THE MONKEYWRENCH
Electric Children (Estrus)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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Ooo ooo oooo!! What is The Monkeywrench, Alex?? See, if the answer was "they are the definition of 'supergroup'" I win. You can keep the rest of 'em. The Monkeywrench is the underground's supergroup, packed with members of Mudhoney, Lord High Fixers, Gas Huffer and Lubricated Goat. Together they make music befitting of such pedigrees, unlike most bands that sport the "supergroup" label. This was supposed to be a one-off fling eight years ago. Apparently the chemistry was too good to let it go a whole decade, and so we get to trip on out to Electric Children's baker's dozen tracks of bluesy, gritty, psychy and sometimes soulful garage rawk. The lineup? Okay, try to follow this: Mudhoney's guitarists, Mark Arm and Steve Turner, don't play guitar here. Arm sings and Turner plays bass (very, very well). The rest of this superdreamgroup are Martin Bland (Lubricated Goat, Bloodloss) on drums, and Tim "ain't no amp I can't blow up" Kerr (Lord High Fixers) and Tom Price (Gas Huffer) on guitars. If this wasn't supergroupish enough, they had Seattle legend Jack Endino behind the board at Private Radio Studios. Countless similar power-groupings litter the rock and roll hall of shame, but I'm sure all the garage freaks will agree that The Monkeywrench ain't gonna go there. As I write this I hear Arm singing "I'm gone - gone - gone - from now on." Geez, I hope not. I'm hoping they'll hang around long enough to record Electric Grandchildren.

© 2000 - DJ Johnson