Portland indie rockers Rare Monk is back with a blazing, angst-driven single “Plasticine. Era”. Armed with Johnny Marr guitar accents and a hook that’s tough to shake, the track is an infectious and beautifully frenetic ride from start to finish. The band’s latest EP, Coronation, is out now.
“The songs that ended up on the “Coronation” EP were written at the end of 2019, right before COVID hit the US and the political situation was coming to a head. Peak uncertainty. Nobody knew quite what was to come but it felt like it would probably be calamitous, and that vibe crystallized in these songs. Revisiting these songs after hiatus, it’s almost more interesting than at the time they were originally written. The uncertainty and problems aren’t gone, we’ve just acclimated to them.”Coronation” was recorded, mixed, and produced by Cameron Spies (Radiation City, Night Heron) at The Trash Treasury in Portland, Oregon during the summer of 2022. It was mastered by Mike Nolte (of Montreal, STRFKR),” says the band.
“Plasticene Era” was written during the really unsettling times of the pandemic where every day the news would be worse than the day before. It’s about watching all the cracks in society/economy widen and the feeling that we’re going to wipe ourselves out like the dinosaurs (the Pleistocene era) and should make a better world from the ruins (like play-doh aka plasticine clay), says singer Dorian Aites
