I’ve always loved bands whose entire output consisted of nothing but 7″s. A posthumous anthology LP collecting said 7″s plus maybe a comp track or unreleased song or demo is not only fine, but encouraged. It’s no doubt difficult to fill an entire LP with solid material and more often than not, depending on the type of music we’re talking, less can be more. For a lot of bands, 2-4 songs on a tidy 7″ release is the perfect amount per serving. Too much of a good thing can be…too much.
As far as I can tell the entire output of Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Prehensile Monkey-tailed Skink consists of 3 7″s released in 1993-94 and one song on a CD compilation in 1997. 2 7″s and the comp track were released on band member Pete Larson’s own Bulb Records which is probably best known for introducing the world to fellow Michiganders Andrew WK and Wolf Eyes. Like those acts, Bulb and its stable are often lazily lumped together with artists on other 90’s labels like Load, Skin Graft, Blackjack, as “no wave” or “noise” but really the only common theme running through any of these labels and artists is their less-than-serious take on whatever the hell “punk rock” had become in the early 90’s. I think the reason everyone was so desperate to compartmentalize and label bands that defied categorization was because at the time there were so many bands that celebrated drawing lines in the sand and categorizing themselves. Lest we forget that it was in 1994 that Tim Yohannon was forced to pen a grumpy screed explaining MRR’s new review policy excluding releases not deemed “punk” enough to receive coverage, regardless of the DIY ethics of the band or the label that released it. Sure, words like “noise” or “no wave” weren’t kryptonite to all fans of punk rock back then but the idea that the releases on Bulb or Blackjack were any less “punk” than The Riverdales or His Hero Is Gone is laughable at best.
So, back to Prehensile Monkeytailed Skink: I think the title “We Found A 4-Track” pretty much sums up this band’s aesthetic. Absolutely top-notch blown out 6.5 out of 10 recording quality sometimes garage-y/sometimes power-trio-y punk rock that seamlessly flows into chaotic freeform psych that wouldn’t sound out of place on a PSF comp and a sense of humor that, despite the extremity of sound, is as welcoming as Harry Pussy at their most…accessible. Perhaps this is heresy but, in the spirit of Killed by Death #11, I almost wish someone would have taken a bunch of these songs and pressed them as a 4th 10″ in that “Those Were Different Times” collection just to see if people believed it was real. Some of these songs aren’t any more ridiculous than some of those Electric Eels live tracks. Prehensile Monkeytailed Skink existed to make stupid music with as little effort or practice as possible, and these three 7″s are worth more than what most bands achieve over a lifetime of trying to be whatever they think “cool” is. Find these three 7″s and buy them.
I just checked Pete Larson/Bulb’s Bandcamp which offers a handful of original Bulb releases for sale and it looks like both PMS 7″s on Bulb and the one on Blackjack are sold out from the source. Band member Mark Maynard currently plays in The Monkey Power Trio (one day a year apparently), blogs and runs a pretty cool site you can check out here. Also check out Larson’s current label Dagoretti Records which is devoted to documenting bands in his current home of Kenya.
Here’s a full length Prehensile Monkeytailed Skink VHS video that, as the story goes, was offered for sale in a Bulb mailorder catalog before it actually existed and was only produced after someone actually sent the label money for a copy.
