Fight Like Apes
You Filled His Head With Fluffy Clouds and Jolly Ranchers, What Did You Think Was Going To Happen
Model Citizen
With an EP title like You Filled His Head With Fluffy Clouds and Jolly Ranchers, What Did You Think Was Going To Happen, Fight Like Apes are setting themselves up for ridicule. Song lyrics about Fran Drescher, lightsabers, and fish & chips only further the difficulty that this Irish quartet seem to take joy from creating for themselves. A quick scan through their back catalog turns up song titles like “I’m Beginning To Think You Prefer Beverly Hills 90210 To Me,” and another EP release with the ridiculous title of David Carradine Is A Bounty Hunter Whose Robotic Arm Hates Your Crotch.
…but even weirder than their strange way with words is the fact that this band has made one of the most exciting records of the year so far, and it’s only five songs long!
Without a beat or a breath, this surprise of a release bursts in immediately with vocalist MayKay screaming “Lend me your face/Lend me your face/Lend me your face/I’ll bust it up and I’ll replace it” (off “Lend Me Your Face”). Like Be Your Own Pet’s Jemina Pearl, or Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, MayKay easily establishes herself as a feminine force to be reckoned with. A dark-haired, blue eyed beauty with the new wave compatibility of Siouxsie Sioux, the spitfire of PJ Harvey, and the sweet cheekiness of Lily Allen all wrapped into a petite little package. If Juno had teamed up with a bunch of Irish punks she may have sounded something like this.
“Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues,” a song that has nothing at all to do with Star Wars, is a blistering punk rock blues explosion borrowed from the great, though now defunct, McLusky.
“Knucklehead” is an odd and sweetly sung song about, amongst other things, crappy TV shows and “robot sluts and fucked up pets.” It’s here that we first get to hear the deeply Irish drawl of the boys in the band, sharing vocals with our darling front woman.
Another pair of equally eclectic songs round out this, my first taste of Fight Like Apes. In under ten minutes, this little band from across the globe has got me salivating for more.
Fight Like Apes: http://www.fightlikeapesmusic.com
