Send "Monster Movie " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 This year marks the tenth anniversary of the formation of British-based duo Monster Movie. In recognition of that milestone, Monster Movie masterminds Christian Savill and Sean Hewson have seen fit to celebrate (so to speak) the occasion by releasing Everyone Is a Ghost, ten tracks of consistently melancholy indie-synthpop. Which is kind of the band’s deal, to be fair, but don’t you think they’d at least be a bit more upbeat about it this time around? Well, a quick glance at the duo’s latest press photos will reveal inklings of muted contentment, and even a smile or two. If anything, it’s an indication that they are pleased that after all these years they’ve carved themselves a comfortable niche in the rather specialist field of “synthy indie pop for miserablists”.If you are new to the Monster Movie oeuvre yet are a fan of Christian Savill’s previous band Slowdive, don’t expect shoegaze-style swirling guitar tones here—the closest Everyone Is a Ghost gets to that sound is via “Silver Knife” and the grinding noise pop distortion of “Bored Beyond Oblivion”. No, Monster Movie is all about electronic pop (or, more specifically, an indie rocker’s vision of what that should be), meaning that Everyone Is a Ghost is quixotically fixated on bridging the gap between ‘80s synthpop and late ‘60/early ’70 Bee Gees records. Despite the liberal intermingling of keyboards and acoustic sounds throughout the record, the band doesn’t really try to mesh the two ends of the spectrum together on each song, instead tilting towards a given extreme depending on the track. This either/or approach means that on the title cut and especially “Fall”, the stark, piercing synth tones recall Pet Shop Boys at their most pensive, while the acoustic-backed harmonies of “How the Dead Live” would slot in solidly into the discography of the Brothers Gibb. At its most integrated, Everyone Is a Ghost invokes the early work of The The, a third-tier cult synthpop group that all too often diluted its melodic punch with post-punk ponderousness....full text |
| Groupee |
| Brit shoegaze-pop duo Monster Movie's latest album Everyone is a Ghost, will be in-stores this March, complete with ten of the band's synth-dusted, atmospheric pop tunes, plus cool, distinctive artwork from Rhode Island illustrator/musician William Schaff. We chatted with Monster Movie's Sean Hewson and Christian Savill to find out how their process went, as well as just what kind of monster movies they'd pay good money to see, since, given their band name, they must be monster movie experts - right? Q: So what exactly is the origin of your band name? Sean: We stole it from Can. Neither of us owns the album, though we own some of their other albums. There's no real reason for that. We wanted to call ourselves B-Movie but that had already been done, I guess - so we just went through Julian Cope's Krautrocksampler until we found something else. Q: As far as actual 'monster movies' go, do you prefer the old-school variety, like Frankenstein, Godzilla, or Claude Rains' Invisible Man... or the newer movies, such as Scream, Cloverfield, etc.? Christian: I like the old movie monsters, the B-movie kind, mainly because I don't think I've seen any modern monsters. I like to see massive spiders or lobsters or something like that. One of my favorite monsters was the Chewits monster from the UK adverts. The Stay Puft marshmallow man (Ghostbusters) was pretty cool. Does he qualify? Sean: Cloverfield was good. But the important part in any monster/horror movie is the reveal - when they actually show you what everyone is scared of, is it genuinely scary or just silly? Sometimes it's better to not do the reveal at all - like in The Blair Witch Project....full text |
| Washingtoncitypaper |
| Guitarist Christian Savill could have stopped making music after Souvlaki—the seminal 1993 Slowdive album that along with My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless and Ride’s Nowhere makes up the holy trinity of shoegazer albums—and still earned a spot in the dream-pop hall of fame. Savill left Slowdive in 1995 during the recording of Pygmalion, essentially a self-indulgent ambient-electronica project for bandleader Neil Halstead, but thankfully, he didn’t remain silent, at least for too long. In 2000, Savill reacquainted himself with Sean Hewson, a member of his pre-Slowdive outfit Eternal, and the two formed Monster Movie. Since then, the duo has been productive if unhurried, recording four full-lengths and an EP, even as a new generation of ’gazers, from Beach House to the xx, has garnered attention that has, for the most part, eluded Monster Movie. In a just world, the group’s excellent new album, Everyone Is a Ghost, would correct that. No longer should Monster Movie be runner-up behind Spoon in the popularity contest among bands with names inspired by Can: With Everyone Is a Ghost, Monster Movie proves why its members should be lauded as elder statesmen of ethereal downer-pop. Which might be a paradox, since the album’s key innovation over Monster Movie’s past releases is enthusiasm. Some credit must go to label owner and Black Moth Super Rainbow member Ryan Graveface, who plays and sings on the release. The songs crackle with vitality, which is only slightly odd for an album that is plainly obsessed with death. Consider “How the Dead Live,” with its softly strummed acoustic guitar and angelic synths, amid which the band sweetly sings of a town where the “people around here are always sad and lonely” and the houses are “always cold inside.” Or take the title track’s narcotized beats and whoosh-y synths, and this grim yet hopeful observation: “There is no heaven/There are just stars/That I try to catch as they fall past.” Just don’t be discouraged by the bleak vibes: As with all classic downer albums, Everyone Is a Ghost’s brilliant hooks and golden sounds dissipate the gloomy clouds like a strict regimen of Paxil. Of course, nothing turns a frown upside down like unintentionally comedic lyrics: “Bored Beyond Oblivion” features, in addition to a compellingly motorik beat, lyrics that could be a parody of teen ennui but that listeners may take on face value: “Outside of the strip mall, I feel confused.” (I know, right? Should I get a Subway footlong before or after I grab a pack of AAAs from Radio Shack?) Ultimately, Monster Movie has made a beautiful record, if an intermittently cheerless and vacuous one that no one will confuse for the most original album of the year—“Down, Down, Down” sounds like Grandaddy or the Flaming Lips, while “How the Dead Live” could easily pass for something by Richard Davies. Of course, all those musicians probably stole a bit from Slowdive in the first place, anyway....full text |
Monster Movie lyrics
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