SUPER JUNKY MONKEY (Japan)

SCREW UP
-CD
1994 (Tristar)





"A couple more exports like this and the image of Japanese women as the timid flowers of a repressively patriarchal garden will be gone forever...random elements of hip-hop, metal, thrash-funk, punk, dancehall and pure noise and load them all into a blast furnace from which...emanate in discontinuous blasts of loudly aggressive this'n'that...Super Junky Monkey bring the chops and enormous flexibility to their funhouse vision of modern music." - Ira Robbins

"Holy mother of metallic-thrash-funk-meatloaf! Rage Against the Machine meets Steve Vai at a Tokyo rap show. Super Junky Monkey works to great degree on the light-speed thrash of "Decide," the slo-mo stutter rap of "Popobar" and the furious Megadeth-ish "Buckin' the Bolts." The group layers its choruses much like Quiet Riot used to, so a course in Berlitz isn't necessary to join in on the fray. Boredoms fans with a hip-hop itch will also take to Super Junky Monkey. The funk and metal is on point, lethal as ebola, scattered as a tear-gassed riot." - TSI




"Super Junky Monkey were a gutsy innovative band of four young women, active between 1991 and 1999. Singer Mutsumi “623” Takahashi, guitarist Keiko, Shinobu Kawai, and drummer Matsudaaahh!!, released the first Super Junky Monkey album, the all live indie album Cabbage in 1993. The album showed their unique furious yet fun brand of jazz, funk and hip-hop spiced grunge rock, which some compared to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine. The band had serious chops as musicians, often played intricate and sometimes odd musical parts, and had a dynamic front person in Mutsumi. The band and the album gained critical acclaim, which resulted in their second album, 1994’s Screw Up being released by Sony, which did not in any way tame the band’s adventurous character or provocative lyrics, often in English.

In 1993 Super Junky Monkey played CMJ’s Music Marathon in New York and went over quite well. In 1994 the then leading English language magazine in Japan, Tokyo Journal named them “band of the year”. In 1995 the band released the EP AIETOH, and played the Foundation Forum, a “hard music” convention held in LA, where they were perhaps the most talked about band of the event. They also had their first American release in 1995. The band continued with Sony for two more albums Parasitic People and Super Junky Alien, which were progressively weird and wild. The band continued to split their time between the US and Japan, and in 1996 again played in New York.

The band’s future became unsure when Mutsumi became pregnant and took time to have her child, and in 1997 the band was basically inactive. However things started to pick up again in 1998, including playing dates in Japan with American all-woman punk band L7, and the band again began recording demos. On Dec. 24, 1998 the band was to play their last show with the original line-up. To the shock and sadness of many, esp. within the indie music community, Mutsumi’s body was found outside her apartment building on Feb. 5, 1999. It was unclear whether she had jumped or fallen, but in any case this was to be the end of Super Junky Monkey." - Keith Cahoon


"This is an amazing record. It starts with a roomful of crazed tap-dancers screaming in a cappella. Then the band throws musical changes at you till you have no idea what’s coming next. That’s where they keep you, too. Rock and funk are the main styles, but they bounce between them a good deal, and if something else gets wedged in between, it’s OK. The rhythm section is especially impressive. Songs flip through styles and intricate rhythm changes like you’re in an audio kaleidoscope, and the energy doesn’t settle down till the ping-pong ball stops bouncing. This one’s a masterpiece." - Rock of Japan

Mutsumi ‘623’ Takahashi--vocal
Keiko--guitar
Shinobu Kawai--bass
Matsudaaahh!!--drums

Tracklist:
01. Shukuchoku No Choro Wa Chirou De Sourou
(Old Man On The Nightshift With Prostatitis)
02. Zakuro No Hone
(Bone Of Pomegranate)
03. Kioku No Netsuzou
(Fabrication Of Memory)
04. Buckin’ The Bolts
05. Bakabatka
(All Stupid)
06. Tamage--Shiyoumae
(Tamage Before)
07. Ukatousen
08. Popobar
09. Where’re The Good Times
10. Revenge
11. Decide
12. Get Out
13. Tamage--Shiyougo
(Tamage After)
14. We’re The Mother
15. Shower
16. Fuji Funka Sunzen
(Mt. Fuji About To Erupt)


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