Monkey Power Trio: Future Past Present Four more songs from the Monkey Power Trio. If you're new to them, here's the scoop: the guys in MPT are crazy, but in a nice way. They agreed as a band, many years ago, to meet, play, and record only one time every year - and to continue doing so until they were all passed from this life. They never practice, and go into the studio cold to record what is eventually released on a sweet-looking single. This, their seventh single, is called Future Past Present. All members of the band are currently still living, and they haven't missed a year yet. Apparently this one is getting played on Brave New Waves (CBC), which is good news for both parties. Monkey Power Trio are fresh, very DIY punk. Their songs are often quite short (a good thing in my books) and lyrically quick: the chugging "When I Save Time, I Save Money" repeats the one line again and again. By the end of it, you find you've really had time to consider the arguments, and yes, you do save money when you save time. It's Zen, really. But much better. "The Land of MPT" sounds like MPT might have brought some pot into the studio - it's a pseudo-psychedelic whisper fest, with little minimalist licks to give it depth. Somehow it works, it really does. This is very listenable stuff for what it is (the B side of an insane record). Side A is the highlight, though, with the above-mentioned Money song, and "Black Fulton," which opens the whole thing up: a banging, slightly discordant riff that drives like crazy, a howled lyric right from the bowels of rock and roll: "100 miles an hour, baby, coming to your town! Are you ready? Yeah! Are you ready? Yeah!" And then, wow, one of the best things I've heard the band do: somebody's playing the sax, a crazy all-out solo of disarray. Sounds really great, and leaves you wondering if that's a great solo by a bad sax player, or a bad-on-purpose great sax solo by a real sax player. It's the mysteries we love. Honk honk. Hooray for this band. Go see our Partial Career Retrospective of earlier work by the Monkey Power Trio, and then you can go here to see their fun site and order some 45s.
Monkey Power Trio: Future Past Present. Pocahontas Swapm Machine Recordings, 2001.
Review by jep clayton, BadMonkeyX. 6th issue, July 2002.