Monkey - "Cruel Tutelage", Asian Man Records
Posted August 31st, 2005 by Amy-Gilbert
in
Jesus Christ! It’s 1997, when ska ruled the world!! Oh wait, no, its Monkey. That’s right kids, did you know that ska is still around? I know, I know. I thought it died when No Doubt became popular too, but apparently some are trying to resurrect it. Monkey is an eight piece bay area ska band that prides themselves on the fact that they are “real musicians playing real instruments.” Wow. Even when ska was cool I would not have listened to this.
They sound less like a real band and more like a ska cover band. The vocals remind me of my dad putting on a bad Jamaican accent. The overall musicianship is alright. Yes, these guys know how to play guitars/trumpets. Its just that’s its too cheesy to take seriously and therefore it is crap.
Their attempt at a summertime fun song “Shanty Party” is so corny that it’s crossed over into sad. “Me come to party/ me come to play/ me come to get down/ so don’t jump in me way” What?!? Other head-scratching tunes include “Unity Dub”, which describes the singer giving a beat down and eventual lynching to racist red-necks, “Cruel Tutelage” an instrumental that sounds more like Klezmer music than ska, and finally “Voice of America” in which the singer professes “we need a musical intervention!/ I just wanna be the voice of America/ I just wanna hear my songs on the radio/ and maybe I’m asking too much/ I think I’m asking too much.” Yes Monkey, you are asking too much. We do NOT want to hear your songs on the radio. And if we are going to have a “musical intervention” as it were, you would not be invited.
Monkey would benefit from a little R&R. They need to abandon the dreams of selling out and stardom, listen to music that they actually enjoy, and use their musical abilities to create music that doesn’t sound forced. Maybe then the ska genre can actually make a re-birth. However, until that time Monkey remains a shallow ska cover band who happen to play their own songs.
– AG
