Welcome Back + Exclusive Stream of New Single

The Jungle is in bloom 🌺

Hi All! Welcome back to the Flowering Jungle. Thanks for everyone’s patience while I took a little break. I’ve been having some mental health struggles and needed some space but I’m excited to be back here with all of you. I’m hoping to get back to regularly monthly postings and have some cool stuff planned for the summer and a bunch of new tour dates being announced very soon.

The past year has been a busy one. In October I toured through Europe, taking along the family to London, Paris and Lisbon, then on to Miami in November and hit Arizona for a festival this Spring.

After that, I took a break to focus on writing the new album and to get myself in order. I’m psyched to share what I’ve been working on - more below.

Thank you to everyone for supporting my work, it’s been really helpful and motivating over the past year to keep momentum going and I couldn’t have done it without so many of you reaching out to say thanks.

New From the Studio

About a year and a half ago I set a goal for creating a new album, something different from the way I’ve made music in the past. A lot of people have asked when they’re going to get a Monster Rally track with vocals and with the exception of the album with Jay Stone, I’ve never really given it a try - so an idea was born. Rather than struggling to sing them myself, I asked some of my friends to collaborate.

As if that wasn’t enough, I also set the lofty goal of playing as much of the instrumentation myself as possible. An album made entirely of my own samples.

At first I was pretty stressed about how it would be received. My music has always been pretty consistent and I’m not exactly looking to change that, but I’ve been having a lot of fun making these tracks and getting to work with some people I’m really psyched about. Because my main writing instrument is a guitar, a lot of this one is more guitar focused.

It’s been a fun and, at times, challenging and frustrating experience writing in a new way, but it’s been really rewarding to do something different. I can’t wait to start to share some of these tracks and collaborations over the next few months with you.

That being said, my first collab is dropping June 30th but I thought everyone on the FJ newsletter deserved to hear it first.

New Single:

‘Until the Sun Goes Down’ feat. Toledo

This is one of the first songs I wrote for the record. Some of you may recognize it from Instagram or, if you’ve seen me live in the past year, you’ll have heard the instrumentals.

The dudes from Toledo came in, added a super cool guitar line and some smooth vocals about finding unexpected (unreachable?) love in the desert.

I’m psyched to be leading off all these collaborations with this track. I think it’s perfect timing for summer BBQs and backyard hangs. We’ve already been listening to it on repeat and I’m psyched to get to share it.

What You Can Do

If you’re so inclined, the best way you can support Monster Rally when these new tracks come out is to share them, download them, put them in a playlist and / or save them to your profile. I appreciate y’all!

What I’ve Been Listening to Lately

In lieu of a playlist this month I thought I’d do a little feature on what I’ve been listening to lately. Let me know if any of you have been into these albums too!

Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee

I was a bit late to the game on this one after it received so much hype last year and I regret not listening sooner. The entire album so beautiful, imperfect and raw. Not to mention the low key insane guitar work. Definitely check it out if you haven’t yet. Also, don’t let the 2 hour run time put you off, its worth listening to the whole thing.

Black Star - Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star

Periodically I revisit this album and it’s definitely a favorite of mine. Mos Def in his prime. I’ve been listening when I’m working on artwork and the production just keeps me moving.

The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

I know there is a ton of Brian Wilson content out there at the moment with his passing. A lot of the focus is on Pet Sounds and that’s with good reason. Maybe you’re like me and this record quite literally changed the way you think about music (and maybe life), maybe you’ve heard about this record or seen it on lists on the greatest albums of all time but have yet to give it a proper listen. When I first discovered it years ago I think I probably listened to it everyday for a year straight, while simultaneously doing as much research about it’s production as I could. I was obsessed. This record is blissful and completely devastating at the same time, it’s just so good.

Wallpaper

I’ve been spending a lot of time creating new artwork recently. I’ve had a ton of fun making stop motion videos for Instagram lately too. I got a lot of requests for a wallpaper of this one when I posted the video of making it a while back.

I’m really excited to share the rest of these upcoming collaborations with y’all. I’ve been honored to work with some amazing artists, including questionably religious surf rock legends, television girls and even bands that enjoy synonyms for relaxation, there’s lots to hear. See you next time in the Flowering Jungle.

-Ted