From of the City of Angels comes 100 Monkeys, a band described by SPIN.com as “funk rock” and by RollingStone.com as “tribal sounds with vocals recalling Jim Morrison’s baritone croon.” Beyond Race Magazine says they are “sing-along-worthy, sometimes bluesy” and MTV.com describes them as a mix of “Iggy Pop with the Raconteurs.” 100 Monkeys, however, jest that their music is purely “onomatopoetic, but for the sake of simplicity, we’ll call it funky rock-n-roll.”
This quintet of multi-instrumentalists comprises of multi-faceted artists, actors and producers such as: Jackson Rathbone (who appears in such movies as The Last Airbender, and the Twilight Saga), Ben Graupner (Trapped in the 5150, Devolved), Jerad Anderson (Wayne/Lauren Film Company), Lawrence Abrams (of Ike & Tina Turner, U.S.O., and the Artists Consortium), and Ben Johnson (of the Stevedores and music producer of Spencer Bell’s “Brain”).
100 Monkeys are known to switch instruments and vocalists nearly every other song during their raucous, theatrical live-sets, an idea patented as the “Monkey Switcheroo.” Swinging about the stage with an enthusiasm that seems to have been lost since the advent of digital recordings, the 100 Monkeys bring back that analog rock-n-roll of the 60’s, with the humor and cynicism of modern times.
When asked to describe their lyrics, the band attributes “drinking, the devil, death, and women who cheat and steal.” To further the eclectic eccentricity, the band consistently improvises a song per live-set, whereupon they ask an idea or “song title” from the audience and proceed to jam out a tune replete with verses and lyrics…another original idea from an original rock band.
100 Monkeys’ completely independent discography includes 3 EP’s: Monster de Lux (all improvised recordings),Singles (”Ugly Girl,” “Smoke,” “Wasteland Too”), and The Creative Control: Live Sessions. Their first studio album, Grape, was released in 2009. An untitled follow-up album set for January 2011!
Off the yet-to-be-titled sophomore album, 100 Monkeys released their first single, “KolPix,” with a B-side set, “Future Radio” which will be released July 7, 2010 in building up to the release of their upcoming live album, Alive and Kicking: Part I to be released on July 20th, 2010!
