MONKEY ISLAND (2007)

Track Listing:

1 - Space Rock Alpha
2 - Monkey Island
3 - Furthur Down The Lost Highway
4 - Niennenburg IV
5 - Song Of The Sun
6 - Cannabia Discordia
7 - Space Rock Beta
8 - The Last Minute
9 - Escape From Monkey Island
10 - Zero Hour
11 - The Egg
12 - Million Monkey Theory In Practice

Musicians:

Dan "Redbeard" Baker - Guitars, drums Lora Bloom - Vox, Guitars
Kenny - Electronics, drums Leslie Q - Drums
Lisa Spera - Drums
Matt Stevenson - Bass, Keys

MONKEY ISLAND was recorded during 2003 - 2005. Radio Eris was based in the Webster Street house rented for a time by Matt. The band's line-up stabilized with the full-time participation of Kenny on electronics and noise, and Dan "Redbeard" Baker on guitar. During this time, Lora began to bloom as a second guitarist, and Matt played more bass in addition to keyboards. Leslie Q (at the time, of Temple of Bon Matin) joined for a brief period as a drummer, replaced by the band's current full-time drummer Lisa Spera.

MONKEY ISLAND consists of edited segments of improvisations from these rehearsals. All of the lyrics were spontaneous; Lora showed a rare ability to pull amazing words out of the aether. Matt took these recordings, added some discrete (and sometimes, indiscrete) effects to some tracks, shuffled, nipped and tucked the beginnings and endings and created pieces from them. While there are no overdubs, there are moments of collage - "The Last Minute" and "Niennenburg IV" are complete Frankenstein creations, the former basically a rehearsal folded back upon itself, the latter a pile of different tracks from late-night sessions.

One evening after a rehearsal, reviewing tapes, Matt opined, "It sounds like some experiment gone wrong, where somebody locked a bunch of monkeys in a studio." Kenny listened a bit longer and replied, "Those are some BAAAD monkeys." When the time came to collate the best recordings from this period, the monkey concept kept popping its funny little head up. The album title is a reference to the late Robert Anton Wilson's observation that it is a mistake to expect rational or decent behavior when you're trapped on the Planet Of The Apes, and an acknowledgement that the pieces here represent our own experiences with the Million Monkey Method of creation.

While neither planned nor rigidly executed, a joking sort of narrative concept emerged in the arrangement of pieces: a group of hominids wake up after traveling through space and find themselves trapped on a planet of monkeys. They explore, travel to a mystic city where everything is strange, and by connecting with the forces of creative chaos, manage to gain illumination that allows them to rise above the noise and poo-flinging and seek out a higher plane. Something like that, anyway. - Matt