Comments on: Diggin in the Digital Crates: Happy Mondays-Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches

By: Lolita Hazed

Lolita Hazed — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:46:03 +0000

I know you wrote this like a million years ago, but I just want to tell you how happy I am that you did. You articulated so many things I think about this tragically underrated band– why DO we never hear about them, anyway? Today, these guys should be a staple, especially with how un-ravey nu rave was.

“[The] brothers Ryder had bluesy funk and lyrics to spare and are so sorely underrated by a generation that all-out ripped off the post-punk that inspired the Mondays that you’d think they’d been blacklisted by some broody tastemakers hell bent on sucking the fun out of music.”

I mean damn. A great band in a nutshell.

By: Passion of the Weiss » Blog Archive » DIDC: Primal Scream–Screamadelica

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:29:43 +0000

[…] the idea that Primal Scream created some sort of rave rock is grossly exaggerated (that would be The Mondays). I’m not saying that producer Andrew Weatherwall and the band’s experiments with […]

By: Sach

Sach — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 04:52:32 +0000

Their first two albums are rougher and less pop. The debut definitely sounds like a group that took Punk’s “anybody can play music” idea and ran with it while their second is great but in my opinion, Martin Hannett’s reverb-heavy crazy-ass production makes it a little harder listen. Pills N Thrills is the easy way to start listening to them, followed by one of the singles collections they have out.

Black Grape’s album (Essentially the Mondays minus Paul Ryder+an emcee who chose the unfortunate rap name Kermit) is dope too, if uneven.

By: Jay (d)eff Kay

Jay (d)eff Kay — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 03:16:36 +0000

Nice writeup. & great tunes.

The last time i heard about this band was when shawn hopped on that gorillaz track, dare.

Happy Mondays is one of those bands I’ve always heard about, but never bothered checking out. will rectify this. I’m guessing you’re gonna recommend starting with pills n thrills? I hear good things about their debut too.

By: Drewski

Drewski — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:28:46 +0000

Shawn Ryder’s stupid-to-clever ratio is almost exactly equal to that of Wayne. Excellent observation.

Always loved the Mondays, and have often gotten shit for it. Perhaps it’s because they’re such an easy band to dismiss — there’s nothing obviously “important” about any of their stuff, and they really were a bunch of twacked out fuckups who looked like Scooby Doo characters. But that, of course, is the key to their appeal.