DAVID THOMAS & TWO PALE BOYS 18 MONKEYS ON A DEAD MAN'S CHEST ALBUM GLITTERHOUSE RELEASE: MARCH 29, 2004 (EUROPE WITHOUT S.), MAY 6, 2004 (SWEDEN), OCTOBER 19, 2004 (USA) REVIEW: JUNE 21, 2004

David Thomas may be best known as the singer of avant punk band Pere Ubu, but if you ask me, it’s with Two Pale Boys he’s had some of his greatest moments. The meeting between on the one hand Thomas’ voice and droning melodeon, and on the other the Two Pale Boys’ effect-treated guitar and trumpet, has resulted in both a fabulous sound, way bigger than the individual parts would lead you to believe, and, with this, three great albums.
They may seem to draw on conventional material, folk songs and rock’n’roll, but the execution sounds like it takes place on the other side of the looking glass. The guitar and trumpet coil around one another to form great walls of sound that every so often collapse into moments of otherworldly beauty. It’s as if they’ve altered the very DNA of the rock song, spawning a new breed with previously unheard of traits.
Compared with the two earlier Pale Boys albums, “18 Monkeys on a Dead Man’s Chest” is more abrasive, rawer and uglier, the electronic parts taking the backseat. This time all scabs have been scratched off the semihealed wounds, and what oozes forward is not a pretty sight. But although there aren’t as many moments of serenity as on “Surf’s Up!”, the shockingly great last album, there are places of tenderness here too. Just listen to “Little Sister”. And just as before, as always, Davis Thomas’ lyrics dig deep, winding tunnels through the subconscious of post-industrial wastelands, displays of the grotesque nightmares haunting our culture.
If this is folk music, it’s folk music for alienated freaks populating neon-lit, deserted parking lots in the middle of nowhere.

KRISTOFFER NOHEDEN