Monkey Power Trio - Spiders In The Blood Supply

  by Mark Rowland

published: 23 / 12 / 2005

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Review

After some difficulty, the Monkey Power Trio have released the record from their 2004 session, and it’s their best yet. Their tenth release, ‘Spiders in the Blood Supply’, still has the chaotic charm of their previous releases, but the quality of the songs has come on in leaps and bounds. The band only plays together for one day a year, and records a session to be released as a 7”. This means that the Monkey Power Trio are almost like a band developing in slow motion, steadily improving with each record. Over the course of their records they have written some truly great songs, but none of their records have been as consistently great as this one. ‘Spiders…’ kicks off with ‘When Fuzzy Met Jenkins’, a sloppily catchy rock song, with gloriously slurred, almost pissed-sounding vocals. It’s Monkey Power Trio at their best, complete with their trademark lead recorder lines. ‘Johnny Cash Buys a Screwdriver’ is a brilliantly absurd tale about a legendary American country singer going into Sears and buying a screwdriver off a pair of robots. The track builds up tension before exploding into a chorus of primal screams, possibly to represent Johnny Cash’s frustration at incompetent mechanical sales representatives. The title track is truly brilliant, like a Pavement song circa ‘Brighten the Corners’, recorded on equipment used during the ‘Slanted and Enchanted’ sessions. It’s incredibly catchy, I find myself humming it all the time. Closer ‘River’s Edge’ is another great song, which oddly brings to mind Jane's Addiction, despite sounding nothing like them. Anyway, this record is great, you should definitely buy it. Or download the songs off their website for free, whichever you prefer.

Track Listing:-

1 When Fuzzy Met Jenkins
2 Johnny Cash Buys A Screwdriver
3 Spiders In The Blood Supply
4 River's Edge