By Logan Broyles | SDUN Reporter 
San Diego based-rock band Monsters from Mars was founded back in 2001. They started out primarily as an instrumental surf rock trio, but over the years their sound has morphed to include more of their garage rock roots and even occasionally throws in some new wave and electronic music into the mix.
The band’s original members, bassist Scott Jones; guitarist and vocalist Thor Anderson; and guitarist Alex Jones grew up in San Diego and started a ska band together when they were in high school but got into surf music soon after.
From Dick Dale to the Beach Boys, they found themselves drawn to the old school style of music rather than the punk bands on which they were raised.
“Though it was a vastly different style of music, one key element that informed our attitude towards live music and that carried over to the new band in a big way was that we were playing music for people to dance to,” Anderson said, which they found in surf rock.
The original surf rock trio has doubled in size since the band’s founding. The band now includes Bob Stencil on vocals, Paul Naylor on drums and Bianca Batti on keyboards.
The sound evolved into a mashup of different styles and instruments, and the new style seems to have caught on, with the band playing shows up and down the California coast and across the border in Tijuana. During their live shows they like to mix it up, often dancing with members of the crowd.
“I feel like the songs we play now are unmistakably Monsters From Mars, where as the earlier music was more in line with traditional surf rock, where… the song structures are allowed to be very similar,” Naylor said.
The band is known for recording and releasing their own albums and playing at venues that cater to the independent music crowd. They are also open to incorporating nearly any style of music they can think of.
“I remember Thor [Anderson] and I talking about putting together a surf orchestra with full choir and string sections,” Scott Jones. “I still think that would be awesome.”
Their tracks feature names and references to 90s pop culture, such as their homage to computer games, “Escape from Castle Wolfenstein” and “It Came From Red Alert.”
Their most popular song during shows is their spacey cover of the Britney Spears song “Toxic” that can be found on their 7-inch vinyl record “Surfing through a Creepy Castle,” which was released in 2006. The song’s signature melody is created using a unique electronic musical device called a Theremin, played by Scott Jones.
The instrument was used in the 1951 sci-fi classic film “The Day the Earth Stood Still” as a sound effect for flying saucers due to the psychedelic melody that it produces. Like most of their equipment, the band’s is homemade.
Monsters From Mars will be performing at Soda Bar, located at 3615 El Cajon blvd., on May 25. The line-up for the night also features Anderson’s solo project Just Another Snake Cult, along with indie band Kids and former Sleepy Sun singer Rachel Fannan.
