Monophonics makes its M.O. very clear from the minute you arrive at the band's website, where the words “Psychedelic soul and funk from San Francisco" are splashed across the top of the page in trippy, almost-unreadable lettering.
Well, sure. There are lots of bands between the Bay Area and Seattle these days taking old-school funk and soul and mixing it with modern rock 'n' roll. Some do it well, others not so much.
The influence of Sharon Jones, Daptone Records, Mayer Hawthorne and The Budos Band has spread to our neck of the country, it seems.
But here's what Monophonics has that many of its regional counterparts don't: A natural sense for the fuzzy, vintage aesthetic that makes those other acts so influential. A sound and style that harkens back to the original era of psychedelic soul and funk, the 1960s.
Monophonics is not a nostalgia act, mind you. They're not a cover band. They're just a group of guys that knows how to find deep pockets of groove and hunker down in them for a while. They're a band that understands the value of production, and the importance not only of the music, but the sound.
And Monophonics has the sound dialed in. Hear for yourself at www.mono phonics.com.
Monophonics; 7 p.m. Thursday; free; McMenamins Old St. Francis School, 700 N.W. Bond St., Bend; www.mcmenamins.com.
