User:MHband2012

Monacan Hill is an American rock band from Richmond, Virginia, formed in 2012. The band consists of Alex Lee Ratner (lead vocals/guitar), Kai Engle (bass) and Josh "Machine" Gunn (drums). They are currently working on their first EP, which will be followed by a forthcoming studio album.

Early Years
Josh Gunn, a 22-year-old drummer, found Alex Lee Ratner on Facebook in August of 2011, after discovering he was a fellow musician in Richmond. The two began talking about music and found that they, surprisingly, had similar interests such as Big Star, Green Day and Aerosmith. Gunn, a member of a three-piece hard rock band at the time called NVEY, was just getting his foot in the door with playing shows and soon invited Ratner to play guitar with him in his band. Soon after Ratner joined, Kai Engle, a VCU student who responded to Gunn's Craigslist ad for a bass player, completed the lineup. The quintet would last a mere three months until Ratner and Gunn would branch out into what they intended to be a side project known as Monacan Hill.

Ratner, an avid songwriter, had dug up some old songs that he had written over the years and presented them to Gunn, who found a deep interest in the material. During their very early jam sessions, they produced a jammer called "Got 'Em," a song about standing up to your enemies without being a pushover. The song was well received and sparked a new theme in their music and their image. Ratner and Gunn, not long after "Got 'Em" was written, began to show a slower side in their jam sessions and produced numbers like "Chlorine", a song Ratner wrote about a girl.

Having cycled through their share of band members that never seemed to pan out due to lack of dedication and ego, they eventually recruited Engle, who played with them in NVEY, as their bassist.

2012-Present
On February 19, 2012, Monacan Hill played its first show at Kingdom in Richmond, Virginia. Their 6-song set featured "Got 'Em," "Chlorine," and 4 other new songs entitled "The Anteater and Lizard Pebbles," "Uncompromised," "West End Blues," and "My New Home."

On October 14, 2012, the band released "Fall Tonight" as their first single. The song was met to highly positive reception.

The band released their first EP entitled "Just For Kicks" on October 22, 2012 (Ratner's 19th birthday). They are currently playing shows around Virginia and beyond in support of it.