MONKEY KONG
Mammoth
This band is out to have fun and they’re trying to drag us all down with them! With Monkey Kong, their second full length they just might succeed. Bouncing between punk rock riffs, pop melodies and the odd chirps and quacks from their arsenal of samples, A delivers a harmonic winter vacation where the Beach Boys, Beastie Boys, Beck, Rush and the Police are sharing the slopes.
I’d buy this just because it has a Monkey on the cover, an image that alludes to the cheese and humor cleverly disguised in these songs. Besides some of the self-proclamating and gloating lyrics on tracks like “A” and “If It Ain’t Broke, Fix It Anyway” there are dark humorous references in “Here We Go Again (I Love Lake Tahoe)” where they use Sonny Bono’s fatal accident as a means of completing a rhyme. Apparently this band has been out touring with the likes of Ash, Feeder and Reef, but I wouldn’t hold that against them.
Rating: B+
V.L.
