Sprung Monkey
Get a Taste
(Surfdog Records)
Grade: B
Remember that scene in the movie "Dead Man on Campus" where one of the prospective suicidal roommates - a gothic angst-ridden rocker - breaks into a Broadway show tune while giddily dancing about?
The San Diego-based band Sprung Monkey hits on that same ironic vein. At first glance, it looks like any other angry-suburban white-boy band - goatees and dread-locked hair, with an overwhelming disinterested look in their eyes.
One would assume their music would contain themes of loss, degradation and basic self-loathing.
However, this group is neither Nirvana nor Korn. Get a Taste, Sprung Monkey's latest release, contains music that has the hopeful tone of any Christian-rock band without the heavy hand and preachy messages of Jerry Falwell.
In the track "Unexpected," the band sings, "Everything is gonna be all right as long as you believe in something." The lyrics almost beg for some type of Christian-principle insertion.
Similarly, the song "Beautiful" embodies post-Green Day guitar melodies and punk rhythm. The song is actually an upbeat ode to love and the beauty of the entire world - not kvetching about curfews.
Sprung Monkey has the sense of humor of Blink 182, including slang verbal intros on two tracks. Like bands such as Sublime, the band also toys with inserting local color into its music, dropping the names of various So-Cal highways and beaches on the San Diego Gold Coast.
Most importantly, the music itself is good.
The sound is genuine and produced by real instruments. Unlike the new-age techno sounds developed entirely by computers, Sprung Monkey's music is authentic.
An upbeat sound, mostly fair lyrics and an overall positive vibe, Get a Taste is a sweet change in an often-bitter punk music world.
