Monsters of Folk: It's Alive!

While Rock Turtleneck’s dream of a Gen-Y Fleetwood Mac (see Monday’s post) probably isn’t going to happen anytime soon, an indie rock version of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young is already up and running.

Monsters of Folk is an all-star group of non-stars (none are household names) who are big names indie rock: Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, and Matt “M” Ward of She & Him and solo fame.

Like CSN&Y, MoF have recorded and toured together in various combinations on many projects. The question is do they, like CSN&Y, add up to more than the sum of their parts? (I should say that CSN adds up to more than the sum of their parts. The Y, Neil Young is more by himself than CSN&Y put together.)


In the spirit of The Band at Big Pink, the four Monsters of Folk swapped instruments and shared writing, singing and production duties at Oberst's Omaha home studio to ensure a group feel rather than a collection of solo tracks.

Their eponymous debut was released yesterday. I haven’t heard the entire album but I’m enjoying the lead single “Say Please” a great deal.


Monsters of Folk are spending the fall on the road, in what is sure to be one of the concerts of the season. As stated on the band’s website, the show will be "a 2 1/2 hour musical event showcasing brand new songs from the forthcoming album as well as songs fans have come to enjoy from their respective Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket and M Ward catalogues.” Count the RT in.

As MoF’s live version of Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” from a few years back demonstrates, there are sure to be some interesting surprises as well.