You've heard it all a million times before — nobody dances at shows here! People don't get into the music! There's just no soul in D.C.'s music scene! The Hall Monitors heard your cry and happily came to answer the call with their brand of throwback garage rock & soul reminiscent of the guitar and Motown greats that made most of us (well, OK, me at least) learn to love music in the first place.

The four piece convened in the District from far flung places across the country at lead singer Sean Crowley's motivation to start a garage band. Guitarist Ginger Richards found some time in her schedule (which includes being part of the all-girl indie-pop band Federal City Five) for The Hall Monitors, and brothers Matt (bass) and Mike (drums) Sullivan decided to bring their lifetime worth of playing together to the effort. Their bluesy, old-school approach is sure to ring with comparisons to The Black Keys and The White Stripes, but what you really sense when you see these guys play is a great respect for the history of rock & roll — from Chuck Berry and the sounds of Motown, to more modern adaptations like rockabilly and punk.

The band is joyful to watch because they so clearly enjoy the music they're playing and the fact that they're up there playing at all. Crowley forces the crowd to close the gap between themselves and the band by getting right down on the floor to start the set, pushing and pulling with the audience until they're standing by the stage, right where they should be. In addition to having a great time, they've got the refreshing ring of musical perfectionists when they perform. The instrumentals are tight and powerful, the band is energetic and engaging, and the music is damn good. What more could you want from a live show?

In case you were thinking, "well, a sense of humor wouldn't hurt," don't worry, they've got that too. One of the most lighthearted moments of their set at DC9 recently came when Crowley introduced a song as "the number one song.... on our MySpace page." And if you were thinking, "it wouldn't hurt if they were good looking," they've got that covered too. A cute girl and three handsome men fill up the stage and officially leave us wanting for nothing. So we charge you with this: don't pass up the opportunity to see The Hall Monitors. Catch them when you can (which won't be for a while, since they're using the summer to focus on other things, but look for them at a club near you this fall scratch that -- you can catch them in three weeks on July 18 at the Black Cat with Detroit Cobras).

Visit them online at:

Questions for The Hall Monitors:
Note: Brigham Hall isn't actually a member of this version of The Hall Monitors. He's in a New Orleans jazz band that shares the same name. But in case any of you were hoping this interview was with them instead of D.C.'s Hall Monitors, the band's included some comments from the other band's website where appropriate in repsonse to our questions.

Give me a brief history of The Hall Monitors – where are you all from, how'd you meet, how long have you been in the area, that kind of thing.

Sean: I took my rock and roll caveman club, bashed Ginger and Mike over the head with it, dragged them back to my apartment, tied them to their instruments, and declared them to be my brides. That was, oh, about early 2006. The three of us then pooled our money together and bought Matt on the black market.

Ginger: I'm from Denver, CO and I moved to DC nearly three years ago to finish grad school. I met Sean when he propositioned me to form a band. I then met Mike and Matt (in that order) when Sean recruited them to play in the band as well.

Matt: Mike and I grew up in upstate NY. He and his wife have been here for about 4 years. I just moved down from New Jersey (yes, New Jersey) in March. Mike and I obviously started playing together years ago... being brothers and all. We kicked around with Sean a little bit in highschool and the three of us got together occasionally through the years for random gigs in a variety of different formats. The Hall Monitors really started about a year ago.

Brigham Hall: The Hall Monitors formed in 2004 as a means of introducing new sounds and concepts to the traditional jazz scene of New Orleans. Despite major setbacks by Katrina's aftermath, The Hall Monitors continue to perform their incredible sound and advocate the power of live improvised music.

Mike: Same as Matt, really. Mtake on the origin of this band was that I thought sean was starting a joke band with me and his girlfriend. We rehearsed once or twice and then sean said there's this new girl showing up next time that he found on MySpace, and I remember the first time I talked to ginger was to give her some ridiculous directions on how to find the band practice space. It was annoying at first but then she arrived and was pretty cool.

When did you pull the band together? What were your motivations? Did you have a sound in mind or did it come about organically?

Sean: The band started to take shape in mid winter of 2005-2006 because Mike and Matt's father, after listening to some of the acoustic things I'd been doing, quipped "its good, but doesn't Sean ever rock anymore?" So, I promptly switched gears back to rock and roll and got Ginger and the brothers on board. Sound wise we wanted to basically just update the sounds of our favorites from the 50's and 60s's: The Kinks, Buddy Holly, The Sonics, The Animals, and the god of them all, Chuck Berry. After practicing for a couple months, Eddie Wilson said we could finally play live, and we had our first show in June 2006.

Ginger: Sean had originally hit me up to play in a pop band, but I was already playing in an all-girl indie pop band, so after I returned from Sleazefest (a Garage festival in Chapel Hill, NC), I re-hashed a fleeting idea we once had with regards to starting a garage band. We got together and started writing songs and it all came together quite smoothly once we got the Sullivan brothers in on it.

Sean: That's not how I remember it. We were trying to be the next WHAM!, which is so much more than just a "pop band."

Brigham Hall: The band follows a purely democratic approach. This musical environment allows the singular strengths of the musicians to reach their highest levels of creativity. All members amend their main acoustic instrument with an electronic counterpart. Pedal boards, laptops, and software assist the band in creating any and all varieties of music at once.

Mike: our motivations are to play damn good music, the way it used to be done.

Have you always had the same group of people, or have there been changes along the way? Have any of you played music together before THM?

Ginger: Originally it was me on guitar, Sean on bass, and Mike on drums. We had a few songs that had come together, but something was missing. We then recruited Matt and had both Sean and I on guitar, which ended up being the right formula. As far as the band goes, Sean, Mike and Matt had played together in various projects since high school. I used to play in an all-girl garage-punk band in Denver called the Pin Downs and I also played in Federal City Five in DC.

Matt: Sean, Mike, and I all played together on and off at various points, but it was never very serious. I think the most practicing we ever did was for a George Washington University Law School follies show that we were the pit band for.

Mike: Same as Matt. When ginger arrived, we became The Hall Monitors.

Your sound is a definite throwback – who were your major influences? How have you modified your music to make it your own?

Ginger: I have a huge array of influences and even though this band follows a specific style, I'd say that everything I listen to has influenced my playing/writing in some way. As far as the way I play, I think it's influenced a lot by Freddie Green actually. I was listening to a lot of his records when I began learning guitar, so I credit him with my fondness for chunky down-stroke chords.

Sean: WHAM!

Matt: We grew up listening to our Dad's music. I have vivid memories of listening to all the old Motown groups on this lame old radio in our kitchen. The music definitely stuck with me. It had been a long time since I'd played in an actual rock 'n roll band. Personally, rock 'n roll is pretty simple so we just don't fake anything on stage and keep experience as real as possible. And we try and keep the energy high.

Mike: Same as Matt. See, i told you we were brothers.

Where'd the name The Hall Monitors come from?

Mike, Matt, Ginger, Sean: It's our title, not our name.

How long have you been playing in the area? What have you learned about the music scene here? About yourselves as a band?

Ginger: In the year that we've been playing, we've learned that the horseshoe around the stage tends to be a bit wider here than it is in other cities. Thanks to Sean's penchant for accosting audiences, we've pretty much mitigated that issue. We've also learned that we are best served with alcohol.

Matt: We've been playing around here for about a year. The DC music scene is interesting. I do think the scene trends toward indie rock and more intellectualized rock music, i.e., not us. That aspect can be frustrating, but our experience has actually been very rewarding. There are some great venues in the U and H street areas and they have shows most weeknights. I think the local media has done a good job of covering local bands too. I've heard from some long time locals that the DC live music scene is heating up again. In that case we're definitely glad to be here.

Sean: Everyone else has already answered the first two parts of this question. But I think the thing we've all learned about ourselves as a band is that the clap is both easy to get and to give.

Mike: There's a decent fun scene in parts. It's lways great finding the dirty pockets of real intensity in various cities where folks really like to move to good music.

Do you have plans to record a full length?

Sean: We've just recorded a full length at the famous Saxon Recording studios with David Anderson at the helm. He's a real master and frequently records all the rock and roll greats, from Los Straitjackets to Screamin' Jay Hawkins. The album is due out this fall.

Brigham Hall: Every live show since the band's inception has been recorded and will be available at www.TheHallMonitors.com and a studio album is in planning.

Have you been writing new stuff lately?

Sean: I'm writing constantly, my most productive periods are on the elevators on my way home from work for some reason. Beginning to write is the easy part. Finishing the song the hard part.

Ginger: I have three songs in the works, but only one is in it's third trimester.

Matt: It's actually been tough for me to write songs in the Hall Monitors sound, but they seem to be coming around slowly.

Mike: I've got some great lyrics, but Ginger's the only one who likes them.

How do you guys go about writing songs? Is there one main writer, a collaboration, people generally write the parts for their own instruments…?

Sean: I record them on an I-pod recorder after humming them in my head all day so as not to forget. Usually everything all the parts are written by the time I bring it to the band. Except for the drum parts that is. I usually just hit the drum beat on my Casio SK-1 and say to Mike "can you sound like that?"

Ginger: We all collaborate with our own parts, but Sean and I tend to be the primary songwriters. Sean busts 'em out left and right where I tend to be a bit more scrupulous.

Mike: Sean, mainly. Ginger and Matt always have some great riffs. It's best when someone brings something mostly finished and we all just mess with it. That way, the writer gets his/her say in the formation of the tune and we all add in our bits with that original idea in mind

How do you feel about the local music scene?

Sean: Lots of good rock and roll out there, but no body seems to give a shit. Indie's great, but it works best in movie soundtracks and not live shows. If I wanted to see people stand around, I'd go to the sculpture gallery on the mall. If a band can't get into their own music, how can I? Also, with the exception of DC101, I think just about every radio station in the area violates the FCC requirement that licensed radio stations provide community oriented programming. When was the last time you heard a local act on the radio other than at midnight on a Sunday?

Ginger: I remember thinking of DC as a music mecca as a teenager because the bulk of my favorite bands throughout a good portion of the 90's were from here. I still think DC has a thriving music scene, but it's not as copious as it was in those days. I think the garage scene here relies more on DJ nights rather than on live bands and doesn't mix the two together as much as we've experienced in other cities.

Matt: All in all I do think DC has a good music scene. There some really good small venues and plenty of talented local bands. The Six Points festival seems to be getting bigger and bigger and there's great media coverage. I do think that the DC audiences tend to skew more conservative in their behavior. It's very interesting to go out of town to Balitmore or Harrisburg and find people we don't know acting far more enthusiastic about Rock 'n Roll.

Mike: It's better than the scene in Thoreau, New Mexico.

You put on a very dynamic live show with a lot of energy – is that something that's important to you and you strive for, or is it a result of some other factors?

Sean: I first got Mike hooked on speed around 1994 or 1995...

Ginger: For me, bopping around is my natural reaction to music so when I'm playing it I tend to go 10x more apeshit.

Matt: Honestly, it's just about acting the way the music you're playing makes you feel. I'm playing fun music with my brother and good friends.... I'm gonna act accordingly.

Mike: Blood on blood. When we're at it, I feel like we're masters of the universe, like He-man, but more hetero. I lose myself and am always surprised when i play to the point of exhaustion and nausea.

I like the whole matching outfit thing. What's the motivation there?

Ginger: Less laundry.

Matt: It's a lot easier than torturously trying on every ironic thrift store t-shirt and pair of jeans in an effort to find that perfect stage look... leave that to the singer-songwriters.

Sean: All of the artists we idolize, from Chuck Berry to James Brown were always dressed to the nines, and the bands usually matched. We liked that, it tells everyone that you are there to perform.

Who are some of your favorite local bands?

Sean: Link Wray, Buck 49

Ginger: As far as current bands, I like the Points, Shortstack, Woolly Mammoth, the Ambitions, the BreakUps, and several others.

Matt: The Have Mercys, The Points, The Ambitions, Beanstalk Library, J.P. McDermott and the Western Bop

Tike: The Avant Garde Disasters, The Red Levels

Are there any bands you particularly enjoy playing with?

Ginger: Personally, I had a blast playing with the Fleshtones and the Woggles but that just barely skims the surface. I can't say there's really been many bands I haven't enjoyed sharing a stage with.

Matt: The Points are a ton of fun to play with. The Ripovs (Baltimore) are great. The Have Mercys are another fun local band.

Sean: I really liked The High Tops from Harrisburg, they had a great song selection.

Mike: Agonal Rhythm

What's your favorite venue in the area to play?

Ginger: Quarry House Tavern, Velvet Lounge, Iota Cafe, Black Cat.

Matt: I agree with Ginger

Sean: I agree with Matt

Mike: Yeah

Do you have plans to tour outside of the area?

Sean: We're in the midst of planning a small European tour in October that will concentrate primarilly on Spain and Portugal. We're very famous there.

Ginger: I'm hoping we can do another Northern Virginia tour, but this time I'd like to extend it to three days.

Mike: Yep

What are your favorite bands in general? Who are you fans of?

Ginger: we would be here for hours if I attempt to answer that question.

Matt: Yeah, wow. I think the music that came of the early Motown label is the best stuff ever, but after that my tastes span all over.

Sean: The Monks, Andre Williams, The Kinks, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, The Creation

Mike: What Matt said.

What have you been listening to lately?

Sean: Howard Stern, Billy Childish and the Musicians of the British Empire, The Chocolate Watchband, DMZ, Underground Garage

Ginger: There's lots of cool shit coming out, but as far as recent garage stuff goes I'm all over the Jessica Fletchers and basically everything Mark Sultan has done since his days in the Spaceshits.

Matt: Tom Waits, traditional Irish music, Cody Chesnutt, Mofro, The Moovers, O Rappa

Mike: John Prine

Do you have an all-time favorite DC-area band?

Sean: Link Wray

Ginger: I think the obvious answer is Bad Brains, but I can't fail to mention Slant 6.

Mike: us!

What do you guys do when you're not playing music?

Sean: G-man

Ginger: Librarian

Matt: Mechanical Enginerd

Mike: Executive director of a wilderness education foundation

If you could write the score to any movie, what would it be?

Sean: A Hard Days Night

Ginger: The Blob (1958 verson)

Matt: Somebody should really write a memorable theme for the Indiana Jones movies......er, wait

Mike: The One-Ders

And finally, what was the last thing you ate?

Matt: Cajun Chicken Ramen Noodles

Ginger: hippy food

Sean: Grilled peanut butter sandwhich

Mike: choc. chip cookie