Best Bets - Monolithic Discipline

€12.00 - €18.00

Best Bets - Monolithic Discipline

€12.00 - €18.00

Best Bets have never been a band for grand statements. Since forming in Ōtautahi Christchurch in 2016, they've worked from a simple premise: loud guitars, melodic bass, driving drums, the odd vocal harmony, and songs built to be sung back. Monolithic Discipline doesn't depart from that. What it does is gather the band at their sharpest across 12 songs that have never before been released on vinyl.
 
Is it an album or a compilation? A bit of both. Monolithic Discipline brings together two brand-new songs, the digital singles the band have released over the years, two covers, and the complete four-song debut EP Life Under the Big Top (2018), originally released only on tape. Heard together, the songs show how little Best Bets have needed to change: short, loud, funny songs that don't pretend to be anything else, played by four people who clearly still enjoy being in a room together.
 
The two new songs, "Peter Grynt" and "More Good News", prove the formula hasn't worn thin. The band still sound like they're having the time of their lives.
 
Best Bets were formed by Olly Crawford-Ellis and James Harding (Transistors). Life Under the Big Top was produced by Bob Frisbee and released by Christchurch indie/punk imprint Melted Ice Cream, with James' brother Luke and long-time friend Matt Phimmavanh completing the line-up. When Luke moved overseas, Joe Sampson (Salad Boys, T54, The Dance Asthmatics) stepped in, and the band became one of Christchurch's most essential live acts.
 
Their first album, On An Unhistoric Night (2022, Melted Ice Cream / Meritorio), dealt with hubris, hopelessness and the search for purpose, with pop culture detritus and everyday ennui carried by humour, guitar heroics and catchy hooks. One writer called it "upbeat, energetic, scrappy and infectious guitar-driven power pop" [outlet]. Another described the band as trading in "exuberant, catchy rock anthems that are stadium-sized, but tempered by a healthy level of realism" [outlet]. The second album, The Hollow Husk of Feeling (September 2024), brought wider critical acclaim.
Ten years in, Monolithic Discipline is the sound of a band that has outlasted plenty of better-funded ambitions just by continuing to do what they do: making music with their hands, their instruments and their voices.
 
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Listen:

Track Listing

1. Peter Grynt
2. More Good News
3. All Roads Lead Back
4. April's Fool
5. Life Under The Big Top
6. Aerial Photograph
7. City Radio
8. Older Guys
9. Nashville Hilton
10. Big Time
11. It Happens Every Day
12. The Minor Leagues (Single Version)