Well, I guess it's been ten years now since Scott and I started jamming surf songs in my parents' garage. We quickly discovered the intense energy that results from combining tremolo-picked reverb-drenched guitar, minor triads, and a hundred dance-hungry kids packed into small all-ages venues. Thus was Monsters From Mars born.
The band started to get way more popular, first when Amanda joined, and even more so when Paul, Anastasia, and Kyle joined, mostly because they had a lot more friends than we did. We knew Paul because he had signed our website's "guestbook" (yes, the band is that old).
I ended up going to college in Santa Cruz while the rest of the band stayed in San Diego. So while school was in session the band would drive up and we'd do quick weekend bay-area "tours" and during breaks we'd pack in SoCal shows. Besides Tijuana we never really made it outside of California. Nonetheless we played with some of our favorite musicians, and it never got stale.
Though we (home-)recorded four or five releases, Monsters From Mars has always been first and foremost about the live aspect of the music. We never put on the same show twice. If people didn't stop dancing, we didn't stop playing. Kyle would put on skits, Scott would set up the light show, I would black out from jumping around too much, and Paul would do ridiculous/awesome drum solos.
We experienced that sweet spot in the history of the internet — during the downfall of major labels but before the rise of the blogosphere hype machine, during the brief moment when social networking changed the rules of the game. Tic Tac Totally put out our 7" (their first one) just based on hearing us online (but shortly thereafter stole ~$600 from us).
Right now the band is in a weird state. I've been spending a lot of time in Iceland, and focussing on my new project Just Another Snake Cult. The rest of the gang kept it going, for a bit, but without me as the driving force it has tapered out. Scott, Paul, and Kyle have a new garage band called Dreamboat. BUT – this is NOT an obituary.
Last winter while I was on tour in San Diego, Scott, Paul, and I did an impromptu Monsters From Mars performance and it felt great. Paul's been working on new songs, and I'm going to work on new ones as well. We're going to collaborate on the recordings over the internet. I'll be back in town as some point and we will tear the house down.
Lots of love,
Thor (April 15, 2011)
Band Member History
Thor - lead guitar, some singing, recording (2001-?)
Scott - bass, theremin, sax, visuals (2001-present)
Charles - drums (2001-2002)
Amanda - Farfisa organ (2002-2004)
Paul - drums (including three bass drums) (2002-present)
Anastasia - Farfisa organ (2004-2007)
Kyle (Bob Stencil) - Token minor internet celebrity, MC (200?-?)
Bianca - Farfisa organ, synths (2007-?)
Alex - rhythm guitar, synths (2007-?)
Contact
Scott (booking, orders): scott william jones at gmail dot com
Thor (fan mail, awards): thor at bandwidthbeta dot com
