Preface: I am not being a kiss-ass here and am by no means a rock critic – I’m just presenting my honest opinion about a band I believe in and hope makes it (whatever “making it” means in this day and age)I was pondering something the other day. Are there any bands doing something completely different in this town from most other bands? There’s at least a few hundred bands in the Twin Cities area, most of which I’ve never heard, and there’s got to be a handful of them that are capable of suspending my musical attention deficit disorder for more than 10 minutes. Right? Right…? Bueller? Anyone? Anyone? Don’t get me wrong, there are some really arse-kicking bands in this town – but sometimes I just want something out of the ordinary.
I’ve had a wee notion to get out and see some good bizarre local talent as of late. When mining through the bar ads looking for such a thing, what I see tends to be about as appealing as a rice cake and room temperature glass of water. I made a post on Area 52’s site requesting names of bands/artists that anyone might be aware of that I should know about. There were a lot of great suggestions that I will definitely look into (read it here>>)
Anywho, after making that there A52 post and wondering if I should give up all hope on finding something cool to go see in the near future, along comes Screaming Monkey Boner. With a name like that, how can you go wrong? (Speaking of, they chaned their name after this particular show - if you’re curious about what brought that on, visit the website at the bottom of this entry)
They sort of catch me off guard every time I see them because it’s always when my band is playing with them and I tend to be a little preoccupied with getting in the mental mode for playing a show (note to self: go see them when you’re not playing so you get full Screaming Monkey Boner pre-show anticipation).
SO – we played our set, got off the stage, and on went SMB. They blew me away as always. They’re like watching an old Warner Bros. cartoon on fast-forward, and I mean that as a compliment. Next time you’re watching one of those old cartoons, pay close attention to the amazingly complicated apeshit orchestration playing in the background and keep in mind that human beings had to draw every frame of those cartoons by hand. This, my friends, is similar to the entity that is SMB. Their showmanship definitely lives up to their soon-to-be-changed name – they’re all hopping, spinning, twisting and jiving all over the damn place, extremely colorful (both visually and energy-wise) all while playing some really great, complex music that takes a can opener, opens up the top portion of my skull, lifts the lid up, and tickles my brain.
I’m a pretty picky bastard when it comes to complex music, or “Math Rock” as some people call it. I am a self proclaimed Math Rock Snob. My brain processes it in one of two ways: it either A) gels and is really entertaining, or B) sounds like the band took a dozen different parts, slapped them together for the sake of trying to be complex without the right energy to pull it off, therefore making it boring as Hell to have to sit and listen to. SMB is definitely in the “A” category for me. They’re all top notch players that mix very well together, write great songs, or “experiences”, rather, and don’t have inflammation of the ego like many bands/musicians of their caliber do. They also nailed a few covers into their set like Homestar Runner’s “Trogdor” and Ren & Stimpy’s “Happy Happy Joy Joy!” Nice!
To add fuel to the fire, John’s (singer/keytarist) rapid fire rambling in between songs is a show all in itself. As any of you know who have seen me with my band, I’m a fan of saying impromptu unorthodox things to audiences in between songs. In my opinion, John takes rock talk to a whole new amusing level. It seems there’s always the typical limp, overdone “HOW’S EVERYONE FEEL TONIGHT? YOU ALL READY TO ROCK??! THANKS FOR COMING OUT TONIGHT!” banter going on at shows, but there is never an ounce of that with this band. Let me give you a nice example:
random voice mumbles something to the band from the audience
John: “You’re fat!” …and off they went into another song.
That takes some balls to say and make it funny, and the audience members laughed their asses off (for the record the person was not fat and he was just giving her shit – so if that rubbed you the wrong way, simmer down!) Another moment I found entertaining was geetarist extraordinaire Owen bouncing a plastic cup upside-down on the microphone. It made a really keen sound.
So, long story short, if you want something pretty far out of the ordinary, do yourself a favor by checking them out. Point and click these here linkies, why don’t you?
http://www.screamingmonkeyboner.com
http://www.myspace.com/smb
