Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes: Monster Rally, Stuntin’ For the Summer

Douglas Martin’s favorite monster is Mumm-Ra. Unless you live around the corner from me in Seattle– where highs have been in the upper-50’s all week and I saw a girl justifiably wearing...
By    June 6, 2011

Douglas Martin’s favorite monster is Mumm-Ra.

Unless you live around the corner from me in Seattle– where highs have been in the upper-50’s all week and I saw a girl justifiably wearing a hooded parka yesterday– summer is right around the corner. Which means baseball day games, watermelon wheat beer (trust me, it’s delicious), and cutoff shorts and Toms shoes on every single hipster, regardless of gender. Being as though tropical / psych sample king Monster Rally drops summer jams year-round, even in the dead of winter, it’s a no-brainer that he’d rise to the occasion once the car windows are rolled down and the flesh is exposed.

The Deep Sea EP springs in a number of the many directions explored on this year’s Coral full-length. Opener “Siberian Girls” and closer “Surf Erie” has the same calypso saunter that made his first few EP’s so irresistible, with the former marked by an underwater ambient vibe that floated through the undercurrent of the early work of Ducktails. “Chaska Beach,” named after where Grandma Monster Rally’s vacation home sits, starts off with a twinkling loop and light, Madlib-influenced drums (dream-hop, perhaps?) and finishes with a multi-rhythmic jam that will make you not feel bad about hitting the dance floor holding a drink with an umbrella in it. “The New Optimism” is a new look for Monster Rally, as it combines big band swing with hip-hop swagger, serving as the spike that’ll give your rooftop party that extra kick. Monster Rally is the one act you can depend on to deliver the perfect summertime mixture. Something chill, but please hold the waves.

Deep Sea is ””>available now through Gold Robot on pink opaque seven-inch vinyl, with the cover hand screened by Monster Rally himself, in a limited run of 300 copies.

Download:
MP3: Monster Rally-“The New Optimism”

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