Fronted by former Discount guitarist Ryan Seagrist (not Seacrest), The Monikers' Eat Your Young is very much an ep from a band that sounds like a work in progress. It's not innovative; it sounds a lot like early Jawbreaker, but it is pretty good.
Eat Your Young opens with "Information", which immediately hits you with some Bad Religion-influenced guitar riffs and then the rest of the record slides into the Jawbreaker meets Discount sound that the band is obviously comfortable with. The biggest standout track is the final one; an acoustic track called "Not The New". It benefits most from their low-fi recording, and lets you hear the most of what this band could offer.
The recording and mixing is a little raw and rough, as if these guys are still in the process of sorting out what they want to sound like. Hopefully this will be resolved by the time they release a full-length album. As it is, the mildly disturbing cover on Eat Your Young is the most memorable aspect of this five-song ep.
In just 12 minutes, the band delivers a taste of their gritty sound. It's just a snack though, and you'll be hungry later. Whether or not your hungry for more Monikers depends on which direction they head in. If they explore how they work together, they definitely could take it somewhere. As they are now, you could sample countless other records and not know the difference.
