Jeff Monaghan? He Has Had His 15 Minutes....

Yoni Goldstein: Jeff Monaghan: Alleged leaker, anarchist and punk drummer

Jeff Monaghan apparently wears many hats: Alleged secret government document leaker; anarchist bookstore founder; Books To Prisoners (which provides prison inmates with reading material) member; and drummer for punk foursome The Suicide Pilots.
Unfortunately, the band's Web site is currently out of service, but The Suicide Pilots Myspace page is up and running. In fact, as of 2:15 this afternoon, the three songs on the page had been played 768 times. (Considering the page shows 3,762 total views in the last 13 months, I'd say there's a strong chance that today has been an unusually busy day for The Suicide Pilots.)
The band (singer NACL, guitarist Peter Pants, bassist Shitty Shitty Fackface and drummer James "Bones" Monaghan) have posted three songs on Myspace (you can download all three of them, should you chose). Musically, The Suicide Pilots sound like your average punk group — loud, crunchy guitars, three chord progressions, scream-o vocals, etc. The production values are surprisingly decent, but the songs are terrible.
The first song on their Myspace page, "Harper's Youth," suggests that The Suicide Pilots aren't big fans of the PM. "Give me your fear/Give me your hate/Give me your intolerance/And, give you a place in the Harper Youth" shouts the singer. (I wonder if "Harper's Youth" might be presented as evidence somewhere down the line ... )

I couldn't really make out any of the words on "Mind's Eye" — though at one point, the singer seams to yell "You (pause) are (pause) itchy!" In the chorus, the phrase "All in your mind's eye" is repeated over and over again. (The final refrain sees the whole band screaming together, making the song just a little more, uh, punky.)

And, finally, there's "The Fall," which I didn't bother listening to (can you blame me?). I'd guess the lyrics have something to do with "falling" (a popular anarchist theme) — falling from power, falling from grace, falling after drinking too much beer and trying to climb the stairs with the lights off, etc.

Posted Friday, May 11, 2007 2:16 PM by Yoni Goldstein