Ultrasounds is an album made of good, old fashioned rock n’ roll songs fused with a punk rock energy and attitude. At times, the Ape Hangers have a rockabilly sensibility, maybe even with a touch of surf punk, but then the music opens up and hammers away at your groove organs, keeping you tapping your toes and humming the melodies throughout the day. Where the band lacks musical dynamics and technical thrills, they more than make up for in straight up raw power and fun. Think The Smithereens with a shot glass full of venom. The production on this disc perfectly highlights the bands abilities, never sounding too polished, which works to the benefit of the rougher quality of the songs.
“This is My Life” jumps out of the gates like a revved up funny car. High octane, upbeat, and full of “Go Baby!” energy, this song is the absolute perfect album opener. The guitars rattle away with a palm muted fury, the bass steady rumbles in the background, the drums fire away like the pistons on the aforementioned funny car, and then on top of all of this, the vocals work in great harmony. A little gruff, full of snotty rebellion, but just enough melody, the vocals convey the lyrical message with crystal clarity. At a hair under three minutes, this is the perfect kind of song to grab the listener’s attention and get them fired up for the rest of the album. It’s a song with immediacy to it and damn it! It’s just fucking fun!
“You Don’t Know What It Takes” is one of the more memorable songs on the disc and that’s attributable to the knock out melody. Hearing this melody is like stepping in a wad of chewing gum. No matter how hard you try to rid yourself of it, it’s sticking with you and you’re carrying it around with you all day long. Even when you’re sitting at your desk, you still know that on the bottom of your shoe is a faded fluorescent mass of the gooiest substance known to man. The good thing is that “You Don’t Know What It Takes” isn’t nearly as annoying and actually a rather pleasant tune to have rattling around in your brain. Note the arrangement on this song as they shift from the palm muted riff into little bursts of sustained and distorted notes. It’s a nice touch that gives the song a bit of elegance and keeps it from being a pedestrian rock song. The vocal work, again, is strong . . . balancing between rough n’ tumble rocker and sensitive singer. Excellent track!
My absolute favorite track on this disc happens to be “I’m Gonna’ Miss You Someday.” This tune has more of a rockabilly, country vibe to it. Imagine if you will, Johnny Cash singing for The Smithereens. That deep, whiskey weathered voice crooning along to the jangling guitar melodies is the kind of nuance that gets me every time. Once the songs cruises into the chorus, the vocals open up and become even more expressive. They’re a little on the abrasive side, a little gruff, but full of warm richness. The guitar work is excellent, too, as they utilize some great effects to the distorted six string beasts. Listen in as it sounds like the guitars are being toggled through the different pickup’s. I’ve probably heard this effect a million times in my music listening history, but never have I heard it done so cleanly and so often. The Ape Hangers also include an acoustic version of the song on the back end of the album. This version is completely slowed down and comes across as a Californian country ballad. It’s amazing how removing all of the distortion from the song can have such a drastic effect on the overall mood of the song. The acoustic version is so much more plaintive and depressed. I love it!
The punk-y “Red Hot Rocket” is a mover of a tune, psychedelically tripped out with effects, but high powered and bouncy. Ape Hangers do a great job of playing with dynamics in sound by pulling the guitars out of the mix to let the song rest on the groove of the bass and rhythms, and once the guitars come back in, they come in with a punch that grabs your attention and has you rocking out even harder than before. “I Don’t Want To Live Today” is a song centered on the want of love, the pain of loneliness, the torture of crawling out of bed to face the world that has to be happier than the one you’re living in. Man, great conveyance of emotion in those lyrics and vocals, and it’s all set to an upbeat number that should actually have you bouncing all over the place. The contrast of despair ridden subject matter versus the happy go lucky sound of the music is awesome!
Man, I could (and have) listen to Ultrasounds all day long! It’s just a damn good rock album with elements of punk rock, rockabilly, and surf punk mixed in. It’s high energy, upbeat, yet with a lyrical sensitivity to it that makes it more than one dimensional. I’d be willing to bet that if this album were getting the promotion that it deserved, a little bit more airplay, found itself in the social conscious that Ultrasounds would be one of those albums that masses would simply freak out to . . . and Ape Hangers would then be a household name. The album is just too strong to be ignored, and I guess that’s why Racer and I do what we do . . . but it is a crying shame that an album so damn good could be cast aside so easily, or so often. If you find yourself wandering through the bargain bins and you happen upon a copy of Ultrasounds, make sure you throw it in your basket. If you don’t comb the bargain bins, then good luck. You might be able to find some stuff on Amazon or Yahoo, but the band seems to be defunct. Also, you may find an Ape Hangers on MySpace that plays surf rock . . . that is not the same band as far as I can tell. Happy hunting! - Pope JTE
www.last.fm/music/Ape+Hangers
http://www.artistdirect.com/artist/videos/ape-hangers/536985-479312-1
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