You’re straight up lying to me if you sit there and tell me you don’t like Umphrey’s McGee’s album, Zonkey. Ok, yes, it is the album that most people who don’t regularly listen to Umphrey’s listen to. But, don’t you like to listen to something at least related to Umphrey’s with your non-UM friends? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve jammed Zonkey with my family/friends who aren’t hip to the scene. And they love it! It’s my way of bringing what I love about Umphrey’s to the table with others that may not listen to them like the crazy person that I am. Yes, it is annoying to strike up a conversation with someone about Umphrey’s and have them say, “oh yeah, I love their album Zonkey.” With that statement, you know that you aren't going to have a REAL, in depth conversation about Umphrey’s, but is that any reason to shut them down completely? Why don’t you take a breathe and then really school them on the album. Because if there is one constant in the umphreak community it is the passion to show what you know about the band.
One of Umphrey’s biggest attention grabbers/holders is their ability to jump from genre to genre and still dominate each one. They wear many different genre “hats” designed from the various musicians that inspire them. The album Zonkey, released four years ago today (11/11/16), is the epitome of just that. The idea that Umphrey's can easily flip the switch from one genre to the next, even within the same song, is what this album truly highlights.
Zonkey is a compilation album of many of the band's favorite mashups that were debuted during their Halloween runs. The concept of the mashup came from DJ Zebra’s mashup, “Come Closer,” that the band debuted their own rendition of on 2/13/08 at Crash Mansion LA in Los Angeles, CA. This caused the band to debut five originally crafted mashups at their 2008 Halloween show at The Warfield in San Francisco, CA. Thus starting the mashups theme for their Halloween shows for eight years to follow. Brendan Bayliss says that the reason Zonkey was created was so the audience could really hear what the mashups were “supposed to sound like.” He said that it was hard to get the point across on stage wearing spandex and wigs. So they took the time to sit down and piece together what later became this album. While there were many mashups that didn’t make it onto Zonkey, the band put a little extra effort into some choice highlights of the mashup catalogue they created.
What was crafted through a silly Halloween experiment became such a staple in the Umphreak community that the band spent months of their time perfecting it. Let’s zoom in on the talent and creativity that went into making this album. It takes a finely tuned musical ear to be able to find where to stitch two or three different songs together into one. It also was not an easy task to find different songs that had at least some similarities in chord progressions and down beats to make a good mashup. Umphrey’s musical knowledge muscles were highly flexed during the making of this album. I can only imagine how fun it must have been.
This album features everyone in the band beautifully. Each member got to have their moment to shine. Ryan Stasik’s very first studio vocal appearance made its way onto the track “Sad Clint Eastwood” (a mashup of “Sad but True” by Metallica and “Clint Eastwood” by the Gorillaz). Jake Cinninger can be heard rapping in “National Loser Anthem” (a mashup of “The National Anthem” by Radiohead, “Loser” by Beck and “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins). And of course the shining voice of Mr. Kris Myers makes an appearance throughout the album. The bands long term friend, Jennifer Hartswick, came into collaborate on a few tracks as well including: “Life During Exodus” (a mashup of “Life During Wartime” by The Talking Heads, “Exodus” by Bob Marley, “City of Tiny Lights” by Frank Zappa and “25 or 6 to 4” by Chicago), "Can't Rock My Dream Face" (a mashup of "Rock With You" by Michael Jackson, "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac and "Can't Feel My Face" by The Weekend) and “Electric Avenue to Hell” (a mashup of “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC, “Electric Avenue” by Eddy Grant and “The Triple Wide” by Umphrey’s McGee).
The bottom line is that this album should be celebrated more than it is. So many of those famous riffs that we know and love brought together by our favorite band. It gives us a glimpse into the heavy influences of UM and what they’ve learned from them. It also gives us a taste of the real musical genius’ that the boys in Umphrey’s are (as if we needed any further proof). It makes the non-Umphrey’s people in our lives smile and go “hey! That’s really cool!” And that alone should be enough to sell all of you Zonkey haters out there on this Umphrey’s masterpiece. Do yourself a favor stop the hate, go buy the Zonkey album on vinyl today for its fourth birthday and spin in with pride.
The Mashups on this album are:
-"National Loser Anthem" (a mashup of "The National Anthem" by Radiohead, "Loser by Beck and "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins)
-"Life During Exodus" (a mashup of "Exodus" by Bob Marley and the Wailers, "Life During Wartime" by Talking Heads, "25 or 6 to 4" by Chicago, "City Of Tiny Lites" by Frank Zappa)
-"Can't Rock My Dream Face" (a mashup of "Rock With You" by Michael Jackson, "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac and "Can't Feel My Face" by The Weekend)
-"Sad Clint Eastwood" (a mashup of "Sad But True" by Metallica and "Clint Eastwood" by Gorillaz)
-"Electric Avenue to Hell" (a mashup of "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC, "Electric Avenue" by Eddy Grant and "The Triple Wide" by Umphrey's McGee)
-"Ace of Long Nights" (a mashup of "Ace of Spades" Motörhead and "It's Gonna Be a Long Night" by Ween)
-"Sweet Sunglasses" (a mashup of "Sweet Dreams" by Eurythmics, "Sunglasses at Night" by Corey Hart and "Electric Feel" by MGMT)
-"Strangletage" (a mashup of "Sabotage" by Beastie Boys and "Stranglehold" by Ted Nugent)
-"Come As Your Kids" (a mashup of "Kids" by MGMT, "Come as You are" by Nirvana and "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dead or Alive)
-"Frankie Zombie" ("Thunder Kiss '65" by White Zombie, "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and "Have a Cigar" by Pink Floyd)
-"Bulls on the Bus" ("Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against the Machine and "Mark on the Bus" by Beastie Boys)
-"Bittersweet Haj" (a mashup of "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve, "Hajimemashite" by Umphrey's McGee)
And if you have the vinyl you are treated to a live version of "Jumpin' Jack Wedding Party (All The Time)" (a mashup of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" by The Rolling Stones, "White Wedding" by Billy Idol and "Party All the Time" by Eddie Murphy) from it's debut at The Pageant in St. Louis, MO on 10/30/16
This blog was written by Leah Wolford and edited/revised by Ryan Whitacre
A couple of links for more info on Zonkey:
Comments