Tune of the Week - “Jake Summers”

It’s a blogspiracy and this is how it goes.


Look, kids, Fight Like Apes don’t exist. No, seriously, they’re about as real as the tooth fairy. I know you have read oodles and oodles about them already but they’re the new Keyser Soze.

In fact, they are the result of the first ever AGM of the Irish Music Bloggers Gang (IMBG). The meeting happened last week (Wednesday, to be exact) in the back-room of a greasy spoon just outside Drogheda. A gaggle of music bloggers sat around, compared notes, drank mugs of tea and decided a hot Irish band was needed. This is how we do it, people.

Rocks, the IMBG’s queenpin, reckoned we need a band who were “fun, rocking, a bit Brooklyn, loud, messily drunk, DIY, punky, electronic, joyful, gooey, GOOD”

Torture Garden, the real brains behind the IMBG, had flown in clandestinely from his Berlin bolthole on the government jet for this re-up. He wanted a band with songs who made “violence sound like something not to be afraid of”. He wanted “vocals like Karen O stealing James Browns’ strut, distorted, flowing keyboards, which sound both beautiful and continous as an evening skyline, but as beaten and rough as a bloodied face.” He doesn’t ask for much. But what he asks for, he gets

Nialler, the IMBG’s Head of Always Being Ahead of The Curve, wanted a band who would have great titles like “How Am I Supposed To Kill You If You Have All The Guns?”.

Popcorn Bobby wanted a band with a great name (so you could have have headlines like “Lend Me Your Apes) and one who didnt need guitars.

On the Record, meantime, just wanted another mug of tea. And a band with great lyrics. Something angry, funky and ear-catching. Lines such as “you’re like Kentucky Fried Chicken but without the taste”. Or “you’re a fucking disappointment to the human race”. That kind of thing.

Enter Fight Like Apes, a band who seem so perfect at first glance that you’re excused for thinking they’re a figment of our collective imaginations. But no, they’re real. As real as a punch in the gob. As real as the menopausal Paris Hilton up a pole again in Ranelagh.

The facts. The singer goes by the name of McKay. She screams, hollers, roars and howls. The guy in the picture is called Pockets and he does most of the songwriting. There are also two lads called Tom and Adrian but they stay out of the photos.

They have a song called “Jake Summers” which has been wowing me all week. If you’re interested, IMDB have a Jake Summers who starred in a couple of porn movies. But if you want a track which slam-dunks you between the ears and smacks you in the ribs, you’ve come to the right place. This song rocks on so many different levels.

You can hear it and three other tunes from their new EP here. You’ll also get a list of the shows the band are playing in the next while.

BTW the next meeting of the IMBG happens in late June.