Top 11: Primate Rock

Ian Brown

To celebrate the stupendous discovery of Darwinius masillae or Ida, the missing link between humans and mammals, we bring you eleven bands who honour our furrier primate cousins.  To Ida (and Darwin) with love.

1. The Stone Roses - ‘She Bangs The Drums’
What better way to start off than with the King Monkey himself, Ian Brown. We would have posted an Ian Brown vid, but i) for some reason we couldn’t find ‘My Star’; ii) we haven’t heard this in a while; and iii) it’s one of the best songs, like, ever, so there you go.

2. Supergrass - ‘Moving’
Supergrass emerged on the Britpop scene content to be its court jesters, and content to rest behind the looming shadow cast by Gaz Coombs’ simian sideburns (still awesome), only emerging as a proper-ish band soon after. We begrudge them nothing, because ‘Moving’ is a good song with a brilliant video, which, again, we couldn’t find.

3. Damn Dirty Apes - ‘In Tents’
Malaysian space rock/reggae combo Damn Dirty Apes have come back to life. Catch them at KLue Urbanscapes 2009 in a unique collabo with the visual artist Perez Oldskool.

4. Oasis - ‘Cigarettes And Alcohol’
Probably not Liam Gallagher in his primate prime, but it’s a brilliant song for suggesting a cure to all of life’s sordid ills.

5. Arctic Monkeys - ‘Brianstorm’
The much-maligned Arctic Monkeys shot back at the haters of the almost too-successful Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not with ‘Brianstorm’. It’s good, but it has dancing girls, so it’s better.

6. CosmicSpaceMunkys
One of Malaysian musical chameleon Bo Amir Iqram's 200 side projects (once defunct, now apparently back on again). A collabo with DJ Joey G, shame that the CosmicSpaceMunkys don’t have a music vid that we can show you. Here they are playing at KL Tower:

7. Simian Mobile Disco - ‘Sleep Deprivation’
What we believe to be the best song on Attack Decay Sustain Release.

8. Super Junky Monkey - ‘Buckin’ The Bolts’
Japanese all-girl punk band from the 90s, who sound amazingly like a cross between RHCP and RATM. We’ll let you decide if that’s a good or a bad thing.

9. Da Lench Mob - ‘Guerrillas In Tha Mist’
Ok, we know it’s "guerrillas" and not "gorillas" in the title, but there are references to King Kong, vines and bananas in the song. Although bordering on racial violence (not good), 'Guerrillas In Tha Mist' boasts probably the best lyrics ever written and a video that contains all known varieties of awesome (good).

10. The Monkees - ‘I’m A Believer’
The original fake band. Put together for hit 60s TV show The Monkees, they went on to write some decent pop songs. Which feature in a lot of KFC ads, for some reason.

11. Gorillaz - ‘Feel Good Inc.’
Damon Albarn’s cartoon band. Ho hum.