Mille Monarques
Montréal, Quebec, Canada | INDIE
Music
Press
Sounds Like: what should be played on a night drive through a foreign city.
This band doesn’t have an album out, they don’t sing in English, and the little information that is available about Mille Monarques is in French. But they’re from Montreal and, more importantly, they’re exceptionally talented. Mille Monarques (Thousand Monarchs) have an uncanny ability to take a song that could have been very boring and reworking it to the point where it has a distinct quirkiness to it. They have an EP slated for release sometime this March in Quebec, but unless a label picks them up soon it may be awhile before anything is released in the U.S.
Why they don’t suck: Mille Monarques doesn’t push the boundary so far that it feels weird but they stay creative enough to make you take notice. And although I have no idea what they’re saying, the lead singer’s voice works well with the band’s style of play. - www.soundsuck.com
C'est quoi?
C'est le premier album du groupe Mille monarques, qui nous sert neuf chansons pratiquement épiques.
On pense aux papillons ou aux rois?
On pense plutôt à des nuées de sons qu'à de papillons, à une armée de guitaristes plutôt qu'aux rois. MM est assez difficile à définir, à part pour le mot rock. Musicalement, j'ai souvent pensé aux groupes de la fin des années 80 et du début des années 90 qui avaient The avant leurs noms (The Church, The Smiths, The Cure), mais avec une réalisation moderne. Malgré cette impression, on peut apposer aux compositions presque toutes les épithètes définissant le rock depuis 40 ans, à quelques exceptions près. Les chansons prennent le temps de s'installer, construites en crescendo, avec des choeurs fort réussis et une instrumentation presque excessive par moments.
Royalement bon ou un cas de guillotine?
Même si je trouve que L'immense l'arme et L'engin de mort, les deux premiers extraits, sont encore les meilleures pièces, le reste de l'album est solide. J'aurais aimé qu'Annie chante plus d'une chanson (Rouge, qui me fait penser aux Rita Mitsouko avec plus de testostérone), mais je classe Mille monarques parmi les meilleurs albums rock francophones de l'année. - Bandeapart.fm
http://www.coopfauxmonnayeurs.com/artists/view/mille_monarques - Coop Faux-Monnayeurs
Discography
Mille Monarques - EP (2008)
Mille Monarques - Mille Monarques (2009)
Photos
Bio
Montreal foursome Mille Monarques is set to launch its first CD on August 18, 2009. For 3 years now, band members have tested songs on live audiences and each other. This debut CD is a compilation of their most authentic work to date, with eight songs and one instrumental track that perfectly capture the band’s musical range. Blending rough-edged wall-of-sound stoner rock with crystalline melodies that draw on new wave/post punk influences, this album finds Mille Monarques’ music buoyed by arrangements in which finesse mingles with grime and power with subtlety.
What sets Mille Monarques apart from other bands coming up on the Montreal scene is their treatment of the French language. Far from poetic cliché, Mille Monarques’ lyrics are naturalistic, symbolic, mystical, surreal and epic. They explore the elements of earth, water, wind and fire through striking animal and organic metaphors, diving into darkness to draw out light and creating “song tattoos” that etch themselves into the mind.
Mille Monarques’ distinctive tonal colours have grown out of the evolution in sound developed in recent years by a number of internationally-recognized Montreal artists and bands. True to the band’s attitude and energy, every Mille Monarques song is a ticking time bomb. And since commercial independence has allowed the band to produce this CD without a shred of compromise, its first opus is proof of the principle that all good things deserve to end with a big bang.
While Mathieu Denoncourt lends his voice to most tracks, he makes way for keyboardist Annie Rousseau on Rouge, a love song with lyrics as cold as passion is hot. The CD opens in zero-gravity with a reflection on breathing, Miroir, and takes flight with the enigmatically titled C17H21NO14 (the chemical formula for an illicit substance). Also included are new and improved versions of two cuts from Mille Monarques’ first EP, l’Immense, l’Arme and Engin de mort. Fans of Mille Monarques live performances will be glad to see Cœur-Volant and Mélodie sous terre on the playlist. And wrapping things up is Une attak de Chat, Une attak de Chat, Une attak de Chat, an instrumental odyssey in the vein of 21st century progressive rock, featuring We Are Wolves drummer Antonin Marquis.
The members of Mille Monarques (Mathieu Denoncourt, voice and bass; Simon Quévillon, guitar; Annie Rousseau, keyboards and voice; and Mathieu Vézio, who also plays with bands Feathership and L’indice, drums) all contribute to Montreal’s music and art scene at many levels.
Mille Monarques has opened for Malajube and Karkwa. The band has also participated in musical events such as Francouvertes 2008 (winning the “Festival de musique émergente de Rouyn-Noranda” prize), Montreal’s Francofolies (2008), Pop Montreal (2008) and Mini-M for Montreal (2008), and the 2009 edition of Toronto’s North by North East. In addition to regular appearances in Montreal clubs, Mille Monarques has toured Québec (Alma, Tadoussac, Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec City…). A series of new concert dates will follow the release of the CD in September 2009.
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