Swollen Monkeys

Every rock generation has its hip hornmen. As an outgrowth of Ohio’s Tin Huey/Waitresses axis, the Swollen Monkeys (which featured Ralph Carney of the Hueys and Mars Williams, later of the Psychedelic Furs, as well as future Shimmy-Disc supremo Mark Kramer on “noisy tape loops”) brought an anarchic new wave sensibility to horn-happy Spike Jones-influenced tooting. Produced by Hal Willner, After Birth of the Cool is a three-ring circus of kinetic instrumentals and loopy vocal songs, more silly than serious and plenty fun. If They Might Be Giants had been around a few years earlier, the Swollen Monkeys would have definitely been their horn section.