MONKEY ROCKS

When I started up this little cyberspot I just gave it the first name that came to mind: Rockin' Monkey. I've always liked monkeys and rock and roll - the two go together so well. And we're talking real rock and roll - that means from Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner and Bo Diddley to The MC5, The Sonics and The Mummies, NOT Huey Lewis and the News (although I love that story about how their sound truck picked up the hardcore band Impulse Manslaughter, who were hitching with guitars in tow after their van broke down). WFMU dj Dave the Spazz is a great testament to how real rock and roll and primates of all sorts (especially chimps) are a perfect combination. I remember being at Dave's house for a party attended by the late great soul singer supreme Nathaniel Mayer and he dug all the various monkey icons and decorations Dave had in his place. And I met Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown who saw the monkey cover art for a Dave the Spazz compilation tape (Monkey Fever volume 1 - volume 3 is pictured here and was his latest dj premium) and he started laughing hysterically and uttered something about a cartoon with monkeys in it. But the name "Rockin' Monkey" is a bit lame. Maybe it's the apostrophe, or just the crudity, or both. So I figured I'd switch it around, at least for the time being, to Monkey Rocks. I like that this configuration of the words is more ambiguous. And I also recall the early Australian punk band Rocks that I first heard on the "Feel Lucky Punk?" compilation. I showed it to my friend Mick from The Space Juniors and he laughed because he used to play shows with Rocks and made funny impressions of them, telling me how they had handlebar mustaches and were awkwardly macho. But while Rocks might be a great choice of words, the blog name is still kind of lame. Feel free to comment with suggestions, or hate mail, or whatever...