Revel: Nick Monaco

We're making our Monkey Loft debut with a West Coast staple for the last 10+ years- Nick Monaco! Having played Seattle back in 2014, the lipstick wearing, genre bending lad from NorCal makes his way back for what's sure to be an excellent night at the Loft. In addition to an illustrious career with multiple LPs and releases on Wolf + Lamb records, Crew Love, and Dirtybird, Nick has been an a driving force in Dance Music as an avenue for self expression and activism, having found a lipstick company whose proceeds went directly to funding sex changes. His performances and outfits are eclectic and electric, and he aims to create a connecting force on the Dancefloor. "So Monaco wears lipstick on stage; he rocks jumpsuits, he plays with fashion—just like his icons did. Whether he's playing his own show or on a lineup of massive artists, like Dirtybird Campout, he actively avoids creating a monochromatic experience for his audience because nightlife and dance music is rooted in color... "People open up in a different way when I perform," he observes. "Wearing lipstick confidently rather than ironically inspires something different in people. Now I'm passing out lipstick at shows and seeing a dozen dudes smiling—wearing lipstick, too." - Nylon, 2018 On support we've got Give'nGroove's own Parker Mills, Makes Me Human head honcho (and Nick Monaco fanboy) Kinjo, and a special closing b2b by local stapes Julie Herrera and Avignon. Proceeds from this event will be donated to Lambert House! NICK MONACO BIO Nick Monaco only has one secret — and it's that Nick Monaco is his real name. He's never afraid to be exposed. He is a fluid, eclectic spirit, a way of being in the world. He's the guy that you swear that you know from somewhere. But it's not him that you recognize. It's the familiar, essential, pulse of his art and aura. With his first two albums, Mating Call and Half Naked, Nick Monaco established himself as an irresistibly magnetic, relentlessly creative, and genre-defying artist in dance music. Now, with the creation of his new label, Unisex Records, and his LP Heroin Disco, he announces himself again as one of the most original and insightful artists working in the genre. Always creating music toward the values of inclusivity, radical self-expression, the strange and uncanny, Monaco stands as a powerful and positive force against the homogeneity of mainstream dance music, asking everyone to wave their freak flags high along with him. On Mating Call, Monaco created a series of personas to explore various facets of his personality. On his last album, Half Naked, he stripped these characters away, writing his most personal music yet. But with 2018’s Heroin Disco, Monaco turns his attention outward: he explores the excesses and emptiness of contemporary America, the relationship between pleasure and self-destruction — inviting the listener at each moment to both enjoy pleasure, and wonder what is at stake in that enjoyment. The album’s ease, psychedelia, and mellifluousness serve not to hide the darker thematic elements, but to frame them—we surreptitiously lose ourselves in the pleasurable wash of sound, only to jolt back to reality with Monaco’s sharp, dystopian lyricism. Through his music, enthralling performances, collaborations with artists of all media, impeccable musical curation, and worldwide touring, Nick Monaco has created more than just a holistic sensory experience — he's created a community, a network of lovers.