Montoneros - If You Think You're In The Wrong Place, You're Probably Here

Montoneros

If You Think You're In The Wrong Place, You're Probably Here
self-released; 2014

3.4 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

Forming in early 2014 Montoneros is a four-piece band from Denver, Colorado who already managed to get out their first release If You Think You're In The Wrong Place, You're Probably Here. The music is certified indie rock that lies somewhere between The Dismemberment Plan, Modest Mouse and Minus The Bear except Montoneros sometimes sing in Spanish. It’s a fairly consistent album that showcases some technical skill as well as creativity.

If You Think You're In The Wrong Place, You're Probably Here was a complete DIY effort. The band recorded, mixed and mastered it with about average results. There were a number of aesthetic issues that needed to be fixed but the most glaring was the vocals. The vocals were extremely thin and buried in the mix. It was really hard to understand any of the lyrics.

The upside to this is the vocals are rather sparse throughout the album and band’s strengths lie in the actual music itself. There were a number of songs that were more than impressive when it came to things like timing and inventive riffs. 

If You Think You're In The Wrong Place, You're Probably Here begins with the abrasive start and stop rhythms of “Better Than Before.” The song is under two minutes long but establishes that the band has some innate chemistry.

“Como Yo” as you can probably guess was sung in Spanish. The guitars are definitely at first mimicking some staple Modest Mouse moves here but the song quickly deviates from that establishing the band's originality. Moving forward the band sound best on songs like “Zapata” and “Buried Ledger,” which are loose, fast and demonstrate their technical skills. I really was digging the way the bass and guitar worked together.

The band has been together for about a year, which really isn’t much time at all. It’s obvious they are onto something with their sound but haven’t quite gotten there yet. Overall, the album is solid but unfortunately the songs are held back by the sub-par production. If the band wants to compete with the upper echelon of indie bands they are going to have up the ante in terms of audio fidelity. As long as they refine the future recordings I would predict good things to come from this band as they displayed some noteworthy songwriting and skill on If You Think You're In The Wrong Place, You're Probably Here.

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