Monomyth

Monomyth is a crown jewel in the court of the crimson and clover. The Halifax four-piece carries on the hallowed East Coast tradition of janglophile pop with a smirking sense of humor, stadium-sized hooks and starry-eyed harmonies from the barbershop of broken dreams. 
The Monomyth monarchy is made up of twin tone guitarists Josh Salter and Seamus Dalton, stately bassist Graeme Stewart and soft touch drummer Matt Peters, with the frontline swapping songwriting duties and turns at the mic. In the tightly knit Halifax kingdom, their faces can also be seen in beloved local bands like Nap Eyes, Moon and Psychic Fair, plus previous projects including Bird World and Quivers. These dizzying rotations have resulted in an all-star sovereignty with a princely pop pedigree, ruling with a velvet glove and ready to conquer the next realm. 
Following a pair of self-released cassettes and a two-song quick hitter for tape label Craft Singles, Saturnalia Regalia! heralds their triumphant LP debut. Though there’s a clear sonic lineage with the holy Halifax trinity of Sloan, Thrush Hermit and the Super Friendz (whose bassist Charles Austin assisted in this album’s production), Monomyth also invokes the amber-encased Americana of Big Star, pranksterish pop moves of The dB’s and The Soft Boys, Television’s tangled guitarmonies, MBV’s tremolo-gaze, and the radiant ramble of Relatively Clean Rivers. 
That may sound like a vast range of sonic touch-points, but the band’s three-piece throne prefers to explore all corners of their catholic tastes. 
“[T]he songs were written independent of each other, so [the album] doesn’t have a theme running through it—[not] intentionally, anyway,” says Dalton. “It’s all guitar, bass and drums, but having three songwriters adds some ups and downs. The many moods of Monomyth...” 
Musically, these songs run the stylistic gamut from an airy, Monkees-inspired intro (“Theme from Monomyth”) to a stormy shoegazing centerpiece (“Downer”), with the band’s trademark vocal harmonies weaving through live staple “Pac Ambition” and the extended finale of “The Big Reveal.” Moments of prettiness and placid calm are broken up with jarring shards of feedback and off-kilter shredding, stirred on by a final spiritual inspiration, The Replacements. “I think it’s fun to throw a wrench in the gears just to see what happens,” says Salter. “It’s important to make pop music that’s a little fucked up because otherwise it’s just pop music.”