Hundredth Monkey formed at 1983 by Stephen Jay Morris (vocals), Tim Konspiracy (Kummerow) (drums), Pat Amodeo (bass), Tom Carpenter (keyboards), and Brad Frost (guitar). The first two came from the LA punk band Benedict Arnold & the Traitors. With this line-up released a 7' (Quicksand/ Rugged Individual, 1983, Veracious Records). Around 1985 they became a trio with Brad Frost, Tim Kummerow and Ian Montgomery (bass) and the next year released their only LP "Mute Lament", again on Veracious Records, with Frost as main songwriter. The cover was made by the famous Robert Williams. They lasted 'till 1989. After that Kummerow and Montgomery formed Pendu Femmele, a band with no vinyl or CD output (only an entire album in MP3.com in its glorious days). In the 90s Kummerow worked as a graphics artist, a painter and had the TV show Subterranean Sounds, which featured live performances and interviews with Los Angeles area underground bands, and Frost worked as an assistant animator, writer and actor in movies and television.
This LP is another lost treasure of the 80s. You could call it pop-psyche but it's a lot better than that. Short songs with strong melodies, real good production, along with studio effects, backwards tapes etc that sneak in the backround, not dominating but helping the songs unfold. This is west-coast psychedelia at its best. Too bad that they didn't get any attention. This is a vinyl rip. Again there's nothing about it in the net, (actually Tim Kummerow in his bio doesn't mention the 100th Monkey, and I only found some facts from a Stephen Jay Morris reply) so I took a photo of the cover, which I post.
About the name - from the back cover: The Japanese Monkey, Macaca fuscata, has been observed in the wild for more than 30 years. In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were leaving sweet potatoes in the sand for the monkeys. A young monkey named Imo begun to wash off the unpleasant tasting sand. She taught her mother and playmates. They taught others. By 1958, all of the young monkeys were washing their sweet potatoes. When a certain number of monkeys had learned to wash their potatoes, the tide had turned and all the monkeys on Koshima begun to do so. The impetus of that "Hundredth Monkey" had created an ideological breakthrough! Then a surprising thing happened. The habit of washing sweet potatoes jumped over the sea! Monkeys on other islands and the mainland, began washing their sweet potatoes too. Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind.
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