Timothy Monger

Timothy Monger is a Michigan-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist known for his solo work, which blends elements of folk-rock, chamber pop, and psychedelia, as well as his involvement in the Ann Arbor rock band Great Lakes Myth Society, which he co-founded with his brother James Christopher Monger. Great Lakes Myth Society drew national attention with a pair of elegantly rowdy LPs in the mid-2000s, after which Monger resumed his solo career, first with 2011's The New Britton Sound, followed in 2017 by Amber Lantern. He also formed his own band, Timothy Monger State Park, and launched the experimental side project Log Variations. Monger returned to solo work in 2023 with his eponymous fourth album. Raised in Brighton, Michigan, he began writing and recording at a young age, receiving his first guitar on his tenth birthday. By the time he was in high school, he had developed a repertoire of original songs and a range of covers that spanned everything from Violent Femmes and R.E.M. to John Denver and traditional folk songs. He also engaged with the underground noise rock scene in nearby Ann Arbor as the drummer for schoolmate Aaron Dilloway's band, Galen. After moving to Ann Arbor in the late '90s, he worked at the local indie store Schoolkids' Records and formed the Original Brothers and Sisters of Love with his brother James Christopher Monger. Along with fellow Brighton friends Gregory Dean McIntosh and J. Scott McClintock, Flint drummer Fido Kennington, and New Zealand native Elisabeth Auchinvole, the band recorded a pair of wildly eclectic folk-rock albums for Brooklyn-based indie the Telegraph Company before disbanding in 2003. Over the next year, Monger completed work on his first solo record, a lush chamber pop song cycle that fused the sophisticated arrangements of the Beach Boys and E.L.O with his inherent folk sensibilities. Summer Cherry Ghosts was released independently in July 2004 and picked up by Japanese indie Trolley Bus a year later. By then, Monger and his former bandmates had regrouped, minus Auchinvole, as Great Lakes Myth Society. They joined the roster of Boston indie Stop, Pop, and Roll, and released their self-titled debut in 2005. With its thematic references to Michigan and the Upper Midwest and mix of rousing folk-rock and inventive pop, the album helped GLMS break out of their home state, and they increased their national touring schedule accordingly. A second album, Compass Rose Bouquet, followed in 2007, this time on Ann Arbor's Quack! Media, and the band shared bills with Patti Smith, the Hidden Cameras, Sea Power, and the Gourds. GLMS continued to tour with diminishing results through the remainder of the decade and, in mid-2010, went on hiatus, leaving an abandoned third record in their wake. Once again solo, Monger formed his own live band, Timothy Monger State Park, and began recording his follow-up album in the tiny Michigan farm belt village of Britton. More stripped-down than his debut, 2011's The New Britton Sound paired rustic-toned indie pop with lyrical folk-rock and was the inaugural release on his own Northern Detective label. During the years that followed, Monger continued to develop new material while also doing occasional session work, mostly on accordion. He has appeared on songs by Detroit rockers the High Strung and Electric Six, Pittsburgh punks the Cynics, and rock legend Patti Smith. His next solo album arrived in early 2017. Again shifting tonal palettes, Amber Lantern was a more deliberate rock album, albeit a deeply reflective one. It also introduced light psychedelic touches and more frequent use of synthesizers into his core singer/songwriter sound. In 2020, Monger wrote and arranged a brief three-song suite with his longtime band, Timothy Monger State Park. Released the following year, the Knight Errand EP marked the first official recording using the band's name and ventured more heavily into power pop and melodic psych-rock. He continued experimenting with the 2021 side project Log Variations, which fused audio collage and musique concrète techniques with burning campfire sounds and multimedia visual elements. Now based in the nearby college town of Ypsilanti, Michigan, Monger's next release was a proper solo album. Recording at home, he played nearly every instrument himself, bringing in only a handful of collaborators, among them New York composer/activist Jesse Paris Smith and his Great Lakes Myth Society bandmates, both on backing vocals. Abandoning the introspective style of his previous set, the record was joyfully eccentric, playing almost like an anthology of his myriad interests. Monger's self-titled fourth album was released in June 2023 on Northern Detective.
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