because this is turning out to be such an amazing show we are also having an after party that everyone is invited to, it’s at the LA Angels and Kings and everyone is invited. Bring your ticket from the show and get a free shot at the club! We are going to be there, Paul’s going to be there…will you be there?
Hey everyone!
Just wanted to let you know that we updated the jukebox player…so give it a listen…hear something new, something you’ve heard before or maybe you haven’t…
Come out and see us and get some stuff signed and say HI! We will be at the Tommy Bahama Store on May 1st at 1pm. Tommy Bahama is in Town Square in Las Vegas at the corner of Sunset and Las Vegas Blvd!
The cat is out of the“proverbial” bag, and it is followed by a troupe of monkeys chucking feces.
Despite preconceived notions, it is now obvious that the“great 100 Monkeys novel” is not quite a novel in length, nor a novel in content. The clue as to its farce prior to debut would seem obvious in retrospect: a rock& roll band releasing, what they called in a number of interviews,“a serious piece of literary work,” on no other date than the first of April– or AprilFool’sDay.
The book is short, funny, and written in turns by each band member. Illustrations are by Jerad Anderson.
The book, Every Monkey Dookies, was a collaborative effort and remains a patiently cultivated bit of humor.’
Hey Everyone,
The band asked me to post this about international dates. We’ve seen all the posts and they wanted to address this right away…here’s what they wanted to say:
To all our Monkey Junkies beyond the seas!
We know that you all have been patiently waiting for us to come see you and we very much wanted to make it out this summer just as much as you wanted us to make it out there. Due to some unforeseen scheduling conflicts, as you already know, we aren’t able to make it out there for the summer, something we are extremely sad about. Please don’t fret we definitely haven’t forgotten about you and we have are sights set on getting there very soon! We don’t have any details quite yet but we wanted you to know it’s in the works and we hope to be able to give details very soon!
Until then know you are in our Monkey Hearts and on our Monkey Minds and we look forward to seeing you all and sharing the Monkey Love with you too!
Ben G., Ben J., Jackson, Jerad, and Uncle Larry
Its heating up down in Austin with another Spencer Bell Legacy coming up this weekend.
100 Monkeys sadly aren’t able to make it, but check out Mechanical People, Kissing Club, Yet Cut Breath and MORE March 26th.
THE BOOK IS COMPLETE!!!
Head over to the 100 Monkeys Mart to pre order your copy signed or unsigned now!
By Mike Usinger, March 3, 2011
For reasons no one has ever been able to quite figure out, bands featuring movie stars tend to fare about as well as movies featuring rock stars. Or, to put things in simpler terms, for every Dead Man’s Bones, there are a dozen Dogstars.
Los Angeles–based 100 Monkeys has proven one of those rare exceptions to the rule, the quintet somehow selling out almost every show it plays and yet remaining largely underground. That the band has managed to establish itself as a legitimate act—as opposed to the group with that guy from the Twilightmovies—is somehow fitting. After all, 100 Monkeys, which is scheduled to release a new album this spring, was already a going concern when Hollywood embraced guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Jackson Rathbone, better known to teenage vampire fans as Jasper Hale. Reached in Tinseltown, singer Ben Graupnertraces the origin of the group back to drummer Ben Johnson flying in from Philadelphia right around the time that Rathbone was scheduled to join the Twilightfranchise in Vancouver.
“Ben was going to stay in Jackson and I’s apartment for a month when Jackson was going to film the first Twilight,” Graupner recalls. “The two of us were planning on doing a recording project together. The day Ben flew into the airport, by the time I’d picked him up and brought him back to the house, Jackson had found out they’d pushed back shooting for a month. So the three of us ended up in the studiotogether, which is where we wrote the album Monster de Lux. It was right when the band was turning out its first presentable work that the movies were starting.”
Monster de Luxhit the streets in 2009, a year that would also see the release of a follow-up record, Grape, both discs establishing 100 Monkeys as a group determined to be all things to all music fans. The band often gets tagged as a independent funk-rock unit, suggesting the Red Hot Chili Peppers during the freak-flag years. As Grapeproves, though, the Monkeys have more in common with genre-jumpers like Ween, the group cruising effortlessly from hayride country (“Clippity Clop”) to sweaty soul-man blues (“Arizona”) to gothic disco punk (“Orson Brawl”).
“The genre-jumping started because this band started out, live on-stage, at this bar in Hollywood,” Graupner says. “Originally, we didn’t have a single prepared song. We would just go in, show up, and play music all night, trying to keep the rhythm going so people could dance and have a goodtime. Out of that, you never really wanted to play the same kind of stuff.”
Even today, on-stage is where 100 Monkeys remains most comfortable, with its buzzed-about performances helping earn the group band-you-need-to-know honours in publications like Spin. Aside from the fact that the Monkeys switch up instruments every second song, show highlights inevitably include Graupner and company canvassing the crowd for song ideas, and then creating improv-based tunes on the spot. Yes, there’s more to 100 Monkeys than a chance to see a Twilightstar in the flesh.
“There’s a lot of outside publicity and press that comes to us from Jackson’s acting career,” the singer acknowledges. “But, on top of that, there’s almost like an alt following that’s been built around our live shows. There are people who are addicted to the live 100 Monkeys shows. Ilove our albums and our recorded music, but there’s something magical that happens when the five of us get on-stage together in front of a crowd.”
100 Monkeys are escaping from the Zoo…the Liquid Zoo on June 28th.
100 Monkeys, known for their raucous theatrical live-sets where they switch instruments and vocalists nearly every other song, will be swinging your way soon and with a new album. The highly anticipated,“Liquid Zoo,” the band’s second studio full-length recording, will be hitting stores across the country on June 28th. The band struck a deal with Warrior Records/Universal Music Distribution to release the album to the masses and 100 Monkeys’ fans will be very pleased to know that it is well worth the wait.
Coinciding with the“Liquid Zoo” album release, 100 Monkeys kicks off a 40+ city US tour in conjunction with House of Blues Entertainment. The tour opens in in Cincinnati on June 28 and will also include dates in Dallas, Anaheim, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco and other major cities. The band which has also beenselected as one of LG’s “One’s to watch” this summer are more than excited about the upcoming tour and album. They promise the biggest and best tour yet and of course the usual surprises along the way that only 100 Monkeys can deliver. The band logged a quick eight day tour over the winterholiday playing to sold out venues in several cities across the southern U.S. and they are more than eager to get back to what they love…playing for their fans.
“100 Monkeys is an innovative, exciting young band and we are looking forward to working with them,” said Tara Traub, Club and Theater Touring, House of Blues Entertainment. “This is part of our continuing commitment showcasing emerging artists and their music in the unique House of Blues environment.”
With a unique sound all their own,“Liquid Zoo” promises and delivers innovative music in a way that only 100 Monkeys can. The album consists of 11 songs including the highly requested, “Shy Water,” and “Black Diamond,” which are among the solid track listing, along with at least one new song that the band has never performed live in any form.“Wandering Minds,” the first single released off the“Liquid Zoo” album has already started to play on radio stations across the country.
100 Monkeys is 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 the band 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 is comprised of multi-faceted artists, actors, and producers including Jackson Rathbone (who appears in such movies as “The Last Airbender” and the “Twilight” motion picture franchise), Ben Graupner (Trapped in the 5150, Devolved), Jerad Anderson (Wayne/Lauren Film Company), Lawrence Abrams (of the great Willie Bobo, Bob Hope U.S.O. tour, and The Artist Consortium), and Ben Johnson (of the Stevedores and music producer of Spencer Bell’s “Brain”).
With a set list that never repeats twice and a band that truly knows how to put on their own rock show, you won’t want to miss 100 Monkeys on tour this summer. Plans for international tour dates are being scheduled for fall and winter, so check out 100MonkeysMusic.com for further album, touring updates, and all other important news from the band.
