Where Is My Garden – Monobloc
★★★★★
The music industry is a fast-paced environment contingent on artists’ adaptability and unique marketable qualities. That is to say, you never know what to expect when emerging as a new band. Having already experienced the challenges of the industry environment, New York’s Monobloc is bursting into the international music world with tactile decisions informed by its history in the scene.
After leaving the indie-rock project Courier Club, Timothy Waldron and Michael Silverglade formed Monobloc with new intentions. With the addition of Zack Pockrose, Ben Scofield and Nina Lüders, the band released their first single “I’m Just Trying To Love You.” Although the aim was American or New York recognition, Monobloc has found international fame headlining festivals such as Corona Capital, All Points East, Rock en Seine, and more.
Monobloc continues to share its ingenuity with the world as they release their second single “Where Is My Garden” on July 11.
“Where Is My Garden” tackles the disenchantment of city life where everyone appears to be living at a comfortable pace, yet something urges the artistic type to fight that assimilation. While everyone might be raving about their new gym membership or the seemingly mundane activities for a 20-something-year-old, Monobloc actualizes the nuances of such gray areas.
This typecast is projected through an accompanying music video shot entirely in black and white. The grainy, home-style video features the band playing in a furnished, modern house in a suburban woodsy area. The house is quintessential, providing the assimilation tactics brought about through modernized architecture and interior decoration. There is alternative post-modern art hanging from the walls, shadowed by the grayscale nature of the video. The sole unique aspect of the house is the band playing within its walls.
As the band plays their new single venturing through the house, they identify the character questioning the personal desire to acclimate. As they contemplate, they beg their uniform friends “So tell me about your wine, / Show me your new sheets / I wanna hear about the gummies that have been putting you to sleep.” Is this the life worth striving for; the creative or uniformity?
Questions persist through the chorus as the band cries “Where is my garden? / Where are my friends? / Will this always feel like the end?” The concept of assimilation, of what is modernly normal, will it be satisfying or feel like a false representation of themselves? When life in the city is hustling to achieve nonconformity, who is meant to settle in the quiet infrastructure of the house? Monobloc reports their findings that the particulars of each world leave something to be desired. The gray area is more nuanced than it seems.
Follow Monobloc’s journey as they combine a metropolitan post-punk vision with the gratification of modern indie-pop here.