Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee.
The lineup: Nick Brown (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Vince Gard (drums), Zach Lindsey (bass), Jordan Young (guitar).
The background: You hear the line "the major labels are going mad for them" a lot these days, but with Mona you can believe it. A band pitched somewhere between Kings of Leon and U2? What record company wouldn't be desperate for that? We also hear that Saul Galpern, who used to look after Suede, is managing Mona. We're not surprised. Like Suede, Mona are a good idea, and all they need is the right approach, the right delivery, and that idea will take shape and spread very fast indeed. And before you know it, they will be on the cover of a music weekly being hailed as the Best New Band In America.
How do you generate buzz in an era when it is hard to create mystique? One way is to hold back music for as long as possible. This is what Mona and their management are doing, to the extent that we had to hear their debut single down the phone. We'll say that again in case you missed it: WE HAD TO HEAR MONA'S SINGLE DOWN THE PHONE.
Actually, it wasn't so bad – because this is big music designed to be played on radios, or at festivals, neither of which require detail and intricacy, but huge sounds and epic gestures. Singer Nick Brown apparently loves the Beatles (who doesn't?), but the Beatles were about studio craft. Mona aren't a studio band, they're a live band whose songs feature pounding drums, ringing guitars, propulsive bass lines and two-part melodies: the teasing verse and the explosive chorus.
Eventually, we did hear their debut single "properly" in the form of an MP3, but it didn't change our minds. Listen to Your Love, their first and presumably their last independently released record, is a conventionally thrilling three-minute affair, sort of U2's I Will Follow meets Rocket from the Crypt's On a Rope. The single is notable for its two guitar tones – the buzzing riff overlaid by the anthemic jangle – and Brown's voice, which is as gutsy and passionate as you'd expect from someone who once declared that he would one day be "bigger than Bono". We've read a few things about Mona, from when they were based in Dayton, Ohio, that suggest Brown is a giant pain in the arse, but that's OK – he's going to have to be if he wants to be more famous than the most famous frontman on earth. Brown says stuff like, "If it lacks passion, it's not real" and "I saw how a song could enrage, heal, speak love, seduce, calm, provoke, challenge and surrender. All in three minutes. That's what we're all about." Fortunately, Mona have their mouthy figurehead, but no second-in-command – no Bernard Butler – to get in his way and spoil the show. Plus, they look like a boy band from the late-50s rock'n'roll era – like the Wild Ones eulogised by Suede. Unnerved by all the changes afoot in the music industry? Try this comforting throwback.
The buzz: "Romantic rock'n'roll for city folk" – Rough Trade Shops.
The truth: They're not so much old-fashioned as espousing classic, eternal verities. OK, they're old-fashioned. But that's probably the point.
Most likely to: Get signed.
Least likely to: Sign on.
What to buy: Listen to Your Love is released by ZION NOIZ on 13 September.
File next to: Kings of Leon, U2, Rocket from the Crypt, QOTSA.
Links: myspace.com/monatheband
Friday's new band: MNDR.