thursday, April 17, the tightly packed crowd at Mar Vista club The Good Hurt waited in anticipation for Sputnik Monroe. For five years, the band, whose members hail from Santa Monica, Culver City, and Marina del Rey, has been making waves across the Westside and beyond utilizing vintage keyboards, computers, and violins in addition to the usual guitar-bass-drum combination. And at just after 11 p.m., when the band took to the stage, the sound it emitted was almost too large for the tiny club, a dense onslaught of music that stirred onlookers.
"It's really a hodgepodge," says Kevin Netzley, singer and keyboardist of Sputnik Monroe, of the band's sound. "Spacey rock is kind of the best but doesn't really explain what we do. There are a lot of noises, a lot of sounds, but not in an ambient band kind of way."

He adds, "We definitely have melodies and movements to our music. We try to bring in a lot of different sounds."

No matter how one chooses to describe Sputnik Monroe, the band still produces an intricate, blissful sound that crosses generational lines.

"It's easy for us to peg people's generations or what they do by what they say to us afterwards," says Netzley. "Someone younger will tell us that we sound like [experimental rock band] Deerhunter and someone older will tell us that they are reminded of Pink Floyd. I think it's because we do incorporate, cull from so many influences."

The show at The Good Hurt was the launch pad for Sputnik Monroe's nine-day, seven-show Southwest tour, which would take the members to Austin and back. It was also a celebration for the band's latest EP We're Doomed, the follow up to the 2006 debut album Wake the Sleeping Giant.

In 2006, when Sputnik Monroe decided to record its debut album, the band traveled to Seattle with enough savings to create an 11-day recording budget to produce 10 songs. With just enough time to lay down a song a day, Wake the Sleeping Giant sounded "as good as it possibly could," Netzley explains.

"Two years later, after we finally felt like we toured and sold enough to warrant letting go of [the album], we did the exact opposite," says Netzley This time around, the band members stayed local, found a friend who could engineer the recording sessions, and took their time.

"We spent a month and a half doing five tunes," Netzley says of the recording process.

Sputnik Monroe plans to return to the studio later this year to record another short collection of songs.

"This EP is purposely a part one," says Netzley. "Hopefully, six months down the road, we'll put out part two and we'll hopefully be fresh and not have to play the same tunes two years later."

We're Doomed is available at selected independent and online music retailers. Go to sputnikmonroe.com for more details. - Santa Monica Mirror

Sputnik Monroe - "We're Doomed"
By Jonny Havoc [Rated 9x]

Sputnik Monroe - "We're Doomed"

The Great Depression Celebration Part 1

I remember seeing Sputnik Monroe about 4 or 5 years ago at the Sante Fe Cafe in Fullerton CA and have loved them ever since. They are a Indie Experimental band from LA. They most defiantly on this cd are more experimental than indie. Its just a specie cd, could be a sound tract to sweet indie film.
The artwork on the cd and on the cover has a very cool feel to it, almost Alice in Wonderland-ish and the whole style of the art and way its all put together has its own style and one of the best i've seen. (if your in a band takes notes and check them out)
Doomed Chapters
1 The Chamberlin
2A Portamento
2B Nicola,I miss the Barn
3 Standing In Rank
4A Ocean
4B Le Cirque Du Brutt
4C Time
5 Everyone Is Looking Elsewhere - Big Smile Magazine

Sputnik Monroe Think The Sky Is Falling!



Sputnik Monroe jumped onto my radar back in ….ole I'll say 2004 with their 4 song debut EP. At the time they were from California and were friends with several other bands that I really enjoyed. They were a bit raw, but oozed talent and potential. They sounded like a perfect stop-gap between At The Drive In and the Mars Volta at the time. By the time 2005 rolled around and they finished their first album, Wake The Sleeping Giant, they were a well oiled machine and for an independently released album, it was phenomenal. It was sharp, witty, and devoid of pretention. I just assumed their brilliance would get noticed by many, but that never materialized.



Fast-forward to spring of 2008 and I had not heard a peep from their camp in ages, I began thinking they may have called it a day. Thankfully, they had not given up on the dream. They informed me they had moved to New York, and partially completed a very ambitious project called The Great Depression Celebration. The first and completed portion is called, Part One: We're Doomed. Happily, I was privy to it's delightfully bombastic sound right away, thanks to a copy sent my way.



There is still a twinge of the Mars Volta influence apparent, but they have become so much more than that. Now, in a totally un-pompous way, you hear heavy veins of King Crimson, The Grand Silent System, Priestbird, The Dear Hunter, Kaddisfly, and even Fair to Midland. They are a giant amalgam of amazing artists, completely embracing all fashions of experimental elements and melodicism. Really and honestly, this EP is 30 minutes of bliss, and I cannot fathom what they will do on Part Two! - Rabbit Hole Music (Website)

SCR's own Scott Whitt lukewarmly reviewed sputnik Monroe's first effort, Wake the Sleeping Giant, back in 2007. In that review, his major criticisms seemed to be that Sputnik Monroe failed to live up to the experimental fusion of Muse and Mars Volta that they claimed to be. I can't speak knowledgably on the subject, as I'm only a passing Muse fan, am barely interested in Mars Volta, and don't own Wake the Sleeping Giant anyway. All I have to go on is Sputnik Monroe's latest release, We're Doomed.
The term "experimental" is thrown around today so much that it has lost all real meaning. Most bands seem to think all you need is a delay petal and all of the sudden you're Pink Floyd. To me, experimental is John Cage telling his audience that the show is over when the piano eats the bale of hay. Still, I will admit that We're Doomed is sufficiently left of the dial to warrant the label "oddball," at least. Set up as a five-chapter story, with two songs mimicking the multi-movements style of Green Day's "Jesus of Suburbia," We're Doomed is almost everything I ask for these days in a CD: it's short, it's weird, and it's got absolutely no chance of ever being on mainstream radio.
The atmosphere of the album cannot be denied. The air is so thick in these tracks I'm surprised my computer doesn't ooze an oily smoke. It's a fairly dark album, with Kevin Netzley's voice rarely exhibiting anything but a kind of desperate neediness. Still, many of the tracks rise out of the synth-y ambience to exhibit the smoother notes of ska or the revivalist energy of the Polyphonic Spree. The true mark of distinction of We're Doomed, however, is the seamless way that the album progresses. Often, you'll have no idea that you've switched to a new song, and with that in mind, you should view We're Doomed as a thirty-minute, one-song opera.
And that is the only real drawback of the album, if you can call it that. It really is one song played for thirty minutes. Now, it's a very very good song, don't get me wrong, but the album lacks any notable tempo changes, or even real key changes. There is not a lot of up and down in the musical presentation. Rather, you have a sort of continuous slope (is it up or down? Good question...) interspersed with brief rest stops for hamburgers and to use the bathroom. You are in for the long haul, and there is little to be gained by skipping to the end. The damn thing plays like a musical of Camus's The Stranger, ending on approximately the same melancholy note it began on.
Who's going to like We're Doomed? People who stand in the corner and look sad to make friends will like it. Librarians will like it. People who own one (and only one) Legendary Pink Dots Album will like it. People who prefer pencil drawings to watercolors will like it. Do you still believe in the Loch Ness Monster? Then you will probably like it. I like it. (Jef With One F // 08/14/08) - Space City Rock (website)

Sputnik's Wake the Sleeping Giant is by far one of the best releases of 2005 from either a signed or unsigned band. The production, the instrumentation, the intensity, the sweeping melodies-unreal. I am honored to have heard your music before the rest of the world knows your name-and they will. - Skinnie Magazine

I'm always a little shocked when I hear an "indie" band that has a refined sound... let alone a good one. Enter Sputnik Monroe. I caught these guys at Good Hurt a few weeks back and I immediately assumed their tonal qualities must be attributed to the multiple Red Bull and Vodkas. Turns out, after catching them at the Key Club a few days later, these guys legitimately rock.

- G4TV

Their debut album Wake The Sleeping Giant, is a mammoth 10 song, 45 minute ride. It is sonically ambitious and melodicly endearing throughout. Where their long-lost brothers in The Mars Volta try to blow your mind with unintelligable soundscapes and opaque words, Sputnik Monroe draw you in with a sincere brand of working man's progressive rock. They never bore you with 15 minute self indulgent drone fest nor do they stoop down to please all with cookie cutter flavor's of the month. This band has a mission, and one listen to this bold new album should help them get there.
- Decoy Magazine

I'm excited to hear more from this band becuase they have an original sound that's very refreshing. Log on to www.sputnikmonroe.com and find out how to get a copy it's worth well worth it. 10 packed tracks make for a cd that you'll be telling all your friends about. Get it now for cheap or you'll be paying for it later :)
- Artsy Noise