SonicMonks

Hell Monkey:
I know some of these songs are overplayed in radio, but my excuse is that I don't really listen to the radio, so there you go. And some of these songs are really too slow to dance to, but they get me moving, so that's dancing for me.

1. Vaiko Eplik & Eliit - Seks on lahe
2. Muse - Supermassive Black Hole
3. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani California
5. The Raconteurs - Steady, as she goes


Heaven Monkey:

1. Regina - Olisitko sittenkin halunnut palata (a pity I've only had a chance to dance to it alone in my room)
2. Cansei de Ser Sexy - Let's make love and listen death from above (the first time I heard it was two days ago, but I'm already sure it's one of the best dance tracks of last 12 months... at least for me)
3. Patrick Wolf - Tristan
4. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - There Was No One, There Will Not Be Anyone (15 minutes of Pakistani sufi music...haven't listened to his music much, but this song kept my hips moving for a week sometime in spring)
5. Love - Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale (not exactly a dance track, but that didn't hold me back dancing to it :)

Dear Monkey Diary,
since we are sometimes too lazy (as a tr00 monkey should be) to write long posts about groups or albums or whatever we have promised to write here with our little hairy monkey hands, we decided to start a new short topic BANANA TOP! It's for those long days we are unable to form long and logical sentences or thoughts. For the days sun has cooked our brains, or cold has freezed our butts. The days we are too drunk to write or too sane to think about anything else than existential problems. Or for days like this one.
The theme of the Banana Top is named by one of us and then both of us give their personal view of it. And if you, dear reader, think there exists a personal opinion in your little head, you should contribute. BY ALL MEANS CONTRIBUTE!! We sure would like to know, how does your Banana Top look like.

While the three singing jubilee ladies (Ines, Anne Veski and Ita Ever, if I'm not mistaken) tour around Estonia and celebrate their birthdays by giving concerts and calling themselves the three flowers, then why shouldn't this flower celebrate his birthday with a nice party?! Cause, you know..25 isn't a joke anymore. As a matter of fact it's quarter to 100 or 1/4 of hundred or how ever you like to put it. Terrible, horrible age, so the party should be even greater.
So grab your bouquets, bring some big gifts and come listen to Eliit (Eplik, Kasar, Saaremets, Pehk, Sheripov, Tursk), Dr Love, DJ Magneta, DJ Vaiko Eplik, DJ Pehujaan and maybe some others. The party is said to start about 22 and the ticket costs 50 EEK.

Earlier today Heaven Monkey turned my attention to Pitchfork's review of The Mars Volta's first realsed track from their upcoming album. Although Pitchfork gave only 1,5 stars to it, I still think it's one kick ass track. But then again I would be the person Pitchfork describes as a "friend from high school who shits themselves every time the Mars Volta release something new". For now, I have listened it at least 10 times, and oh well, I must say I looove the way Cedric uses his voice and I almost can stand ALL the long guitar-solos and stuff, that Omar is doing.
Viscera Eyes is a bit more upbeat and unified than most of their work, so it's not so hard to follow (au contraire to "L'via L'viaquez"). There is a certain stable theme through this track.
It's 9 minutes and 23 seconds long so prepare yourself - no easy-listening here. From 7:52 starts my favorite part.

The Mars Volta - Viscera Eyes :
Windows media
Real media

A mainstream banana for a change :) I decided not to write about Thom's whole album, because I have to listen it a couple of times more before forming my opinion. But "Black Swan" is a song I've listened to at least twenty times during the last 24 hours. It's not strinkingly innovative at all (sounds like Radiohead's "Pyramid Song" in a way, but it's more minimalistic), but there's something catchy I like about it. He sounds kind of calm and resigned, especially reckoning with rather depressed lyrics (just listen to him saying "and it's fucked up, fucked up"). Not appropriate for someone in a good mood, it might count against it.
Youtube provides us with a video of someone drawing while listening to this song ---

Gulag Orkestar - this is what happens, when a straight-A student drops out from school to travel and party across Europe without a worry in his mind.
Heaven Monkey has asked me many times, what is this Beirut, what I have been listening to. To be honest, I had almost no idea. Only thing I knew was, that it sounded great and I wanted more. So, I did a little research and this is what I found out.
Beirut aka Zach Condon, only just 20 years old, got the inspiration from Balkan gypsy music and Eastern Europe itself. Gulag Orkestar is mostly the work of a one man. Recently he got a backing band with horns, violins, cellos, ukuleles, mandolins, glockenspiels, drums, tambourines, congas, organs, pianos, clarinets and accordions, so the concert should be a great sight.
As a monkey, who mainly concentrates on the sound, I can't say I have payed attention to the lyrics (the sound of a human voice is mostly just another instrument for my ears, but at the same time I'm not such a great fan of instrumental music), about which Pitchforks' review is a bit critical, but Condons deep impressive voice sounds very credible indeed. Like an old man from somewhere Eastern Europe telling his incredible and a bit sad life story.
Well, whatever, listen to it yourself:

Beirut - Postcards from Italy
Beirut - Mount Wroclai (Idle Days)
Beirut - Interior of a Dutch house


Beirut's official homepage
Beirut at myspace.com

If you're too cool to go to Viljandi folk music festival, then you'll probably go to Seksound's dancenight at Von Krahl instead. Previous Seksound's dancenights are known for low entrace fees and high-quality indie disco music, but this time it's going to be even better, because Ans. Andur, Bad Apples and Honey Power will perform live and later on DJ´s Melodija (Tauno Maarpuu), Rein Fuks and Reijo Tagapere will play their favorite danceable melodies. Entrance is almost free (25EEK), so you very unlikely have a reason good enough for not showing up (unfortunately I have).

Ans. Andur
Bad Apples
Honey Power
Seksound

Well, we just attended a great green grass festival this weekend and I must say, it's just so great to sit on the ground and watch people and listen to great music and stuff like that. Really! Great! As our summer here in Estonia is so brief, we have the duty to take everything from it. So all you shaven and drunk-tanned people, please, take my advise, and attend this nice event. Explore our little country and enjoy some nice music. On the fifth of August, pack your bags and go to Kilingi-Nõmme, pay these ludicrous 50 EEK and listen to music from Juni Järvi, Goodnight Monsters, ans Andur, Galaktlan Grupp and others.
Seriously!
Take some time off.

Festival homepage here

This band is a great discovery for me and I just have to share it with you. It's an unorthodox interpretation of rock music. At the same time fragile and sharp. Ying and yang and stuff like that. As you can see, I'm not in a mood for great words and compelling comments. So I'll make it quick and painless. This eight piece band sounds a bit björkish at first glance and may have similarities with Sigur Rós, but how would I know? To me Sigur Rós sounds like a slow death, but this I like. They mainly use piano, cello, violin, electrically distorted saw, organ, drums and percussion to get these eerie and poetic sounds. And it is absolutely a pro that their lyrics are in danish. Makes it even more compelling and mystical. Seems to be a very beautiful language.


Under Byen- Af samme stof som stof
Under Byen- Den her sang handler om at få det bedste ud af det


Under Byen's "Plantage"- absolutely astonishing and too beautiful to be true video (Needs Flash to run)
Under Byen in myspace.com
Under Byen homepage
Under Byen fansite


Photo: Martin Dam Kristensen

More than anything I like the name of the band... and the fact that one of the members is a part-time Dolphin Trainer. And that's almost everything I know about this band.
When experts talk about their music, they use band names like Talking Heads, Sonic Youth and Radiohead, and I'm not going to argue with experts. What matters to this monkey is that their artistic production is fun and a bit experimental. So here you are, ladies banana lovers and mister monkeys:
Love Ends Disaster! - Ginko Disco
Love Ends Disaster! - John Majors Megadrive

LED's homepage
LED! at myspace.com

Tv-resistori is another synthpop-miracle from Finland. They're at least as cool as Regina, but a lot cuter. I haven't heard their previous album "Intiaanidisko", so I can't compare "Serkut rakastaa paremmin" with it(but maybe it's a good thing actually). Anyway, the album consists of eleven catchy pop songs which are often naive as well as melancholic. I really like that they don't use only female vocals, instead many songs are boy/girl duets between Yrjö Saarinen and Päivi Kankaro. I'd also like to say something good about their drummer Aleksi Salo, but I'm not very familiar with the terminology :P
I've been listening to it for twenty days in a row and when I'm not, I'm probably humming "jos oot vielä heikkona mun loveen, sulla on avain mun oveen" or "toiset tuntee toisensa kuin kaksoset olis tehnyt lapsia". If my Finnish wasn't that poor, they'd probably sound even better, but I'm pretty sure you might like them even if you don't understand a single word they say :)
Ok, enough, there's no use of just reading how an album sounds like, you must listen to it instead! Full album isn't available for download, but there are some samples on their myspace page.

J.o.v.h.m.l.s.o.a.m.o. (love) (video)
Their homepage (only in Finnish though)
Myspace (in English)
Fonal Records

Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd's co-founder and first leader, died last Friday at the age of 60 according to the words of a spokeswoman for the band. The cause of death is questionable until the band will make an official announcement, but it is known that Barrett suffered from diabetes. As you may or may not know, Syd was one of the principal inventors and architects of psychedelia in the 60s and early 70s. His mental instability and abuse of various recreational drugs led him to leaving Pink Floyd in 1968. He had a brief solo career and released two albums - The Madcap Laughs and Barrett. Since 1972 he lived in quiet seclusion in his hometown Cambridge with his mother. It was also the time he returned to his original art-form of painting. Questions like what would've become of Pink Floyd and Syd's career if he hadn't had those health issues will probably remain unanswered. Sad :(

Wikipedia on Syd Barrett
VH1 on Syd's death
NME on his death

Who the hell is Robert Fripp??
King Crimson rings a bell? Well, Robert Fripp is the guitarist and also a founding member of the progressive rock band King Crimson.
Soundscapes - that is the theme of this tour and it is a sideproject of his. In 1995, he realeased a series of albums under this name. It is said to be really intimate and also frightening.
Jazzkaar.ee warns King Crimson fans, that they will be disappointed hoping to hear something similar to their work. So no rock music, I guess. As I understand, he uses a lot of digital electronics and is exploring the possibilities of electrical guitar, so it should be interesting never the less.
Anyway, the tickets cost 125 EEK for grown-ups and only 75 EEK for students and other special people. Concerts start at 1900.

22.08 Tallinna Pühavaimu church
23.08 Pärnu Eliisabeti church
24.08 Haapsalu castle church
25.08 Viljandi Jaani church
26.08 Tartu Jaani church

Robert Fripp's Diary
King Crimson in wikipedia
More info from Piletilevi.ee

Just this morning I was looking at Dagö's tour poster and wondered why hasn't Ultima Thule announced a tour yet, cause as much as I understand these things, it seems they have taken up a habit to tour around in the summer. And so, it was just meeting my expectation when I read from piletilevi.ee about "Ei midagi erilist... mida iganes" (in english it would be "Nothin' special... whatever", I suppose). If last year they wandered around with Propller, then this year they enjoy the stage company of Singer Vinger. Not a bad combination. But then again, what would be a bad combination with Ultima Thule? Eeerm...Ultima Thule and Vanilla Ninja??
Anyways, you can attend the concert in four fabolous places, the choice is yours:

29.07.2006 Pärnu Vallikäär 21.00
30.07.2006 Rakvere Laululava 21.00
01.08.2006 Tartu Laululava 21.00
03.08.2006 Pirita Kloostri Varemed 20.00

The tickets cost for students and all other special people only 100 EEK and for normal people 130 in Pärnu, Rakvere, Tartu and 160 in Tallinn (in Pirita cloister ruins).

Link to piletilevi's announcement.

Isn't it great - you plan to spend two days in Tartu and now you actually have something to do there!!! No no, I don't mean to be offensive now. Certainly there's lots to do in some other time too, if you know your way around Tartu and have many-many interesting friends there. But in my case we are dealing with a serious Metropolitan Monkey, whose most interesting friends spend their time in the summer in great busy Tallinn, so don't mind me being over sarcastic, it's just what I do.
Anyway, back to business - in the evening before the long-awaited Plink Plonk festival, you can chill in one of the most comfiest and coolest places in Tartu - at club Maailm and be intoduced to the nicest sounds on earth by people, who are going to be on the stage next day. These great people are:

Jaan Pehk (Köök),
Foto (Ans Andur),
Honolulu (Les Diamants),
Kristiina Reidolf (Tartu Popi ja Roki Instituut).

So, be there or be square... or something.

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of theirs and bought the ticket mainly because it rarely happens that a band so famous and influential comes to Estonia. All our biggest newspapers published long interviews with band members (EPL, PM, EE) and that forthcoming event seemed to be important enough to touch everyone's heart around here. So it came to me as a surprise, when I heard that a week before the concert about 300 tickets out of 800 weren't sold yet.
Anyway, about the concert itself now. During the warm-up (Pia Fraus) only some brave young lads with cameras dared to near the stage, everyone else kept a very safe distance and acted extremely shyly. Situation changed at 10 PM when Animal Collective began with their gig. What I saw, was something hysterical, psychedelic and improvisation-like (although they rarely improvise actually), yet well-planned and that had a direct influence on the previously timid audience. Since at least half of the songs performed were said to be new and even the already known ones weren't very easy to follow for me, it went beyond my comprehension a few times. I wondered how it would sound if I would've been drunk or high, because even though I was completely sober, I felt kind of half-conscious or half-asleep. It just sounded so unreal at times. I must admit that since the beginning of the concert I secretly waited for "The Purple Bottle" and when at last they played that...well, it gave me a sense of enormous well-being :) The end of the show came very suddenly and I was surprised how come these 110 minutes had passed so fast.
Not exactly an informative review, but it probably takes time for me to understand what it was that I saw and heard yesterday. Maybe it'll be like with The Mars Volta's concert at Provinssirock last year - I didn't know much about them, but their perfomance astouned me and at last their music grew on me. I believe the same will happen with Animal Collective, they're sure worth the effort.

Animal Collective at FatCat Records
Animal Collective at myspace

Animal Collective - Leaf House

The rulers of this MonkeyLand have unanimously decided, that we still need a separate topic for concert reviews and retrospects of passed events. So, here it is, we introduce you the FLASHBACK.
First Flashback should come soon - tomorrow or day after that. Depends on Heaven Monkey's emotional condition after Animal Collective's concert. It's a pitty I can't attend that event, rrrreal pitty.

Ruht is one of my latest favourites in Estonian music, so certainly I'm going to write about them. It's one of those bands you can feel, have a great potential. The core of the band consists of already skillful musicians - Chopper, the man behind the music, whose previous project was Plasticwhore (if I'm correct) and PeZ, the man who provides the lyrics and is already known as the frontman of Leech. So it's obvious it can't be something awfully wrong for your ears. I myself, have seen them a honorable counted numbers on stage. As a matter of fact I have seen one of their first lives and it wasn't anything impressive. Quite awful to be honest. The sound was terrible and I tried to remember if PeZ was so off with Leech too. But my surprise was great the next time I heard them. It was like a totally different band, just as it was ment to be. Don't know what happened meanwhile, but it certainly was a miracle. Although, there is much room for growing, you can see they are growing in the right direction. I recommend to keep your eye on them.
Few days ago I listened to their R2 Live visit and I was suprised again. The sound was better again (the dominant drumming that has bothered me since I last saw them has mellowed down a bit).
So I think you should listen to Ruht's visit to R2 Live (March 2006) from here. Listen at least the track that begins from the 6th minute.

You can read the bio and other information from Ruht's homepage.

And if you are too lazy to look at the homepage, then you can listen a bit better version (than at R2 Live) of "Texas Rebel Radio" from here. It's quite catchy, isn't it?