Written by Andrew Younker / Playlist by Jesse Taconelli 

Destroy All Monsters’ short lived existence would be the perfect parallel to their infectious ideology — white-hot with rage and youth, they burned out quick. From Niagra’s humdrum scowl to Mike Kelley’s monster mash zines, each member filled an artistic niche and detailed a rich melting pot of influences in the experimental community, earning them cult affection far and wide in the DIY community. Destroy All Monsters early work was futurist and psychedelic, influenced heavily by Sun Ra and cheesy monster flicks and resulting in droning tracks with dense atmospheric sounds. They tilted their focus and quickly gained traction as a punk band with members from both the Stooges and MC5 before their abrupt end due to romance issues. The four-piece channeled an era of ripping down established idols and throwing caution to the wind with their abrasive sights and sounds and taught the world that all sound is harmony, whether it comes through longform demo recordings of trumpet patterns or from a couple vacuum cleaners in a collegiate lecture hall.