Monkey House - The Future Is Almost Gone - The Best Of Monkey House (2025)

Monkey House formed in 1992, performing songs that Don Breithaupt had written that seemed too jazzy or different for other bands to cover, with a major influence of his being Steely Dan. The band makes melodic pop with a sophisticated, jazzy twist, some with horn arrangements. Their debut album 'Welcome To The Club' was released in 1992 on the Aquarius label, and it included a cover of a song written by Donald Fagen of Steely Dan called 'Lazy Nina", which was covered by Greg Phillinganes in 1984, but never recorded by Fagen himself. Their second album 'True Winter', appeared on the Marigold label in 1998, and found Breithaupt collaborating with Little Feat's Richie Hayward and David Blamires of the Pat Metheny Group. The project fell mostly dormant during the 2000's, with a 2005 compilation, 'Big Money: Singles Remasters Rarities 1992-2005', serving as their lone release of the decade. In the meantime, Breithaupt continued to work as a songwriter, session man, and with his brother, fellow songwriter Jeff. When Breithaupt revived Monkey House in 2012, it was with plenty of vigour and energy as he and bandmates Pat Kilbride (bass) and Mark Kelso (drums) enlisted a full horn section and a colorful cast of guests including Rik Emmett (Triumph), Drew Zingg (Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs), and Michael Leonhart (Steely Dan) to help out on their third album. Titled 'Headquarters', it was their first outing for Universal Music Group's Alma Records imprint, and Monkey House began to work more steadily, earning a more widespread international following with subsequent releases like 2016's 'Left' and 2019's 'Friday'. The title of 'Left' was a reference to the fact that Breithaupt packed up and moved from Toronto to the west coast, or "left coast", arriving in the Los Angeles area by February 2013. The album debuted at number 9 on the iTunes U.S. Jazz chart, number 2 on the iTunes Canada jazz chart, and peaked at Number 24 on the Billboard Jazz Albums Chart, despite it really being a pop music album. In 2022, the band marked their 30th Anniversary with the release of 'Remember The Audio', and , it featured contributions by trumpeter Randy Brecker and others. Monkey House returned in May 2025 with 'Crashbox', featuring the single 'Someplace On Madison', which marked the group's last album with Zingg, who died in April, 2025, at age 68. If you don't know the band but have a fondness for the work of Steely Dan then it is definitely worth checking out this sampler of some of their best material.   

Track listing

01 North (from 'True Winter' 1999) 
02 10,000 Hours (from 'Friday' 2019)
03 Where's Mantis Evar (from 'Headquarters' 2011)
04 Good To Live (from 'Left' 2016)
05 Remember The Audio (from 'Remember The Audio' 2022)
06 Road Movie (from 'True Winter' 1999)
07 Welcome To The Rest Of The World (from 'Friday' 2019)
08 The Future Is Almost Gone (from 'Remember The Audio' 2022)
09 Someplace On Madison (from 'Crashbox' 2025)
10 It's Already Dark In New York' (from 'Left' 2016)
11 Island Off The Coast Of America (from 'Friday' 2019)
12 New York Owes You Nothing (from 'Remember The Audio' 2022)
13 Faith In The Middle (from 'Headquarters' 2011)
14 North (Reprise) (from 'True Winter' 1999) 

Cotton Mather - Thee Early Sermons (2016)

As mentioned in the previous post from Cotton Mather, the band started out as an experimental duo consisting of guitarist Robert Harrison and cellist Nat Shelton, and with the addition of friends Owen and Wendy they recorded a number of their compositions, and compiled them onto a cassette in 1990. They called this tape 'Thee Early Sermons', carrying on the preaching theme of their 17th Century namesake, and they also self-released three of the songs on a single-sided cassette EP. Other out-takes and rarities have since surfaced, when Harrison released the 'Buffalo Nickels (Rarities And Shoebox Classics)' compilation in 2019, but only a couple of tracks from 'Thee Early Sermons' were included, so here is the full cassette album, plus a few choice singles, b-sides and out-takes to make up the running time. If anything, this collection just shows that the superb song-writing was in place from the very beginning, as none of the tracks from 'Thee Early Sermons' does the band any disservice.   

Track listing

01 Railroad Days (from 'Thee Early Sermons' cassette 1990)
02 Acteon And Diana (from 'Thee Early Sermons' cassette 1990)
03 Pedestrian (from 'Thee Early Sermons' cassette 1990)
04 Pill Box Hat Made Of Love (from 'Thee Early Sermons' cassette 1990)
05 Coat Of Many Colors (from 'Thee Early Sermons' cassette 1990)
06 Bull In A Data Closet (from 'Thee Early Sermons' cassette 1990)
07 Cycle Down (from 'Thee Early Sermons' cassette 1990)
08 Asterisk Man (from the 'Cotton Is King' promo version 1994)
09 Flying (from the Badfinger tribute album 'Come And Get It' 1996)
10 Heaven's Helping (b-side of '40 Watt Solution' 2001)
11 Little Star ('The Big Picture' out-take 2001)
12 I'll Be Gone (7" single 2012)
13 Animal Show (b-side of 'I'll Be Gone')
14 Call Me The Witch ('Death Of The Cool' out-take 2016)
15 Fading ('Death Of The Cool' out-take 2016)
16 Girl Friday ('Death Of The Cool' out-take 2016)