Saucy Monky
There’s got to be something witty and wild about a band that names its debut album after a lingerie store in L.A. (Celebrity Trash)—but Saucy Monky’s playful sense of humor is just the beginning of the irresistible indie spirit that defines the vibe of guitar playing singer-songwriters Annmarie Cullen and Cynthia Catania and their driving rhythm section, bassist Carson Cohen and drummer Adam Marcello. The title of their highly anticipated follow-up Turbulence perfectly captures their unpredictable spirit and high energy personalities.
Already a hit in Annmarie’s native Ireland, where it was released last year to widespread acclaim, Turbulence catches fire with the girls’ striking trademark combination of wit, brilliant song craft, lush vocal harmonies and modern rock edges. The collection, which will be launched Stateside with the desperately hopeful first single “Disco Ball (Boulevard Remix)”—a colorful reworking of a track that appeared on Saucy Monky’s debut—is being released by 429 Records, a recently established adult alternative-focused division of the Savoy Label Group (SLG), in conjunction with the band’s own label olivoiL records.
It must be the luck of the Irish, but while many Americans are getting their first taste of Saucy Monky this year, that country’s been on the case seemingly forever. The raw, roughly produced and critically acclaimed Celebrity Trash scored two hit radio singles in 2003—“Flicker” and “Don’t Wanna Know Your Name,” the latter becoming the theme song in ads for the tastemaking music magazine Hot Press, Ireland’s version of Rolling Stone. Annmarie and Cynthia’s songs have also been featured on various MTV reality shows, this season’s MTV Made, Zoey 101, Drake & Josh and Veronica Mars, to name a few.
Saucy Monky is currently touring the U.S. and was asked by The B-52’s to open select West Coast dates. But it won’t be long before the L.A. based band returns to Ireland, where they’ve toured at least half a dozen times over the past three years. In 2004, they headlined with megastars like PJ Harvey, Pink and The Black Eyed Peas there at the Oxegen (before 60,000 fans) and O2 In The Park festivals (100,000).
Though Saucy Monky retains the indie edge of Celebrity Trash that first endeared the band to fans worldwide, Turbulence is a more polished effort (actually produced at home, by Cynthia Catania) that features the contributions of major industry heavyweights like star mixer Chris Fogel (Alanis Morissette, U2, Aerosmith) and keyboardist Jeremy Ruzumna (Macy Gray, Joss Stone). In addition to a cool balance between heartfelt ballads (the trippy, yearning “Bright Side,” a bluesy and acoustic “Everyday Lover”) and intense, wild rockers (the fiery “Good Day Down,” a tightly wound, punk flavored “Boyz”), the girls take a rousing spin through the The Divinyls’ 1991 classic “I Touch Myself.” Other tracks showing off a diversity of moods and stages of a relationship include the rumbling, mid-tempo rocker “Speedball,” the trippy ethereal pop/rock flavored “Umbrellas” and the ethereal title track “Turbulence.”
“The fun part of the way Cynthia and I always make music is that it’s never contrived, and the chemistry of the writing comes to us so naturally,” says Annmarie. “Celebrity Trash had more of a straight out of the box, low fi garage vibe to it, and I like the raw feel it has. This time, we took more time and went deeper into the production process and we’re showing definite polish and artistic growth. Most of the songs show this evolution, but it was fun to revisit tunes from the days when we were pursuing solo careers, like Cynthia’s ‘Spark’ and my ‘Solid Ground.’ It’s kind of like a song for every mood type of feel. I usually gravitate towards albums that cover a lot of emotions.”
“The best part of our partnership is that we’re always playing off each other, having a good time, balancing our sense of humor with our passion for songwriting and singing harmonies,” adds Cynthia. “There’s no real running storyline on Turbulence, it’s more like a body of work we had written over a few years, photographs of our lives leading up to the making of the record.”
“429 Records represents the perfect opportunity for Saucy Monky,” she says. “It’s an indie label at heart, with major label brains and significant resources to draw upon once the ball gets rolling. They’re focused on artist development and not just a one single, make or break, style of doing business. I love the way we were just doing what we love to do, and they found us because of our success in Ireland. We’re so thankful for Hot Press and the fans there. We can’t wait to get back to Ireland to thank everyone in person!”
True to the whimsical nature of Saucy Monky (the band name comes from a passage from a book by British writer Tina Brown), Annmarie and Cynthia have told the story of their first meeting on the Los Angeles club scene in late 2001 in numerous ways at different times. The new “official” version—and Cynthia swears it’s the truth—goes something like this: Cynthia auditioned for a band led by the guitarist who was currently working in Annmarie’s group—and Annmarie told him not to hire her! (She was too tall or something). Still intrigued by what she saw of Cynthia, Annmarie came to one of her future partner’s “olivoiL Indie Nights,” gatherings of independent artist friends that Cynthia puts on at local L.A. clubs like Genghis Cohen, The Mint and Hotel Caf
