Mon Frere

Mon Frere was an indie rock band from Mountlake Terrace, WA. Mon Frere's dance rock comes off like a musical graphic novel; futuristically poppy and full of brash punk energy, mixing dance, heavy rock and jazz into something else. Formed in a subdivision basement by a trio of high-school outcasts, Mon Frere is the kind of band that makes kids clap-their-hands-say-yah and parents scratch their heads.

Mon Frere stunned the Seattle music scene last year, spewing forth from the suburban lawns of Mountlake Terrace, WA, and transforming from underage unknowns to one of the scene's most exciting draws. Thanks to tastemakers like KEXP DJ John Richards and a rapidly growing fanbase, Mon Frere gained entrance to the hallowed halls of the Northwest's legendary rock clubs, capping their first year as a band with a packed show at Bumbershoot, the Nation's largest annual music festival, and shows with Vendetta Red, Minus The Bear, The Gossip, U.S.E., and Visqueen, to name a few.

Mon Frere's quirky-yet-dark pop sensibility permeates their sound. Frontwoman Nouela Johnston's voice is both buttery and brutal, able to mowing down an advancing army or seduce a ghost. Her playfully fractured synths run circles around Kyle Swisher's fuzzy, dinosaur-sized guitar riffs. Drummer Dustin McGhie provides the underlying head-nodding beat of Mon Frere, replacing original drummer David Haasl and rounding out this bassless wonder.

In 2005, the band released the Real Vampires ep, building a small army of fans by playing All-Ages shows up and down the West Coast. Now, with their first full-length album, Mon Frere shows us what they learned last year with Blood, Sweat & Swords.

Blood, Sweat & Swords makes good on the promise of Real Vampires and takes it 3 steps further with deeper hooks, harder beats and heavier riffs. Both cruel and cartoonish at once, BSS confidently displays the band's range while barely giving the listener a chance to catch their breath. From the video-game-like keyboards of "Y.M.M.W.D.S.B." (You Make Me Wanna Destroy Something Beautiful) to the angry refrain of "Let It Bleed(Teen Wolf)", Blood, Sweat & Swords creates a world of star-crossed lovers, sweet-hearted murderers, idiot savants and strutting zombies.