As I explained a while back, we’re currently in the process of making our way through this 180 year old home of ours, and deciding which of our possessions should remain, and which should be jettisoned into the ever-churning gyre of filth and garbage that surrounds us. Well, what follows is my justification for continuing to keep two copies of the first record put out by my one-day-a-year band, The Monkey Power Trio.
TITLE: The Monkey Power Trio’s 1995 release, “The First Hour”
ITEM NUMBER: 0004
BOX NUMBER: 1
DESCRIPTION: This is the second Monkey Power Trio-related entry to make its way into the official family archive. The first, as you may recall, was the t-shirt I was wearing during our first session, recorded in Brooklyn back during the summer of 1995. Well, this 7″ record, which we decided to call, “The First Hour” in recognition of the fact that we’d decided to keep doing the same thing every year, was the result of that first session, and, with its frantic pace and improvisational nature, it laid the foundation for everything that would come afterward in our catalog.
No, it’s not a great record by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s an historic artifact from a point in time that’s important to me — the exact moment when my friends and I decided not to just move away from one another and become adults, but to stay connected over time and geography, bound together by a promise meet and record one day a year until just one of us remains alive.
This 7″ single contains the MPT originals, Baby Eyes, The Theme from the Film: “Daddy, What Was Monkey Power?”, Jehovah’s Shit List, October Throughout History, Kling Kling Bang Bang Pop, and You Like-a the Cheese?.
I could go on, but everything worth saying about this first record, and how it came to be, was already been said in the exhaustive oral history about “The First Hour” I posted with my bandmates Matt Krizowsky and Dan Richardson.
[note: I had thought about including two copies of this particular artifact, with he thought being that, once I’m gone, both Clementine and Arlo should be forced to care for one. Upon further reflection, however, I decided to just put in one copy as a test to see which one of them loves me more.]
5 Comments
Aloha MM, I have lived in the same house for 35 years. My daughter thinks that nothing that enters the house ever leaves. I’m trying to organize myself to move in the next 18 months. I REALLY FEEL FOR YOU. I have 5 copies of a single edition of the Little Red song book, and then 5 or more copies of the next edition etc. Like you, only one or two people are likely to have good copies. I am glad you are keeping two. Is there an archive or library you can donate stuff too? I have taken over a dozen boxes of material to the Reuther archives rather than seeing them be land filled—though given my believes about our climate catastrophe —being a dolt has its advantages.
All of my five children were conceived while this record played.
Mr. Maynard had originally indicated that there would be two copies of this record placed in the archive; one for his son, and one for his daughter. Upon further reflection, he’s decided to just preserve one copy, forcing his children fight to the death for it like Kirk and Spock in Amok Time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AphxyjrH4SE
Aloha, will you make them use the modified pizza peels?
https://www.northernpizzaequipment.com/14-x-16-aluminum-pizza-peel-by-american-metalcraft.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIibDhtdSs4gIV3LfACh22kgI-EAQYASABEgIrZvD_BwE
or some other devilish instrument of destruction? The joys of having more than one child, sibling death matches.
Looking forward to the next installment. A few months ago I put all of my college papers/exams in the recycle bin along with poetry and short stories dating from junior high through college–just thought it was time to let them go. Come recycling day I picked them all back out and put them in a couple of expandable file folders, so I guess I’ve started my own archive. I’ve come to believe and accept that bits of fabric and paper and metal and whatnot are enormously precious and important because they contain companion stories (and lives) that cannot be duplicated but perhaps can be multiplied by the keeping and telling. Thanks for this series.