It’s not often that a band leaves me confused. Normally, I can
\nsee what a group’s musical vision was, even if I don’t grasp other
\naspects of the band’s work. It’s not always the easiest thing to
\ndo, but after doing this in one form or another for 15 years, you
\ntend to get good at it.<\/p>\n
Then, there comes New Jersey-based Narcoleptics and their
\nsophomore release
\nMonkey Steals The Peach<\/i>. This quartet reminds me a lot of
\nearly Nirvana in many ways, most notably in the angst and cacophony
\nof their music. What confuses me about them is not merely the fact
\nthat I don’t know what their goal is with their music or what
\nvocalist\/guitarist Marc Rosato is screaming about. No, what
\nconfuses me is that I don’t know why I like them… I just do.<\/p>\n
The band – Rosato, guitarist\/vocalist Rich Galster,
\nbassist\/vocalist Kevin Vickers and drummer John Canal – are an
\ninteresting amalgam of punk fury, alternative wanderlust and hard
\nrock power. Sound like an interesting combination? It is. But what
\nmakes it special is that Narcoleptics don’t directly lift their
\nsound from any other band who have dragged a Marshall stack across
\nthe stage before. I say part of their sound is like early
\nNirvana… but it certainly doesn’t sound like a clone of
\nNirvana.<\/p>\n
Musically,
\nMonkey Steals The Peach<\/i> is more than a competent album…
\nwhich is where my confusion begins. I’d love to be able to
\nunderstand what some of the fury in Rosato’s vocals is based on. I
\nknow that a false arrest was the catalyst for the song “I’m Not
\nGoing To Jail For You Or For Anybody” (which we learn from their
\non-line bio), but I’d love to know just what Rosato is saying in
\nthis song. (There are lyrics of sorts provided in the liner notes,
\nbut they are crammed into a run-on sentence that would make George
\nBernard Shaw proud.)<\/p>\n
Narcoleptics have great song titles – “You Can’t Polish A Turd,”
\n“I Know It’s Wrong (But It Feels So Right)”, “Sweet Tarts And Anal
\nRape” – but there is something lost on me when I can’t visualize
\nwhat Rosato is ranting about. I’m not suggesting that he change his
\nvocal style… but the band might want to consider providing lyrics
\nthat are easier to follow. Believe me, there are some of us out
\nthere who take the time to read liner notes.<\/p>\n
\nMonkey Steals The Peach<\/i> is a rarity, in that I can’t easily
\nexplain why I like this disc. But I do know this kind of uncertain
\nenjoyment can be contagious – meaning Narcoleptics won’t be a local
\nsecret for long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6532],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36963","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-narcoleptics","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36963"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36963"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}