Whoa! No Way! Two Songs of the Day!!??!??! (Part 2: The Revenge)

The Apes "The Zookeeper's Night Out" from Baba's Mountain (Birdman)

Continuing with the Lookout! story, I found myself at Cafe Du Nord seeing one of the local Lookout! products, Black Cat Music, supporting my local waterhole's bartender Travis, who doubled as the brooding, sexy-ass guitar player for BCM. Upon arriving early, a serious no-no (I might as well have worn the band's shirt that I was gonna see), I was able to catch Washington D.C.'s The Apes, a guitarless pyshcedelic hard rock group with a penchant for the outrageous and bizarre.

Wait wait. Guitarless? As in no guitar. Hard rock. No guitar. Right. Okay. Just want to make sure, no guitar? Fine, bass guitar. Okay. But let's be clear, no 6 or 12 string guitar. Right.

The organ gave the Apes a uniquely frighteningly chilling sound, a classical almost medieval sound that was bolstered by the fuzzed out bass and thrashing drums. At the forefront was Paul Weil aka Count 101 yelling his lungs out, face obscured by his long wavy hair. Though the music was only okay, their flair and flamboyance drew me in like a weird occult.

Over the last few years, I've collected several Apes' releases almost subconciously, like a spell has been casted on me. I tend to forget that I own these albums. It's kinda like my unknowing fanboy love for Broadcast. If someone asked me about Broadcast, I'd be like "Yeah, they're pretty good." Well, the other day I found owned 3 albums (including one that is out of print) and 4 singles. Where did they come from? Unlike Broadcast though, I don't really adore any of the Apes' releases. Until now.

Duh Duh Duh DUNNNNNNN! Baba's Mountain is the Apes most focused album and by far the most catchy. They don't sacrifice the weird interludes or science fantasy references, it seems as if they just got better at what they do.

"The Zookeeper's Night Out" opens with tribal bongos conjuring up images of a mythical wilderness, enter the pounding the drums and Amanda Kleinman aka Majestic Ape rolls in the organ, a baroque harpischord sounding keyboard, now we're cooking up a signature Apes style. This is a sound they were born to play. It hints on so many fantastic scary ideas: haunted houses, sci-fantasy movies (Beastmaster is too easy a reference for this band), Dracula playing the pipe organ. You can actually here ghastly spirits swirling around in the background of the track.

The Apes were able to tone the metal down a little bit to make their bizarre level skyrocket throught he roof. I'll be the first to admit I scare really easily, but at least I have a decent soundtrack go shake in fear to. I just have to remember to tell myself that this Apes' brand of witchcraft doesn't exit in real life. It can't really hurt me. Don't be surprised to hear me whisper that to myself at the next show (which has past, which is lucky for my fragile mind and potentially embarassed person).

The Apes: http://www.theapes.com/