Old Monk’s Brand of Pleasant Craziness… Or Maybe Crazy Pleasantness

Old Monk are a Brooklyn trio who are a big fan of video games, “Shit”ty bands, and henges.  They released their first album, Birds of Belize, last year and...

Old Monk are a Brooklyn trio who are a big fan of video games, “Shit”ty bands, and henges.  They released their first album, Birds of Belize, last year and they’ve released two singles this year, “Seymour” and “Fowl and Foe.”  They write pop songs that are enjoyably sloppy and playfully noisy… They often sound on the verge of exploding in a very sunny kind of riot.  They’re reminiscent of the early-mid ‘90s, when the popular and subversive found themselves side-by-side in the same acts that actually got some decent airplay.  I recently caught up with Old Monk, who are a band of few words, who told me about just what excites them and just what you can expect of them in the near future.

[youtube http://youtu.be/foVqe248d_c]

Izzy Cihak: What have been the highlights of 2013 for Old Monk?

Old Monk: We’ve had a very busy, but exciting, year playing lots of shows and making music videos that look like crappy video games. Also, playing video games. That’s fun too.  And we have much more good stuff to come!  Also, Ian shaved his beard once.  That was crazy.

IC: Since you’re based out of Brooklyn, I have to ask if you have any favorite local peers?  So many great bands have come out of Brooklyn (or come to Brooklyn) in recent years.

OM: We love Brooklyn! And we are lucky to play with some great bands here. We share a practice space with an amazing band called Vulture Shit.  They scream about their dads and knives and molesting computers. It’s great.  Also Violent Bullshit is cool. We like shit bands.  But we also like shitless bands, like Tropical Ooze, Landlady, Plates of Cake, Low Fat Getting High, Beasty… so many good ones!

IC: What would you consider to be Old Monk’s biggest non-musical influences?

OM: Scotch and wizards.

IC: What are your plans for the rest of the year?  Any chance of a full-scale tour or any additional releases?

OM: We’re doing a few more singles and music videos and then a full album to follow. We’re playing tons of northeast shows for now, but we’ll do a longer tour when the record comes out.  We’re hoping to get some henges for the tour as well. Big stone ones.

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Band Interviews

During the day Izzy Cihak teaches transgression, subversion, and revolution at Temple University. At night he haunts Philthy's best venues to cover worthwhile acts for Philthy Mag. Morrissey is everything to him and, in their own heads, all of his friends see themselves as Zooey Deschanel.

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