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Monkey Steals The Drum
Liverpool Lomax
Monkey Steals The Drum are Liverpool's best new band. Named after an African folk tale, they've been playing triumphant gigs in their hometown for about a year now. A demo tape of their epic noise has already grabbed the attention of John Peel, who not only gave them a session early last year, but also booked them for Sound City in October. Yet despite this hype, they remain strangely unsigned.
Judging on tonight's proceedings, it's evident that their fortunes will soon change. Wired and bent over their instruments, they are a blur of seismic energy, forever reaching for higher realms of catharsis. `My Chinese Burns' epitomises this, building up with layers of charred guitars, bass and yearning vocals.
MSTD have had their noses buried in the grunge textbook for their entire teenhood, but thankfully they're not another group merely trying to imitate the most basic of sounds. Instead, they consist of the best aspects of the genre (Nirvana's angst, Lemonheads' melodies and Pixies-esque guitars) splashed with their own twisted identity and topped off with the unique nasal rasp of Christian Ashcroft.
Given the chance, MSTD have the potential to breathe new life into a stale music scene and evolve into what we've all been waiting for: a band who are young and angry and, for once, really mean it.
Scott Colothan
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