Mar 01, 2023
By Caleb Campbell
Photography by Lydia Brewer
Seattle-based quintet PR for Monsters occupies a unique position, pulling from a nexus of weird and wild soundscapes including ‘70s funk, prog rock, psych rock, and blues. The band debuted last year with their single, “The Land of No Kings,” and they returned this year with another new track, “ASMEMA,” teasing their forthcoming debut EP. That record is out this month on March 17th, but ahead of the release the band have shared a listen to one of the EP’s highlights, “Le Donk,” premiering with Under the Radar.
As the band explains, “Le Donk” had one of the record’s most effortless writing processes, emerging quickly and easily as the band’s creative chemistry coalesced. It opens with an oscillating synth line before diving into the muscular guitar riff that forms the track’s backbone. The free-wheeling guitar work and propulsive riffs initially lean in the direction of vintage arena rock, but the band also layers in some idiosyncratic synth textures and free-wheeling soloing, leaving the track with an equal footing in the world of psych rock. That willingness to color outside of the lines, coupled with the band’s explosive performances, makes “Le Donk” a wild ride from beginning to end.
The band explains of the track’s origins, “‘Le Donk’ only spent about thirty minutes in utero before being born, fully formed. This blew our minds. We were just coming together as a band, and we’d had already been struggling with communicating and forming creative consensus for months. ‘Le Donk’ showed us what we could create—and quickly—if we left our egos at home and just let the emergent entity called ‘band’ do its thing. Anyway, there’s a goofy preset on my Sequential Pro 3 called “Le Donk”, that pitchwise oscillating synth sound you hear, and we combined that with a riff James and Greg were playing with the previous day. EZPZ.”
Check out the song below. The PR for Monsters EP is due out everywhere on March 17th.