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Timothy Monger hides nothing. Nothing at all. He wears his influences on his sleeve, is unfazed by his inability to write music that doesn’t take him at least a year to pen and revise, and is completely honest that, if he could, he’d take a million-dollar studio and a hundred-piece orchestra over the low-fi eight track recording process any day. That kind of honesty, precision and grand vision come through clearly in his music. When his independently released solo album, Summer Cherry Ghosts, came up for group review at the office, we tossed it on the CD player without any expectations. But when this crew of smart-ass, beer-drunk music writers heard the strings and harmonies on the opening track, “Cleveland Heights,” something in the room changed. “Wait, who is this guy?” somebody said, as Monger’s falsetto sang, “Hurrah, this is my last dollar...” “This
music makes me want to be in love,” one usually cynical contributor
said. He fronted several vocal bands and started The Original Brothers Of Love with brother/singer/songwriter James Monger in 1996. The two began playing small gigs around Ann Arbor by fall of that year and by 1999 had filled the band out to a six-piece, changing their name to The Original Brothers And Sisters Of Love. They released their parlously anticipated debut album, The Legende of Jeb Minor, a record they’d began recording almost contiguously after the brothers began playing together, in the fall of 1999. The album is an acerbic and wry mixture of sea shanties/neo-prog/Appalachia folk, with a commanding presence of maritime music. For their second release, TOBASOL streamlined their sound without shedding the earnest, heartfelt broodiness of Jeb. The result was H.O.M.E.S., Vol. 1, a panoply of artistic adroitness. H.O.M.E.S., Vol. 1 was released nationally in 2001 by New York label The Telegraph Company, who also re-released their debut a year earlier. The band had planned to do a Vol. 2 with the label, but the bottom fell out of the deal and the band was left with a finished record, but no label to hand it to. “Last fall, right after we finished the record, the label went under,” Monger says. “They called us right after we’d sent them the record. We’d gone so far in debt with the studio and the band was barely hanging on. It was kind of that Fleetwood Mac era, but we somehow managed to eek out an awesome album.” The record will be released under a new band name, The Great Lakes Myth Society (consisting of members of TOBASOL), and is due out early 2005. Monger’s
Summer Cherry Ghosts remains at the forefront of his focus at the
moment, though. Released in the summer of 2004, the solo debut strays
from the beaten Brother and Sister path into a Baroque pop that
leans towards a Donovan/Left Bank sound. It delivers the same wistful
and bittersweet undertones as the band’s records, but in summery,
Sub-Popish fashion. “It just bothers me. I guess the underlying thing with the record is that I wanted to do something that was sensitive without being twee and had heart without being ultra-confessional singer/songwriter.” Accomplished. Summer Cherry Ghosts seems to be more of a dismantling and reconstruction of Monger’s work. While the Original Brothers And Sisters Of Love records—especially the debut—often sound like remnants of Paul Clayton recordings that were vaulted and only recently re-discovered, Monger’s solo work is of a completely different vein altogether, emulating so much and imitating nothing at all. “I’m a huge John Denver and Neil Diamond fan,” Monger says. “I grew up on stuff that’s just as dorky as it gets and I love it and I’ll always love it and if it ends up that I become really uncool and start making bad records later, I at least hope that I’m still into what I’m doing.” Giving slight nods to venerable singer/songwriters like Randy Newman and Harry Nielson as well as contemporaries like Michael Penn and Sufjan Stevens, the nine tracks on the album brim with genius arrangement, genuine vocals, and grounding guitar work, all of which Monger is very proud of. The poetic lyrics sometimes suggest the voice of Walt Whitman or even the ultra- romantic metaphorical style of Ray Bradbury. Small crimes on summer days, trips to the zoo, metroparks, bittersweet letters, aquariums, beer in jars, orchards, old flames, aggressive sunsets and other surprises show up in twisting, witty phrases. Unexpected instruments—glockenspiel, bassoon, harpsichord, jingle bell—add to the charm. “Having not really had a clear vision from the beginning, it’s really hard to say whether the record turned out the way I’d thought it would,” says Monger. “I wanted to have a lot of friends on it—anytime I’d find someone that plays an odd instrument, I was always trying to get them on it without it sounding too cluttered. Initially, I guess I just wanted to make something that I would buy. In the end I listened to it I was like ‘This is great. I totally would have bought this and been real excited about it.’” Monger wasn’t the only one excited about the album. Just recently he was approached by Trolleybus, a label in Osaka that was so impassioned by the record that they offered to release in Japan. “I put the record out myself this summer and then these guys found me on the internet,” explains Monger. “Out of the blue, they said ‘Hey, we bought your record and we love it. Would you be interested in putting it out in Japan?’ I thought it was great. I’m getting an advance, which doesn’t happen these days…especially from the indies. But some indie in Japan is gonna give me how ever many yen and it’s super exciting. Everything about the deal is so Japanese…they even want bonus tracks for the record.” Since the summer, Timothy has perpetually gigged to promote the album and has been working along side fellow musician and friend Jim Roll to complete the bonus tracks for the Japanese release. And with the upcoming Great Lakes Myth Society record, you could call Monger one of Ann Arbor’s hardest working songsmiths—a man who fashions his music from the heel of his life. “I’d
like to do another solo record,” he says. “I’m
working on songs right now. A little more low key affair…maybe
something like Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks and see if I could
figure out how to do something that doesn’t take years with
a million overdubs.” Monger laughs. “I’ll probably
eat my words and do another huge arrangement record. I like the
idea.” A2P Check
www.timothymonger.com for upcoming shows and release dates.
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