Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds

And we’re back! For the next few posts, we’re going to look at some of the artists who released some of our favorite music of this year. First up, we’ve got a list from Kid Congo.

The fact that 2009 brought us a new Kid Congo record was a blessing. The man was a member of The Cramps, The Gun Club and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, but Dracula Boots is definitely one of my favorite Kid Congo endeavors. The record is a joy from start to finish. I love that Kid doesn’t rely on screaming or even crooning. He’s speaking, and he does it in this cool, seductive way that makes you want to follow him wherever he happens to be walking, like Roger Moore or something.

Dracula Boots by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds is amazing. It’s garage punk, it’s a little funky (like in his cover of “Funky Fly” by Bo Diddley), it’s spooky, it’s goofy. Think if Count Dracula starting narrating his tale of finding a peanut, or if a drunk, lo-fi, twisting Vincent Price starting hanging with Wooden Shjips. Really excellent stuff.

Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds – “Rare As The Yeti” (from Dracula Boots)

Thanks, Kid, for Dracula Boots. Here’s his list.

five tunes

1) The Strange Boys – “Be Brave” (from Strange Boys and Girls Club) – “This is going to be the new single from my fave raves of 2009. I loved the Strange Girls and Boys Club LP, and their live performances really twisted my wig this year. Youngsters wise beyond their years, they know something about music that looks into the past and jumps into the beyond.”

2) Spiritualized – “You Lie You Cheat” (from Songs in A&E) – “As a big fan of Jason Pierce, I have not stopped loving this song since I saw them open their 2009 concert in Washington DC with it late last year. Beautiful, aggressive, mournful, spiteful, sexy, mind-bending and uplifting. All the best things in one song!”

3) Mott The Hoople – “Roll Away The Stone” (from Hoople) – “The recent reunion of  Mott the Hop reminded me to go thru my collection and relive my youth in Satin trousers and platform wedgies on the Sunset Strip. A great education of cool songwriting, wry humor and Dylanisms galore was on offer to this teenager. Thank the lord I listened! I must say..Absolutly Fabulous!”

4) Intoxica radio show – (Although this is not a song, it is my favorite radio show with  demented DJ Howie Pyro on luxuriamusic.com.) – “This  show is what has been one of the main  driving forces behind all my recent songs and keeps me grounded in the absurd in the sometimes too normal day to day. Howie finds not only the most obscure and trashy ’50s and ’60s soul, rock ‘n’ roll, surf, rockabilly, and psychedelic punk junk that actually get made into a coherent altered state, he has such a vastness in his weirdo collection that a new theme every week is no problem. What, Me Worry?”

5) The Cramps – “Drug Train” (from Bad Music For Bad People) – “The late great Lux Interior’s passing had me reeling for weeks and once I put on this song it brought me back to earth with huge smile on my face. ‘You Put one foot up, you put another foot up……you put ANOTHER foot up, and you’re on board the Drug Train….’ We wish him well on the Mystery Plane.”

Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds – Insound | Lala | Permanent