Monroe Mustang is warm. Warm tones oozing from guitars and organs, warm summer nights listening to cicadas buzzing in the trees, warm bathwater soothing tired, dusty limbs. This is neighborhood porch music, dreamy, twang-kissed country with shy hints of early '70s pop, the kind of songs you want to share with your closest friends. There is something undeniably comforting about Monroe Mustang's songs: listening to them, you can't help but feel right at home. It should come as no surprise, then, that these Austin residents record most of their material in their own house and rarely leave town to tour. All five members (Taylor Holland, Michael and Chris Linnen, Brian Barry, and Jason Stout) share singing duties and rotate instrumental assignments both onstage and in their home studio. This democratic approach adds a fluid grace and appealing malleability to their gentle songs. The lush, poppy "Dee" and the ominous, molasses-thick "Bottle Rocket" highlight the band's versatility. Both songs are from Monroe Mustang's 1999 Jagjaguwar full-length, The Elephant Sound. In October 1999, Monroe Mustang got their first taste of third-party production when they attended the Crossing Borders Festival in the Netherlands, an annual musical gathering organized by the VPRO (Dutch Public Radio). There, they recorded De Avonden 091099. Engineered and produced by Berry Kamer, Jan Hiddink, and Maurice Woestenburg, the EP is almost a full-length's worth of largely acoustic, perfectly paced music that culls the best moments of Monroe Mustang's career, including songs from The Elephant Sound and the band's debut full-length, Plain Sweeping Themes for the Unprepared (Trance Syndicate, 1998). "Evening" and "Waiting," featured here, are both from that EP. In addition to their full-lengths, Monroe Mustang has released two singles -- 1996's "I Was Eighteen," on Framed! Records and 1997's "Wusses," on Ata-Glance Records.