How do you describe the last 10 years of Music?
In more than a decade, Monkey has been a band of musicians with one goal...
to Rock your Asses of with chunky Ska & Reggae riddims.
Performing 150-200 shows per year and recording for several releases, this 6 piece, high-energy, organ driven, group sets the pace for the local music scene.
During Monkey's 10-year existence, over 6,000 units of the Debut Cd Changito and their sophmore effort "Station Wagon Living" have been sold worldwide (without label support or distribution).
MONKEY has also been featured on over 30 Compilations, Movies, TV shows and Video Game soundtracks.
Now the band has been signed to Asian Man Records and has released their 3rd full length album:
CRUEL TUTELAGE
This incredible new Album can be purchased at iTunes or Asian Man Records:
http://www.asianmanrecords.com
January 30
Decade of Decadence (Secrets of Longevity) ...By Todd Inoue
MONKEY'S effervescent ska is like a cool mojito on a sweltering day: refreshing and bubbly with a kick. The band has survived trends, promoter rip-offs, a changing club landscape and personnel instability (membership tipped 39 at last count) to tour 200 days out of the year and release three full-length CDs. On the eve of its 10-year anniversary show and in celebration of its newest CD, Cruel Tutelage (Asian Man Records), Monkey founder Curtis Meacham shares a few of the lessons learned.
Shoot for the sky but be willing to accept the same fate of not making it. "If you have a really good audience but you envision yourself having a great one, don't hate yourself for it. We'll play a hall with 200 300 one night and then some place in Modesto the next to 25 30 people. As long as people are attentive we can have a show be as good as a 200 300 seater."
This band is about doing things and making things happen. "When I audition people, I tell them that this band is not about money, drugs or a crazy image. It's about the music. We're willing to accept a player without the greatest skills if the desire to play the music is greater than the ability to play an instrument. The ability will come."
It comes down to devotion. "I've had this conversation where I'll say, 'If you can't look at me and say you love this music, you have to look at yourself and ask why you're here." You have to find what you love about the music. That's the thing about being in a band; it's a huge social experiment. It's people creating art simultaneously without killing each other."
Over the past 10 years, I've seen hundreds of bands just dissolve. "It's a general depression caused by the economy and the politics of the nation. In 2002, there was a big shift with what people did with their spare time. Bands fell apart. My band nearly fell apart. In the '90s, music was explosive and huge. The world was Las Vegas. Everyone was doing well. The economy was going crazy. There was swing, rock, ska, pop punk. But then, a new president, 9/11, and now, nobody wants to go outside to see people they don't know and spend money."
Swing annihilated ska. "Everyone said, 'You're going to look back and be so embarrassed wearing the suits and the checkerboards.' But then swing got big, and we were going, 'Oh my God, this is buffoonery!' Half the ska bands started playing swing, and suddenly there were 5 billion new swing bands in a week and a half. Everyone is playing swing and wearing zoot suits. It lasted six months, and it was like a cartoon mockery of itself. It went away so fast, and it took ska with it."
When you serve too many masters, it exposes you and your audience. "It wasn't hard as far as personal choice to stick with ska. I like ska and rocksteady. There's some reggae I like, but it's mostly rocksteady and ska and some Latin. Some bands completely changed their sound. First they were ska, then swing, then punk, then electro indie pop, then they fell off the planet."
There's a saying in the industry: the average overnight success is 10 years. "It's true. It took us nine years for an indie label to take a chance on us. Either it'll come to an end or success will come really fast. We've been around long enough that we've seen the industry begin repairing itself. And everything is looking better."
Keep getting better. "Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and ask when I'm going to stop doing this. It's like a bad habit. I was really struggling to get shows and do anything for a buck. Like what fire hoop do I have to jump through, how many packages do I have to send off? Now we have contacts in the gigging world. Now I can call up clubs and book a tour in two hours. We've become a commodity that's part of people's lives."
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January 25
It's a jungle out there, but Monkey stays together ...Brad Kava 1/25/06
For San Jose's Monkey, Staying together as a rock band for a decade hasn't been monkey business. It's been years of sleeping on hard floors, driving the country in beat up vans and dining at fast-food drive-throughs.
Monkey, which plays Ska - the Jamaican folk music named for the chunky, rhythmic ska, ska, ska sound of it's guitars - has defied the odds and celebrates it's 10th year as a recording and touring unit on friday at San Jose's Blank Club. It will include appearances by many of the 39 musicians who have passed through it's ranks over the years.
"School, settling down, real jobs, those are the things that people have left for," says founding member Curtis Meacham, 33, the band's guitarist."The early tours taught people a lot, too. It was the breaking point for a lot of members, who didn't know if they wanted that lifestyle." The lifestyle, says Meacham - who has a day job at Santa Clara's appropriately named Starving Musician - is strictly low budget: playing clubs and sleeping on the floor at homes of fans or friends they meet along the way.
"It's about establishing a larger family network in the U.S.," Meacham says. "That's very important to the survival of a band."
The band's last album, "Cruel Tutelage," is on San Jose's Asian Man Records. It's the only San Jose band on the popular Punk and Ska label. It's a strong work, with crafty, catchy writing and seriously fun songs, such as "Trailer Park Love," "Summertime Sun," and "Shanty Party."
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October 1
Monkey Review ...Music Editor
Forget beachy reggae beats drenched in Red Stripe; this San Francisco outfit plays an urban and urbane brand of ska revival. Though far less punk than the Specials, Monkey's sound is clearly influenced by British Two-tone, with island beats & a liberal infusion of lyrical angst.
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September 1
Review of CRUEL TUTELAGE ...Stewart Mason
From the woozy horn-spiked intro of the opening "Summertime Sun" onward, it's clear that San Francisco's Monkey isn't your average ska band. Unlike the vast majority of third- and fourth-generation ska bands, Monkey's collective knowledge of ska history goes well beyond the first set of 2 Tone singles: there's no punk or new wave influences to speak of in these ten songs, but Monkey isn't quite a bunch of old Studio One revivalists, either. Cruel Tutelage sounds unexpectedly fresh and modern. By going back to ska's Jamaican roots and skipping the homages to the Specials and the Selecter, Monkey has, somewhat paradoxically, made the least tradition-bound and most enjoyable pure ska album in quite some time.
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August 30
Review of Cruel Tutelage ...James McQuiston
Unlike many of the bands currently out on the market who would front-load their music to ensure the most sales, Monkeys music on Cruel Tutelage gets better as the disc spins on. While there is a certain compelling nature to early-disc tracks like Shanty Party, the evolution of harmony and a more-emotive feel towards the end of the disc really keeps listeners listening. This disc is perfect party music, as was said before but should not be underestimated in regards to artistic worth. The arrangements are as intense and inspiring as any other act, and Monkey is one of those rare acts who can please on many levels.
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ryogas
hey! i leave you the link of my band if u wanna
hear,,, i hope u like it,, cya if u want add us!
http://purevolume.com/kontrato
http://myspace.com/kontrato
posted Sep 21
Jak_Ratz
I like your style. Kinda mixing Ska and Reagae
together. That\'s pretty cool. I basically grew up on
Ska, so you guys are a relief to the ears after all
that (c)Rap. It\'s wonderful to hear that someone
appreciates this type of music as much as mine. UTAH
SUCKS!!
posted Mar 14