The Hall Monitors

REVIEWS
They're one of the most promising garage/R&B acts we've heard in a while. -- DCist.com



Every town needs a garage rock scene, and a pretty fine one is emerging in D.C. Who needs Little Steven Van Zandt to bring his past-their-prime relics to town when we've got fine bands like the Hall Monitors? The quartet plays fuzzy, bluesy garage rock that sounds like it came straight off the "Nuggets" box set. Or at least one of those dozens of "Pebbles" compilations that soon followed. Garage rock is a genre in which originality is about the 43rd most important trait for a band to have; it's much more important to get those guitars just right and to be able to convincingly pull off the retro sound. And the Hall Monitors do that with ease. Catch them at the Velvet Lounge with the Fishnet Stalkers and the rockabilly-flavored Have Mercys , another fairly new local garage entity. -- The Washington Post



The Hall Monitors' bluesy, blistering set oozed equal parts bravado-infused R&B and snarling punk, shredding through seven songs in just 20 minutes or less. Their influences, ranging from the Rolling Stones to The Cramps, were manifested in Crowley's Buddy Holly-stance at the mic, Richards' Chuck Berry-rife riffs, and Matt's Stones-infused bass rhythms, all the while Mike keeping time in Ringo-meets-Keith Moon fashion. The Hall Monitors, holding their own among the living legends of garage rock, proved to be a worthy appetizer for what was to follow. --The Eagle newspaper, American University



I'd also like to shine a big fat The Kids Are All Dead spotlight on a new local DC band called The Hall Monitors who came on last night and fucking ROCKED THE HOUSE DOWN! Throw in two shit-hot garage guitarists, a rumbling bottom end, and a batshit insane drummer who beats his snare drum bug-eyed while they compress all that's awesome about Teenage Shutdown (the best garage rock comp series ever, dork) into loud, foot-stomping, ass-shaking, sweat-pouring burst of electric white boy blues, and you gotcherself a band to make the boys drink and the girls cream, and vice versa. They supposedly have a CD coming out sometime in the next few months, and I sure hope to God they bottle all the excitement of their stage show. None of this reined-in, I-can-hear-vocals-over-the-guitars nonsense they have up on their MySpace.
DC, get ready for the rebirth of maximum rock 'n' soul. -- The Kids Are All Dead