Whooooa! Track?BAnd?Album of the day!!! Big big memories of West Coast surfs and soundtracks... surf ska rock - if you dig... Cheers Monkey Puzzle for getting your stuff to us.
OK it's been a while since anyone left a message for us, but then again it's been a while since any of left any for you all, this page will get updated monthly from now on, and we'll have some new tracks up for ya soon! MDP
OK, as we said in earlier news, we're back.
3 of the 4 original members of Monkey Puzzle will be playing together over the next few months, Danny Rodda-Vox and Guitar, Tyson Hill-Bass and Vox, and Karl Johannsen (The Elusive Ones) will be gigging around the North Island in Support of our upcoming Best of album.
As Karl has a commitment to his other band The Elusive Ones he will only be with us for a couple of months, look out for appearances from other ex-puzzle members too as we have had quite a bit of interest from some of them to come and help out.
We are currently talking to BJ Hiha formerly of Pushkin and The Blue Set, to be our permanent drummer, we have a long history with him and know that he will fit in perfectly, we just need to sort out all our other pre-existing commitments before it all comes together.
New video and single will be recorded over the next 2 months as well and then we hope to go back over to Australia, and follow on from the ground work we have just laid as Sideshifter (by the way batbat and friends, we didn't really like the name sideshifter either, it was just a stop gap until we figured out what to do with Monkey Puzzle).
Fuck i remember Pushkin. Those guys were freakin legends. If you scored their old drummer you'd be set. Their front man was choice and the guitars always sounded massive - but the drummer i lovd the most. Heavy tasty funky beats. Best of luck with the new Puzzle. I have hazy recollections of some of your gigs.
Just a quick update, as mentioned above, BJ Hiha, formerly of Pushkin and The Blue Set is now the permanent drummer for Monkey Puzzle, we're also going to be doing a few gigs with our original drummer Karl (the elusive ones)over the next couple of months.
Hey guys, we've got some gigs coming up.
November 21st at Big Chill Raumati
November 28th at Indigo Wellington w/ The Housewives, the elusive ones, Beatnics Foundation and guests.
November 29th at Masonic Devonport
the 28th/29th will be with Karl Johansen form the elusive ones on drums, and the 21st will be with BJ Hiha ex Pushkin and The Blue Set on drums
holy shit i think i might have to come and see you at the masonic. I'm sure floppy will want to come. Danny can you say howdee to the beatniks for me when you see them. shot.
Did you play at the Dogs Bollix a couple of weekends ago? Wearing Paul Frank T-shirts? If so your drummer and guitarist/singer were adorable but the bass player needs to take his head out of his arse - sooooo irratating to watch!
Sorry I take it back. I thought you guys sounded awesome. My evil twin sister sneaked on the computer while I was outside having a ciggerette! Whoopsy daisy......hummmmmm........... Uncomfortable moment
(ralphie drags blowfinger out of this forum, while whispering in a mother's pissed off voice - "dude, shut-up - we havent seen them play yet...omigod this is sooo embarrassing!")
Monkey puzzle the relief that I had the wrong band was the highlight of my day. Can't wait to see you perform. I have learnt it's better to point out the positives rather than the negatives. However, you if ever want some bluntly honest feedback you know where to inquire. I do like to point out the positives first - although writing someone off completely afterwards was a bit mean.
I look forward to meeting you, one thing this industry lacks is honest feedback.
Actually there are quite a few people on this site i'd like to meet and put faces to pseudonyms.
I look like my picture. You will know me by my eyes that look like smiley faces, I have no nose and only one expression - a cheesy smile. Don't be alarmed by my mascaline jaw line it is actually rather indearing in person.
ah yes the tired old, but sadly inevitable, aren't you guys uncle monkey? routine...done before, not quite as well, but still...
anyway, we'd still love to see you and meet you all, come over to the masonic on the 29th and drink tequila with us and watch us play other peoples songs badly!
yeah cheers, we actually had someone quit the band over that song 'coz he thought I was taking the piss out of Iron Maiden...I love them, it was all the other cheese bands like Survivor and Toto that I was takin' pot shots at.
we hardly ever play that anymore, but i'm glad you like it, it was recorded in some guys bedroom late one night after a few to many beers.
I've only ever heard an a capello version by my friend Phil who was drunk at the time. Sounds cool. I was there at Indigo Christmas 1999 and you guys played you did an epic version of Hotel California, complete with triad tapping blazing metal solo - 's cool!
Yeah I can't help myself sometimes, I often wonder where all the guitar heros have gone to, and what inspires young dudes to want to master the guitar...sure songwriting is a great reason to learn, but so many young dudes now only learn the basic chords and never go beyond that.
Bring back the guitar hero!
oh yeah, if you want to hear the song in question it's on our website, or you can hear it on mp3.com.au/monkeypuzzle
Take it easy on the Toto bashing if you could Monk, I have a soft spot in my heart for thier song "Africa" as it just happened to be on the radio the first time I ever err, umm, "got with" a young lass, shall we say.
I know this isn't really what you meant by guitar hero's but theres a tour that just rolled through town called "G3" and if your into this kind of thing (which I am) its well worth a look.
G3 = Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen, These guys are all bonafide axe slingers to be sure.
No they fit exactly into my personal catagory of Guitar heros, in fact they feature quite prominently in my desire at the tender age of 16 to actually LEARN how to play instead of just strum, and I wasn't really knocking Toto, Steve Lukather is another of my heros, it's more of a warped idea of a tribute to those bands, but at the same time pointing out that as cool as they were to us at the time in retrospect some of their songs were a bit naff and trite, but hell we still love 'em all...especially those ones that happened to be playing in the background when we got our first hummer..."your love is like..Bad Medicine, and Bad Medicine is what I need, whoa oh oh, shake it up...."
...its like bad medecine and bad medecine is what I need..
Hahaha I was amongst the 13,000 that turned out to see those guys play the Springs, the place seemed empty to me because the weekend before I jumped U2 (both nights) and they had 60 something 000 but those of us that were there were loving it.
When I think of guitar hero's I think of the guys from the bands that were plastered on my bedroom wall in '88.
Ha I was a t both those gigs too, looking back it does seem a bit empty in my memory,
Satriani, Slash, Randy Rhoads, Vai, Eddie(of course) all played a big part in my musical education, i'm probably(maybe dangerous to admit) one of the only guitarists in NZ still willing to bust out a tapping solo, hell I even sit down in guitar shops and play eruption, just because I know all the young dudes checking out the axes can't do it...yeah I know what you're all thinking, but hell I embrace my cheeseness, and yes I love it!
Come see us play at the masonic and I promise you'll see all the cheesyist 80's guitar tricks and licks that ever existed, tapping, sweep arppegios, heel i've even figured out how to do dive bomb whammy bends on a fixed bridge guitar, and from time to time I have been known to introduce power tools to the solos as well as random beers glasses and other assorted drinking vessels...and the funniest thing of all is that i'm not even that good a guitarist but somehow people still enjoy it.
Yeah, you guys are on my "things to do when I get home" list.
It cracks me up you still play Eruption when checking out guitars, it might be old and cheesy to some but it takes some skills to rip that out and you know all those youngsters are eating it up (man that takes me back).
I've said it before and I'll say it again I love cheesy 80's metal (or "butt rock" as they call it over here).
So did you think about my suggestion in "the worst bands" forum I think it would be huge *grin*.
All I've been listening to lately is Dramarama man I can't believe I didn't dig a little deeper back in the day, they're such a sweet band.
My mate wants to know what dudes got in his Holden? I've been telling them about Holdens for years but I never bothered to show him a pic till he showed up here earlier and I showed him "the beast".
He's got a '65 Chevelle (similar to the one Travolta drives in "Pulp fiction" except his isn't a convertable and Travolta's was a '64) and that thing is pretty sick.
Well drug addictions, line up changes and illigitimate children we have pretty well covered but none of us are married, we had an ex member who'd had 3 wives though so I guess he's got us covered on 2 counts there anyway.
Haha, send us a digital pic of your'self and we'll get it blown up to life size(ish) and stick it up the front row or on the side of the stage with a pint so you can be there!
You mean the beast on our website? that was our tour wagon for a couple of years, damn we miss it!
Yeah Butt Rock Rules!
Oh yeah we've been covering Anything Anything by Dramarama ever since the beggining of Monkey Puzzle, and before that I played it in every band I ever played for, its been part of my repetoire for so long now that people think I wrote it! no shit, when Buckcherry did the cover of it that was put on the end of Road Trip, everyone kept asking how much money i'd made from it!
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Technorati
Whooooa! Track?BAnd?Album of the day!!! ...
Whooooa! Track?BAnd?Album of the day!!! Big big memories of West Coast surfs and soundtracks... surf ska rock - if you dig... Cheers Monkey Puzzle for getting your stuff to us.
Cool Vid Cool Site Cool Band...
Cool Vid
Cool Site
Cool Band
Time to go outside and play!...
Time to go outside and play!
tight west coast surf ska. look forward ...
tight west coast surf ska. look forward to seeing plenty more from these fullas this summer!
dosent this just stir up all those ...
dosent this just stir up all those memories good and bad???
keep on puzzling boys
OK it's been a while since anyone left ...
OK it's been a while since anyone left a message for us, but then again it's been a while since any of left any for you all, this page will get updated monthly from now on, and we'll have some new tracks up for ya soon! MDP
OK, as we said in earlier news, we're ...
OK, as we said in earlier news, we're back.
3 of the 4 original members of Monkey Puzzle will be playing together over the next few months, Danny Rodda-Vox and Guitar, Tyson Hill-Bass and Vox, and Karl Johannsen (The Elusive Ones) will be gigging around the North Island in Support of our upcoming Best of album.
As Karl has a commitment to his other band The Elusive Ones he will only be with us for a couple of months, look out for appearances from other ex-puzzle members too as we have had quite a bit of interest from some of them to come and help out.
We are currently talking to BJ Hiha formerly of Pushkin and The Blue Set, to be our permanent drummer, we have a long history with him and know that he will fit in perfectly, we just need to sort out all our other pre-existing commitments before it all comes together.
New video and single will be recorded over the next 2 months as well and then we hope to go back over to Australia, and follow on from the ground work we have just laid as Sideshifter (by the way batbat and friends, we didn't really like the name sideshifter either, it was just a stop gap until we figured out what to do with Monkey Puzzle).
Fuck i remember Pushkin. Those guys ...
Fuck i remember Pushkin. Those guys were freakin legends. If you scored their old drummer you'd be set. Their front man was choice and the guitars always sounded massive - but the drummer i lovd the most. Heavy tasty funky beats. Best of luck with the new Puzzle. I have hazy recollections of some of your gigs.
I agree. BJ was (and probably still ...
I agree. BJ was (and probably still is) a mutha fucka. Easily the best musician in Pushkin.
Yep, they're all great fucking ...
Yep, they're all great fucking musicians...but we got the drummer!!
Just a quick update, as mentioned ...
Just a quick update, as mentioned above, BJ Hiha, formerly of Pushkin and The Blue Set is now the permanent drummer for Monkey Puzzle, we're also going to be doing a few gigs with our original drummer Karl (the elusive ones)over the next couple of months.
Congrats! You guys have got yourselves ...
Congrats! You guys have got yourselves one hell of a drummer. BJ Hiha fukn rocks. Ah the fond memories...
Best of luck, hope all goes well, can't wait to hear you guys with Beejezus behind the kit.
Cheers bro, Hey i've got a song to ...
Cheers bro, Hey i've got a song to play you too, it was written about things that came up in a conversation we had nearly 6 years ago.
hey danny! al here just wondering if ...
hey danny! al here just wondering if you were planning to mission it up for the last night at the temple?
I was 'sposed to play there on ...
I was 'sposed to play there on Wednesday night, but the car fucked out in Taihape.
mission it up. hehehehe ...
mission it up. hehehehe mission...gizzard, thats ur band! FLOP why dont u reply? ur mean. ASDSHOLE
ur on my hit list. shame. ur gonna die..
[ http://www.myhitlist.com/floppy ]
uhoh, better look out Flops, looks like ...
uhoh, better look out Flops, looks like the moron mafia are out to get ya!
please mister darkie can I be on us hitlist too?
Hey guys, we've got some gigs coming ...
Hey guys, we've got some gigs coming up.
November 21st at Big Chill Raumati
November 28th at Indigo Wellington w/ The Housewives, the elusive ones, Beatnics Foundation and guests.
November 29th at Masonic Devonport
the 28th/29th will be with Karl Johansen form the elusive ones on drums, and the 21st will be with BJ Hiha ex Pushkin and The Blue Set on drums
Look forward to seeing a few of you at the gigs.
holy shit i think i might have to come ...
holy shit i think i might have to come and see you at the masonic. I'm sure floppy will want to come. Danny can you say howdee to the beatniks for me when you see them. shot.
No worries!...
No worries!
Did you play at the Dogs Bollix a ...
Did you play at the Dogs Bollix a couple of weekends ago? Wearing Paul Frank T-shirts? If so your drummer and guitarist/singer were adorable but the bass player needs to take his head out of his arse - sooooo irratating to watch!
stop it blowfinger, you are being ...
stop it blowfinger, you are being embarrassing - can i not take you anywhere??
monkey puzz...sorry about that mate.
(*kicks* and *slaps* blowfinger. that was uncle monkey"(whispering) *nudge*)
Sorry I take it back. I thought you ...
Sorry I take it back. I thought you guys sounded awesome. My evil twin sister sneaked on the computer while I was outside having a ciggerette! Whoopsy daisy......hummmmmm........... Uncomfortable moment
(cross-eyed)...
(cross-eyed)
(ralphie drags blowfinger out of this ...
(ralphie drags blowfinger out of this forum, while whispering in a mother's pissed off voice - "dude, shut-up - we havent seen them play yet...omigod this is sooo embarrassing!")
excuse us.
Heather quick! Can you edit?...
Heather quick! Can you edit?
Even if I could I wouldn't....
Even if I could I wouldn't.
Monkey puzzle the relief that I had the ...
Monkey puzzle the relief that I had the wrong band was the highlight of my day. Can't wait to see you perform. I have learnt it's better to point out the positives rather than the negatives. However, you if ever want some bluntly honest feedback you know where to inquire. I do like to point out the positives first - although writing someone off completely afterwards was a bit mean.
I look forward to meeting you, one ...
I look forward to meeting you, one thing this industry lacks is honest feedback.
Actually there are quite a few people on this site i'd like to meet and put faces to pseudonyms.
Masonic-Devonport, 29th November...he hinted subtly!
I will warn you now though that we won't have our regular drummer and we'll be playing quite a few covers, but thats not an excuse it's just a fact!
eyes like smiley faces eh? well we'll ...
eyes like smiley faces eh? well we'll get on just dandy-o, I have smiley faces tatooed on my knees.
learn from your shame. im going home....
learn from your shame.
im going home.
Fuck! - I'm going to the punching bag ...
Fuck! - I'm going to the punching bag forum
I look like my picture. You will know ...
I look like my picture. You will know me by my eyes that look like smiley faces, I have no nose and only one expression - a cheesy smile. Don't be alarmed by my mascaline jaw line it is actually rather indearing in person.
Ha, nice....
Ha, nice.
btw its alway raining here, stop for ...
btw its alway raining here, stop for more than five minutes they think its a drought.
ah yes the tired old, but sadly ...
ah yes the tired old, but sadly inevitable, aren't you guys uncle monkey? routine...done before, not quite as well, but still...
anyway, we'd still love to see you and meet you all, come over to the masonic on the 29th and drink tequila with us and watch us play other peoples songs badly!
*banging head, while pimping fist in ...
*banging head, while pimping fist in the air and laughing* Loving that "80's rock song" man.
yeah cheers, we actually had someone ...
yeah cheers, we actually had someone quit the band over that song 'coz he thought I was taking the piss out of Iron Maiden...I love them, it was all the other cheese bands like Survivor and Toto that I was takin' pot shots at.
we hardly ever play that anymore, but i'm glad you like it, it was recorded in some guys bedroom late one night after a few to many beers.
I've only ever heard an a capello ...
I've only ever heard an a capello version by my friend Phil who was drunk at the time. Sounds cool. I was there at Indigo Christmas 1999 and you guys played you did an epic version of Hotel California, complete with triad tapping blazing metal solo - 's cool!
Yeah I can't help myself sometimes, I ...
Yeah I can't help myself sometimes, I often wonder where all the guitar heros have gone to, and what inspires young dudes to want to master the guitar...sure songwriting is a great reason to learn, but so many young dudes now only learn the basic chords and never go beyond that.
Bring back the guitar hero!
oh yeah, if you want to hear the song in question it's on our website, or you can hear it on mp3.com.au/monkeypuzzle
[ http://www.monkeypuzzle.co.nz ]
Take it easy on the Toto bashing if you ...
Take it easy on the Toto bashing if you could Monk, I have a soft spot in my heart for thier song "Africa" as it just happened to be on the radio the first time I ever err, umm, "got with" a young lass, shall we say.
I know this isn't really what you meant by guitar hero's but theres a tour that just rolled through town called "G3" and if your into this kind of thing (which I am) its well worth a look.
G3 = Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen, These guys are all bonafide axe slingers to be sure.
No they fit exactly into my personal ...
No they fit exactly into my personal catagory of Guitar heros, in fact they feature quite prominently in my desire at the tender age of 16 to actually LEARN how to play instead of just strum, and I wasn't really knocking Toto, Steve Lukather is another of my heros, it's more of a warped idea of a tribute to those bands, but at the same time pointing out that as cool as they were to us at the time in retrospect some of their songs were a bit naff and trite, but hell we still love 'em all...especially those ones that happened to be playing in the background when we got our first hummer..."your love is like..Bad Medicine, and Bad Medicine is what I need, whoa oh oh, shake it up...."
...its like bad medecine and bad ...
...its like bad medecine and bad medecine is what I need..
Hahaha I was amongst the 13,000 that turned out to see those guys play the Springs, the place seemed empty to me because the weekend before I jumped U2 (both nights) and they had 60 something 000 but those of us that were there were loving it.
When I think of guitar hero's I think of the guys from the bands that were plastered on my bedroom wall in '88.
Ha I was a t both those gigs too, ...
Ha I was a t both those gigs too, looking back it does seem a bit empty in my memory,
Satriani, Slash, Randy Rhoads, Vai, Eddie(of course) all played a big part in my musical education, i'm probably(maybe dangerous to admit) one of the only guitarists in NZ still willing to bust out a tapping solo, hell I even sit down in guitar shops and play eruption, just because I know all the young dudes checking out the axes can't do it...yeah I know what you're all thinking, but hell I embrace my cheeseness, and yes I love it!
Come see us play at the masonic and I promise you'll see all the cheesyist 80's guitar tricks and licks that ever existed, tapping, sweep arppegios, heel i've even figured out how to do dive bomb whammy bends on a fixed bridge guitar, and from time to time I have been known to introduce power tools to the solos as well as random beers glasses and other assorted drinking vessels...and the funniest thing of all is that i'm not even that good a guitarist but somehow people still enjoy it.
Rock On /,,/ /,,/
Yeah, you guys are on my "things to do ...
Yeah, you guys are on my "things to do when I get home" list.
It cracks me up you still play Eruption when checking out guitars, it might be old and cheesy to some but it takes some skills to rip that out and you know all those youngsters are eating it up (man that takes me back).
I've said it before and I'll say it again I love cheesy 80's metal (or "butt rock" as they call it over here).
So did you think about my suggestion in "the worst bands" forum I think it would be huge *grin*.
All I've been listening to lately is Dramarama man I can't believe I didn't dig a little deeper back in the day, they're such a sweet band.
My mate wants to know what dudes got in ...
My mate wants to know what dudes got in his Holden? I've been telling them about Holdens for years but I never bothered to show him a pic till he showed up here earlier and I showed him "the beast".
He's got a '65 Chevelle (similar to the one Travolta drives in "Pulp fiction" except his isn't a convertable and Travolta's was a '64) and that thing is pretty sick.
Well drug addictions, line up changes ...
Well drug addictions, line up changes and illigitimate children we have pretty well covered but none of us are married, we had an ex member who'd had 3 wives though so I guess he's got us covered on 2 counts there anyway.
Haha, send us a digital pic of your'self and we'll get it blown up to life size(ish) and stick it up the front row or on the side of the stage with a pint so you can be there!
You know what Im on about with that ...
You know what Im on about with that whole "Behind the music" thing, right?
Pics not a bad idea hahaha, but I think I'll just send my brother or a couple mates down to check you guys out when you play Devo'.
You mean the beast on our website? that ...
You mean the beast on our website? that was our tour wagon for a couple of years, damn we miss it!
Yeah Butt Rock Rules!
Oh yeah we've been covering Anything Anything by Dramarama ever since the beggining of Monkey Puzzle, and before that I played it in every band I ever played for, its been part of my repetoire for so long now that people think I wrote it! no shit, when Buckcherry did the cover of it that was put on the end of Road Trip, everyone kept asking how much money i'd made from it!
When are you home?...
When are you home?