Review: Monitor and the Merrimac - Grandma's Old Couch
Posted on 6 April 2008 | 2 Comments
David Grazynski is a guy who (with the help of his friends) makes music as Monitor and the Merrimac and (though it might sound so) he ain’t a bearded mountain man from the hills of West Virginia. Based around his banjo playing and warbly drawl and augmented with percussion, harmonica, pedal steel, and other assorted instrumentation, Grazynski’s debut album Grandma’s Old Couch builds on traditional folk and old-timey roots music to become something all his own. Imagine Modest Mouse meets Woody Guthrie (but with banjos) and you might be close.
I don’t know where the stories told in the songs of Monitor and the Merrimac came from or where they are going, but they are both striking and easily enjoyable. Grandma’s Old Couch isn’t truly lo-fi but it sounds a bit tattered and timeless; it sounds like a new spin on something old. It’s a recipe mixing something bluegrassish with a little straight-up folk-rock music.
When I was a kid we used to visit a little cabin up in Wisconsin’s Northwoods. There was no indoor plumbing and only a wood burning stove to heat the place. We’d play cards late into the night and listen to the sounds of the FM radio static and the crickets. Grandma’s Old Couch wouldn’t have sounded out of place up there.
MP3 | Monitor And The Merrimac – Grandma’s Old Couch Grandma’s Old Couch
MP3 | Monitor And The Merrimac – Sally, Where’d You Get Your Liquor From Grandma’s Old Couch
Filed Under: Album Reviews, Americana, Folk
Comments
Maybe you can say that people like this are just pale imitations of stuff that was done better and more authentically years ago.
I don’t know though – I really like this music and whether it’s a retread or entirely original just doesn’t seem to matter.