Austin Sound

Monument to No One’s self-titled debut features, at first glance, an interestingly out-of-place thank you: “The Pittsburgh Steelers”. That thank you screamed “Danger – or at least nu-metal – ahead!” After all, other than Kid Rock and other meat-rock of a similar ilk, what musician thanks a sports team? Maybe a baseball team, if you’re Yo La Tengo. But a football team? Seems like a fair warning for an upcoming 311 rip off album, right? Even all those guys and girls in all those hip Canadian rock collectives never thanked the Montreal Canadiens! Yet somehow, Monument to No One avoided driving headfirst into huge jock jam craters in the road and came up with nine surprisingly good first-try tracks.

Football accolades aside, the band proves to be a serviceable, solid alternative rock band. Monument to No One have just enough crunching riffs, off kilter solos, and bombastic drums to sound familiar to anyone who has turned on the radio over the past decade. Eli Slate and Steve Anderson’s guitars are fuzzier and almost as heavy as a thick slab of moldy Texas toast. Across the album, on songs like the opener “Planetary” and “Blasting Sound”, a wall of swirling guitars move from shoegazing crescendos into pumping alt-rock anthems. Slate and his bandmates create something between Sparta (the post-At The Drive In band that actually wrote songs!) and Dischord alumni such as Jawbox — the tunes chug along, definitely driven by those guitars, with Slate alternating between ferocious yelping and seemingly introspective singing. Unfortunately, when the band slows down a bit – on a song like “Hindsight” – it’s hard not to hear more Sparta than originality, though it’s hardly uncommon for a young band to display its influences prominently.

All in all, Monument to No One’s guitar rock definitely shares a commonality with The Steelers; workman-like, bruising, and – in this season’s edition – not quite a champion, not quite consistent enough, but a sleeper with potential. Neither the team nor the band is incredibly innovative, but there’s a certain comfort in knowing that they’re going to grind it out. Truth is, there’s probably a lot of good music to come from Monument to No One.

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