From Monument to Masses

MySpace ("Sharpshooter," "Comrades and Friends")
Official site
Hometown: San Francisco
Next local show: 4/20, Bottom of the Hill
Upcoming release: TBD, 2007

"Like an open-mouthed kiss from God" is how a friend once described the experience of seeing From Monument to Masses live. Not having ever made out with God, it's hard for us corroborate that statement. But it's even harder to dismiss it; From Monument to Masses are unequivocally incredibly fucking awesome. (more >>)

The backbone of FMTM's musical style is a compromise between the tranquil beauty of instrumental post-rock and the rhythmic energy of post-punk. This underpinning sound is composed of layered guitar lines (sometimes as many as five at once), relentlessly shifting drums, and warm, lively bass. Branching from here are excursions into dub, hardcore, world, and electronic. The variety never exists for variety's sake, but rather to serve the purpose of the song. At the beginning of "Sparpshooter," for example (the first song on the band's breakthrough, and to date only, full-length, The Impossible Leap in 100 Simple Steps), the trio downshifts from brash, chugging post-hardcore to intricate, hypnotic instrumental rock in order to represent the shock and solemnity of the events of 9/11.

This leads to the other primary element of From Monument to Masses: political and social awareness. All three members -- Matthew Solberg (guitar), Sergio Robledo-Maderazo (bass, synth, samples), and Francis Chuong (drums, synth, programming) -- are passionate about and actively involved in political activism and social change on various fronts. The band's name reveals its central philosophy, which played as much of a role as music in bringing the members together in the first place: a conviction that power must be transfered away from figureheads and toward the people. It's a revolutionary message that, despite the band's success, Matt, Sergio, and Francis refuse to back away from.

This also explains the motivation behind the band's decision to weave sound bytes of a political and social nature -- culled from a wide variety of sources including news broadcasts, the movie Dr. Strangelove, and speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr., George Bush, and Noam Chomsky -- into almost every one of its songs. The samples are not scattershot, but grouped and ordered thematically within and between songs. This approach cements the relationship between From Monument to Masses' progressive politics and progressive music.

But the real test, the real proof of this band's success, is that it makes some of the most beautiful and powerful music you will ever hear.

AND WE'RE NOT KIDDING ABOUT THAT
-The group came together in 2001 in Oakland, signing with Los Angeles' Dim Mak Records shortly thereafter -- right around the time it played its first official gig.
-FMTM's debut release came in 2002, a five-track album on Dim Mak that's now out of print.
-Its third and latest release was called Schools of Thought Contend, a collaboration in which the band invited other artists to remix a number of its songs. Participants include Thunderbirds Are Now!, Loquat, and Amundsen. The 15-track CD also features two new FMTM songs.
-In October of 2006, drummer Francis Chuong moved to New York City, but the band avowed to continue working as a bicoastal project. A new record and extensive touring are promised in late 2007.