Customer Reviews

Monkeys for Nothin & The Chimps for Free

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Reel Big Fish couldn't have picked a better mission statement for new album "Monkeys for Nothin' and the Chimps for Free" than lead track "Party Down." In addition to boldly stating that "[Reel Big Fish] just came to party down," the hyperactive romp offers a smorgasbord of musical styles from disco to country to glam rock. Casual RBF fans may identify this diversity only with the band's practice of playing their many versions of "S.R." live, but it's really been a hallmark of their studio work since "Why Do They Rock So Hard."

This album's best moments continue in Reel Big Fish's tradition of mixing ska energy with other musical conventions and interesting arrangements, from "My Imaginary Friend" - which sounds like the theme song from a children's show about atheism - to "Please Don't Tell Her I Have A Girlfriend," where the band sounds like They Might Be Giants and Billy Joel teaming up to sing a sweet drinking sway about infidelity (from the cheater's point of view, of course). It's also hard not to crack a smile during the hair metal guitar solo on "Drunk Tonight" (And, if not during the solo, at least during the hilarious Twisted Sister breakdown). Album closer "Cannibal" is another standout, as Reel Big Fish unleashes their inner Oingo Boingo for about three-and-a-half minutes before launching into an epic heavy metal epilogue.

RBF has a strong contingent of fans who (for whatever reason) profess only to like the band's first two albums. These traditionalists will enjoy the more straightforward ska-punk of "Another F.U. Song," "Live Your Dream," and "The New Version of You," not to mention a cover of Phil Collins's "Another Day in Paradise," danceable tracks that hearken back to the band's roots in the 1990s ska explosion.

Though the mood on this CD is lighter than other RBF efforts, lead singer Aaron Barrett still exudes some of his trademark pessimism. Not only does he ponder life in a godless universe, but he also notes in "Will the Revolution Come?" that "each generation's mess is bigger than the one before them has made."

MFNATCFF also includes re-recordings of old songs reaching as far back as "Everything Sucks," and even a pre-"Everything Sucks" demo. "Hate You," "Call You," "I'm Her Man," and "'Til I Hit The Ground" all sound ten times better on this disc, aided largely by the addition of Scott Klopfestein's excellent backing vocals, which have been one of RBF's best features since "Turn the Radio Off." It doesn't hurt that they've been re-recorded on such a clean-sounding album, which is a refreshing change from "We're Not Happy...," a disc whose vocals could have been recorded in a port-a-potty using an iBook's onboard microphone. Highly recommended!

First off, I have been a RBF fan since my high school days (late 90s) and still love them -- so take this review for what its worth. Also I am not a music expert, just someone who appreciates ska & RBF.

RBF comes back with a really solid SKA cd that reminds me why I love these guys. Most of the songs are good with a few that I didn't care for (Cannibal, Party Down, & Everybody's Drunk).

The good ones are the traditional fun-loving, happy-go-lucky, ska/rock that RBF is known for. I'd put "Another F.U. Song", "My Imaginary Friend", & "Why do all Girls Think they're Fat" in this category. Really good songs; very happy, lots of horns, things that RBF do well.

In my opinion, RBFs' true talent can be heard in songs like "Slow Down", "Will the Revolution Come", "Way Back", & "Another Day in Paradise". They are just really great, what I would call, "traditional" ska songs with much less rock/punk influence (if that makes any sense). I always come back to RBF after every new release because of their ability to create excellent ska music. After hearing "A Little Doubt Goes a Long Way" on their previous release, I hoped this next album would sound more like that. In my opinion there wasn't enough "traditional ska" which is why it only got a 4 out of 5 stars.

So after all that, this is a really good cd & definitely worth your money. If you are a RBF fan, buy it. If you are new to ska/RBF - get Turn the Radio Off first. After you hear that one, you'll be hooked & end up buying this cd anyway...that is in addition to all their other ones (with the possible exception of Cheer Up).

If this was another ska band (or whatever style you want to call RBF's partying evolution) this would probably be a four or even five star album. But its not just any other band. I have really liked all of RBF's previous full length records, and their live CD is incredible too. But this... sounds like a retread to me.

Aaron Barrett and the rest of the Fish may be happier on their indie label, but their songwriting has never been duller. Oh look! another drinking song! Another song where they drop the F-bomb over and over in the chorus. Its going from a consistent formula to just checking things off the "album to-do" list.

While some people find "Party Down" and it's little style-riffs inventive, I'm sorry but it reeks of doing the same schtick over again. Other songs almost feel like a chore to get through. I'm happy that the band is off it's "big label" woes and back in a situation that they control and are happy with, but like another comment said, happiness is not helping this band creatively.

The story is too often the same. Band gets signed by major label, major label neglects band, major label drops band by second album without even giving them a chance. But maybe the countless victims of that tale were lucky in comparison to Reel Big Fish, who were continuously neglected and not given a chance by Jive records for damn near a solid decade without ever being dropped. And when their lone hit from their major label debut poked fun at the band's naiveté for signing, it might not even be a wild guess to say that they were counting on being dropped sometime around the release of their next album. While razor-sharp sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek narcissism have always been a lyrical staple of his songwriting, frontman Aaron Barrett truly sounded like a prisoner serving an unjustly long sentence on 2005's We're Not Happy 'til You're Not Happy, spitting venom at his bandmates, the industry, and pretty much the totality of music itself.

So the release from Jive seemed to be the light at an all-too-long tunnel; where most bands would take some time to find their footing after such a shift in their career, RBF sprung into action, wasting no time with their new-found freedom and released a very well-furbished live album to serve as the ultimate greatest hits in 2006 (and, indeed, the last desperate money-grab from Jive came in the form as an overprocessed 19-track wimpy Best Of that simply paled in comparison). Only six months later, the band split a cover EP with Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer. And a mere four months after that comes their first self-made full length since their demo debut Everything Sucks, which first saw the light of day twelve years ago. That makes them rather old once you consider their genre was supposedly a flash-in-the-pan that you could easily miss if you blinked too long. It could be said that they don't care what they're doing is passé, or that they don't even notice. But that wouldn't really give the Fish full credit, as a ska album made by a group that thought what they were doing was the bee's knees wouldn't ring quite as true. The Fish have always done a good job of blending the rock 'n' roll qualities of the garage band nature of third-wave ska with the underlying reggae instincts that are too easily ignored by their contemporaries. And they blend them not to be ironic, (momentarily excluding their covers for the sake of the argument), but because that's what being a listener-friendly (hell, even radio-ready) ska band was about in the mid-90's, and they still know what the make-up of a fun and relevant ska album should be today. They're still a lightning storm, striking with hooks and upstrokes left and right, even if the mainstream audience is no longer patiently waiting with a bottle to catch it in.

So here's the latest Reel Big Fish album, in all its liberated glory, what the boys have been waiting for, for a good long time. So long, in fact, Aaron posted a press release on his MySpace saying that due to their release from Jive, this is probably going to be the happiest RBF have sounded in their career. And, to any long-time fan, this probably inspired more dread than joy. But fear not, just because the jabs at pop culture, the radio and everyone associated with either one are no longer relevant doesn't mean Barrett's any less witty when dealing with the lighter side of life. Lead-off track and lead single "Party Down" features pure gibberish lyrics (perhaps his attempt at a Beck song?), with a chorus that declares they're "killin' every scene around", a claim they then back up with a few bars of the most out-of-left-field genre bending you've ever heard (no doubt inspired by their infamous "S.R." antics onstage). Plus, Barrett knows how to deprecate without bringing the mood down. He has a nasty breakup with his "Imaginary Friend", plots to kill the "New Version of You" (the possibility of metaphor, and a brilliant one at that, saves it), and makes some juvenile-but-executed-well-enough-to-work observations when "Everybody's Drunk", which, along with "Party", shows how well Aaron can switch between writing comedy in his lyrics and writing it in his music.

This is to speak of the first ten tracks, of course, which would have been "Side A" back when the term was relevant. Instead, they're the "Monkeys" (the new album), and are followed by the "Chimps" (the rerecordings of old and/or unreleased tunes). And maybe it's the tastefully crisper production, maybe it's the consistency of the new arrangements and line-up, but the shift from the brand-spanking-new tracks to the twelve-year-old backside is a near-seamless one. In fact, the only noticeable difference is on tracks like "Hate You", where Barrett's lyrical intentions to take MTV by storm are laid out in full, way before he realized that it wasn't worth it with clowns like Jive in the way, and it would be irrelevant, anyway, when he's got a fan base as loyal as RBF's. In fact, Monkeys is their highest charting effort since 1998's Why Do They Rock So Hard. So, maybe this is the beginning of the end for major labels? Alright, that's a little bit hard to prove, but Monkeys for Nothin' and the Chimps for Free is definitely proof positive that getting fired is the best thing to happen to these Fish.

After We're Not Happy 'Til You're Not Happy, I thought RBF had done themselves in and lost their ability to do anything new worth listening to. This dud was followed up with by a live CD and greatest hits... "greatest hits" -ironic since the only thing I've ever seen come close to a hit is Sell Out and maybe Where Have You Been? (not that this matters much as so many other bands who have never had a hit of any kind do the same thing)

We're Not Happy sounded like it had been put together in a weekend... poorly written lyrics combined with bland rehashes of their most popular songs and the same old jokes. When RBF released Monkeys For Nothin' I wasn't expecting much more than the same...

I'm pleasantly surprised. This is RBF in true form. Yeah it's the same jokes but lyrically the songs are well done rather than rushed. RBF has always had one of the best horn sections in the ska scene and once again they prove it. One of my favorite RBF tracks of all time is Why Do All Girls Think They're Fat, which goes back to band's earliest days. I was glad to hear the updated version which reminded why Reel Big Fish is so much fun to listen to.

Monkeys For Nothin' doesn't break new ground but if you want to reminisce to the mid-90's ska scene then this album will take you there. It's their best since Why Do They Rock So Hard?

After the first listen through, it felt like the whole album was rushed. However, after the second time, i realized how great this album is. Songs are put together brilliantly and even though some lyrics seem a little thin, there are plenty of other songs on here to make any RBF fan happy. There's 2 bonus songs when you get through iTunes though. Cannibal (dance remix) and Bang! The Mouse Explodes. The first one is ok, but Bang! really gets me fired up. Excellent release for their first album since leaving the major record labels.

Lets face the facts. Reel Big Fish's last true album was the downright disappointing "We're Not Happy 'Til You're Not Happy." It had a few gems in it, but it quickly grew stale after track 5 or so. "Cheer Up," which was before that, introduced our fellow Fish to a slightly different Ska-Punk / Ska-Pop sound, with slightly more 'teenage nerd-slash-loser"-esque lyrics. And you couldn't deny it with songs called 'Dateless Losers" and "What Are Friends For." But Cheer Up was still a great album in its own sense, but it didn't have that RBF sound many fans were used to listening to.

Now, after a few years, a great live album, a worthless Greatest Hits album released by the evil mind monkeys at Jive, Reel Big Fish are back. Now here is a disclaimer: Not all of these songs are "new" songs; some of them are past songs that have been redone. But that just adds to this albums greatness. RBF truely return to form in this album, and by form I mean the "Sell Out" days. The ska rhythm makes a comeback for RBF. Where as the past 2 albums have been full of power chords and have drifted away from the whole ska beat, this album finally brings it back.

And its orgasmic. Bottom line, this is far from RBF's best album, but my todays ridiculous music standards, this album is a pure gem. If you are a Fish fan, you need to get it, no matter what.

This album is the spiritual sequel to Reel Big Fish's 1997 record Turn The Radio Off.

There's a few that tracks aren't in the normal 3rd wave ska genre, but for the most part this is Reel Big Fish showing off their mastery of their own style.

"Slow Down" and "Please Don't Tell Her I Have A Girlfriend" are kind of weak, but are more than offset by "The New Version Of You" and "Cannibal."

Reel Big Fish fans will be very pleased with the re-recordings of "Call You," "Why Do All Girls Think They're Fat," and especially "I'm Her Man." This one even has a re-recording of "'Til I Hit The Ground," which is just Reel Big Fish telling you that they love you.

Certainly recommended.

I've been a huge fan of RBF since I heard Why do they rock so hard, and I've loved them ever since. Each CD seems to have one song that I never stop repeating. This CD has a different feel to it than the others do. I can't really think of any song in particular that I could listen to non-stop. For whatever reason it sounds like RBF, but just a little different. If you loved their other albums, you'll probably like this one. Good album, but not their best.

This album is nothing less of a good, fun, energetic ska album. However, it's barely more. The new songs that were written for this album are fun to sing along to and make us longtime Reel Big Fish fans happy because of the abundance of upstrokes and horns, but after a few listens, the songs start to get boring. When I first heard this album, I was putting it right up there with Why Do They Rock So Hard? and Turn the Radio Off, but then a week or two later I started to realize how generic some of these songs are.

However, in the end this album is saved by the last few tracks which include mostly re-recorded songs off of Everything Sucks, and they sound amazing, and completely original because they were written when Reel Big Fish hadn't run out of material to write about. But don't take this review and my negativity the wrong way. It's a very good album, and there are some amazing songs on here, re-recorded and new, but it's apparent how little time they spent on it which was said to be just around a few months.

Overall, I loved to see that Reel Big Fish has made a full return to their ska roots, and the only thing this album is short of is just a pinch of originality and it'd be a 5 star album no doubt. Definitely check this one out!