Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkeys Listen

At long last, another playlist. Sorry it's "slightly" later-than-hoped-for; [stage whisper] training the new interns has been a nightmare. [/stage whisper].

As surely as you understand the ahem spring training issues we all endure, you know how it is when you first meet someone, and conversation soon naturally turns to monkeys and monkey-related topics. About two years ago, this happened with a bloke I met who, it turned out, was trying to collect as many monkey songs as possible, a worthy goal indeed.

While I wasn't by any means a monkey-song completist, I do love monkeys, and had collected a respectable amount of monkey songs. He and I later exchanged and compared lists of monkey songs. That's how I got the idea for this playlist, so I post it with approximately a barrelful of thanks to him. Plus, he told me about one of the songs posted here, Ookla The Mok's "Hockey Monkey" (also available at their website) so more thanks for that tip.

I'm still not a monkey-song completist, though compiling the tunes seems clever for all sorts of reasons. For one, it's a fun way to discover new artists. I reluctantly concede that this might be equally true when collecting non-monkey-related songs. Yesterday I found instrumental band Forever Einstein's "I'm Trying To Contain An Outbreak Here And You're Driving The Monkey To The Airport", from their 2005 album Racket Science, which is so full of awesome titles that the full track list merits posting though it's a tangent here:

Forever Einstein - Racket Science:

1. How Come The Wrong People Are Always In Charge?
2. You're Living In A World Of Make-Believe With Flowers And Bells And Leprechauns And Magic Frogs With Funny Little Hats
3. It's A Good Thing I Don't Have Super Brain Powers Or You'd Be In A Thousand Little Pieces Right Now
4. They're Portable, They're Annoying And They Cost Three Dollars A Case
5. I'm Trying To Contain An Outbreak Here And You're Driving The Monkey To The Airport
6. It's Almost Impossible To Concentrate In This Cafe With All These Leggy Belgian Girls Walking Around In Miniskirts
7. God Has A Plan For Me, And It Involves Puppets
8. I Wish I Had Me Some Of Them Miracle Smart Pills
9. I Got My Picture Taken, I Got Forty Dollars And I Get To Keep The Underwear
10. There's Some Milk In The Fridge That's About To Go Bad...And There It Goes
11. Every Word Out Of Your Mouth Is Like A Turd Falling In My Drink
12. He Looks Interesting-And By Interesting I Mean Weird

I might have found this album in the unlikely event that I was making a puppet playlist or one about airports or milk. How great are those titles? How many of the quotes can you place?

The audio sample of "Monkey" at Amazon is too short to get a great handle on it, but it sounds (possibly) mellow and Baja-flavored. The sample of "God Has A Plan For Me, And It Involves Puppets" at the band's website is much longer. God might be a fan of puppet shows at the ocean, judging by the song's clear surf-rock influences. "God" seems great, and a lot of fun. "God" might be good at parties.

Oodles of lists of playlists and playlist ideas are at varying stages of progress. More will be posted, sooner or later (probably interspersed with other kinds of posts.) This one was itching to be posted next; I'll just be happy to have the monkey off my back.

Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkeys Listen - The Songs:

1. Artificial Joy Club - Cheeky Monkey (on Melt)
2. Cocteau Twins - The High-Monkey Monk (on The Box Set)
3. Fred Astaire & George Murphy - Don't Monkey With Broadway (on A Time To Remember: 1940)
4. Hawke - The Monkey's Wedding (on Love Won Another)
5. Jonathan Coulton - Code Monkey - one of his "Thing A Week" songs. See JonathanCoulton.com for more info, monkey merch., and/or music.
6. Lene Lovich - Monkey Talk (on Flex... Plus)
7. Ookla The Mok - Hockey Monkey - on Smell No Evil
8. The Hollies - Mickey's Monkey (on A's B's & EP's)
9. Jad Fair & Yo La Tengo - Minnesota Man Claims Monkey Bowled Perfect Game (on Strange But True)
10. New York Dolls - Dance Like A Monkey (on Strange But True)

The songs have been posted via a new-to-me file host. Still using the last one; I wanted to add another source of free storage space that lets people direct-download.

Right-click to direct-download any of the songs and/or listen to 'em:

Powered by www.myfabrik.com

Madness, David Gray, Many Guests at Teenage Cancer Trust Concerts

April 8th, Madness are set to perform on the first night of a week of Teenage Cancer Trust concerts at The Royal Albert Hall. They're tantalizingly billed as "Madness plus guests". "Guests" is a major theme for these shows... A couple of the events have already sold out, including, unsurprisingly, the Muse concert. (Don't fret; they will likely play many, many, many more times.) Tickets remain for every event but the ones with Muse and Paul Weller.

Noel Fielding from The Mighty Boosh hosts a night of comedy with "guests" April 9th. The Fratellis perform on April 11th. Be advised that they will be there with... guests.

On April 13th David Gray, Joan Armatrading, Newton Faulkner, and Amy MacDonald are scheduled to perform during a TCT Sessions concert. "More acts to be announced." Make them feel like guests even if the word isn't used.

David Gray - We're Not Right (on White Ladder)

(and see next post for a Madness tune)

Our House, the Musical with, Like, 20ish Madness Songs, Returning

On May 29th, Our House, "the Madness musical", will open at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre for a month-long run, which proceeds a tour. The show was written by Tim Firth and features "over 20" Madness songs—hey, the guesstimate is a great sign! It means people are too busy engaged in tasks more directly tied to making the production a creative (and financial) success to spend time on a song tally.

For Steve Brookstein, the first winner of The X Factor, Our House includes the twin challenges of his first musical and the "exciting new challenge" of acting. His first role is one Madness frontman Suggs originated; he'll play the father of central character Joe Casey. Joe gets the big, sweeping love story; his dad gets the house.

The Suggs-enhanced version of the play won the 2003 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical.

Among those "more than 20" songs in the show: "It Must Be Love", "My Girl", "House Of Fun", "Baggy Trousers", "Wings Of A Dove", "Driving In My Car", and, well, "Our House".

Perhaps now that you're reassured "Our House" is in the show, you wish to see it. FYI, you can buy tickets online. Ah, but so can other people. Local ones, even. If you want to see it on, say, opening night, don't assume that everyone else in England will be busy throwing or rolling bread or cheese. (Hey, "interesting" holidays, UK! You guys may not like the way we Americans spell, but at least our holidays are nettle-free.)

Madness - Girl Why Don't You (on The Dangermen Sessions Vol. 1)

The The Asks for Help to Save Shoreditch (Add "This is the Day" Joke If You Must)

The The are taking part in the Save Shoreditch campaign against a fast-approaching major property development in East London that would dramatically change the flavor of the area after putting many people out of their homes. The group warns that "The decision is due in days." It sounds as though the public hasn't been given much of a voice in the development plans, which usually means both the developers and some government folks have screwed up.

As part of the effort to spread the word about what's happening, and what could happen, the group has filmed a video clip and asked for help in getting it circulated as quickly and widely as possible. Time is of the essence here.

The group's video:



For more info, see Save Shoreditch.com

"The electric drill just caught my attention. I just loved the sounds it made!"

Well, here's something you probably don't see everyday. Today PingMag posted an excellent interview with Ujino Muneteru. He takes appliances, tools, furniture, and seemingly pretty much anything that isn't nailed down, and reconfigures them into a melange of creative instruments. He makes music with these Frankenstein-esque instruments under the name The Rotators.

Muneteru says, "I'm not so much trying to replicate real instruments as much as the ideas come to me." He prefers to work with older items. "I think I am drawn to them because I can see how they work and function."

Plus, there's the nostalgia effect on the audience. "I want my installations and performances to bounce back old memories and draw people in. Like going to a flea market, everyone's going to click with something different and say, 'Oh! I used to have one of those when I was a kid.'"

The interview is fun. He compares the look of his live show to "a cooking show on TV", and thanks to his YouTube videos, you can see what he means.

Check out PingMag for the interesting interview, cool pictures, and info on the Rotators' tour schedule (which includes an appearance in New York).

"The Savage's Plastic Ikebaka":



Will it blend?... wait, that's a different blender video...

World Pillow Fight Day (Mitten Climates Stay Home)

As you can tell from its name(s), World Pillow Fight Day 2008—also known as World Pillow Fight Day, International Pillow Fight Day, Global Pillow Fight Day, Pillow Fight Day, and Pillow Fight Day 2008— is a worldwide pillow-fighting event. Only, this year's Pillow Fight Day, which organizers have announced is March 22nd, won't span the entire globe. It will miss San Francisco and any city where its likely to be very cold, such as Toronto and Montreal. San Francisco is taking a pass as well, because they had a Valentine's Day pillow fight (romantic!) and... they will still be tired from that one, or something like that. Maybe March 22nd is traditionally a holiday devoted to love for San Franciscans.

Fellow Los Angelenos: the Los Angeles Pillow Fight has been scheduled for 2:30 PM, March 22nd in Pershing Square. (A few hours ago, it was set for 2:00. If you're planning on going, it would probably be wise to keep checking for updates every so often.) Be there or don't get beaten with a bunch of strangers' old, smelly pillows while they giggle and other strangers take redundant YouTube videos featuring a soundtrack mostly consisting of crowd noise, giggling, exclamations of wonder and amazement, and repeated queries such as, "Did you get that?" and "Are you sure the camera's working?" Don't panic; there's still plenty of time to practice your giggle, smelly-up your pillow, and get a few pillow fights to get ready for the big one.

Because they're missing out on the most-of-the-world massive pillow fight event, cold cities are completely welcome to make their own separate, adorable little pillow fight plans. Montreal is planning its own event for spring or summer; Toronto has tentative plans for a pillow fight in Nathan Phillips Square the first weekend in June. It's smart to wait that long to ensure their pillows will have sufficient time to thaw out.

It may not stay separate-pillow-fights-for-cold-people next year. According to World/Global Pillow Fight organizers, later this year, there will be a poll about when next year's pillow fight should be. Even the opinions of people who might sensibly wear "feetie" pajamas will allegedly be welcomed. People in chilly cities should probably feel slightly... frozen out... if next year's International pillow fight is held in December.

Speaking of frozen things, in case you haven't already marked it on your calendar, you might want to jot down the date of this year's Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day, which is April 17th. I've realized it might just be an American thing... I think that's probably the case. Now I feel a bit rude for the friendly ribbing toward Toronto and Montreal. Not about San Francisco though. Perhaps everyone can unite in our confusion about the Valentine's pillow fight and how exhausting it is.

The 6ths - (with Mitch Easter) - Pillow Fight (on the very cool-sorry, Wasps' Nests)

Eurythmics - You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart (on Greatest Hits)

Pizzicato Five - Icecream Meltin' Mellow (Marin Mix 2) (on In the Mix)