we saw: Apollo Sunshine

"Harder Than It Used To Be"

Last night's Apollo Sunshine show at Monkey Town served as a reminder that Apollo is one of the most criminally underrated bands in the "Indie" realm. Their early records, Katonah and Apollo Sunshine, were both focused pieces of sunshine pop strung together with jaunts of noise, whack'd out late period Coltrane time signatures and lots of instruments that would have been found during the recording of The Millenium's equally underrated Begin (or a Sun Ra tribute record).

To be honest, I haven't listened to Apollo Sunshine's recently released Shall Noise Upon, although that is changing right now. After last night's extremely intimate, extremely psychedelic show at the multimedia performance space Monkey Town, there is no denying that everyone should get their hands on Shall Noise Upon ASAP. I went in having only heard "666: The Coming of the New World Government", which we posted a while back, and the acoustic ballad "Singing To The Earth (To Thank Her For You)", which was anything but acoustic last night. To say that Apollo Sunshine absolutely melted my soul and mind last night would be an understatement. Maybe it was the food (eggplant and cucumber croquettes) or the beer (Leffe Blonde) or the 80's Hip-Hop/Chinese Kung Fu Death/ Ancient Monkey Prints/ Scorcese/Weed Smoking Skull images Egan was projecting on all 4 walls, whatever it was, I left with my heart fluttering, mind loose and eyes wide, as if I'd just come back from an ancient mystical realm, only to be pushed back out into the industrial streets of North Brooklyn in absolute awe of the world. Did I mention it was a full moon??

If you missed last night, do your best to get to Monkey Town tonight, when the band (and Egan) will do it all again. HIGHLY REC'D.

Apollo Sunshine- 666: The Coming of the New World Government
Apollo Sunshine- Singing To The Earth (To Thank Her For You) [courtest of IGIF]