Fight Like Apes - Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion

Full album streaming all this week on entertainment.ie/fightlikeapes

and

"Fight Like Apes launch their debut album, Fight Like Apes And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion with a sold-out show at Whelans, Dublin on 26th September, 2008.

The performance will be broadcast live on Dublin’s leading indie-rock station Phantom 105.2.

Phantom 105.2’s flagship drivetime show, Heavy Traffic with Jack Hyland (5-8pm), will air live from The Village Venue on Dublin’s Wexford St. on the day, leading FLApes fans up to the sold-out performance that night. The band are expected on-stage at approximately 10pm – tune in to Phantom over the coming weeks for confirmation of broadcast times.

...

Fight Like Apes And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion will be streaming live for free from www.entertainment.ie/fightlikeapes from the 19th - 25th September and will then be released on CD and vinyl in record stores across Ireland and on download from the usual on-line outlets on Friday September 26th."

(from Unarocks and/or a random press release)

There are reviews up already in a few places: Thrill Pier's 'First Impressions'; Those Geese Were Stupified; and Analogue Magazine. They're all quite positive, though Thrill Pier takes issue with the reworked tracks from the first EPs (which make up slightly less than half of the new album), as in "Overall though it’s only “Snore Bore Whore”, which I would have considered to be a minor part of their EP canon which is greatly improved on the album", while Analogue in the fine tradition of student (or quasi- former student) publications everywhere, manage to spell "trepidation" correctly in the first line and to mispell "feted" in the the second.

For my part, I've only listened to the first half of the album (up until the rather faithfully redone version of 'Battlestations') via the stream so far, as the process of selecting each song is rather tedious and the sound quality doesn't really do the album justice. I'm really looking forward to the gig on Friday night, and hopefully I'll pick up a copy of the LP earlier the same day (as much because it has an extra version of 'You Are the Hat' as for the fact that I'm a reluctant vinyl fiend).

EDIT: UPDATE

nialler9 has added his thoughts on what seems to him "the most anticipated Irish debut album of the last five years". It also includes a riposte to the mild begrudgery (by Irish standards, at least) about the re-recording of tracks.

I've now listened to the second half of the album stream, and it's really impressive. Both 'Do You Karate?' and 'Snore Bore Whore' seem to benefit from their reworkings. The latter more obviously so, although it was one of my favourites from the EPs in the first place, and from this performance recorded for the Other Voices TV series. 'Do You Karate' however, strikes me as a very worthwhile amping up of the original - also for the midway mark of the new album - and I think in retrospect it always seemed like a transitional tune between small to large indie band.

I could pass on 'Megameanie' or 'Recyclable Ass' for the moment, although I know from 'Something Global' and 'Knucklehead' that the new originals grow on me quickly. The lengthy stretch of 'I'm Beginning To Think You Prefer 90210 To Me' and 'Lumpy Dough' immediately set this album as a real progression of their sound for me; the second of the two (high-quality stream below) I predict will be absolutely catastrophic - in a positive way - live. At least, it was rather good when they played it (I think) in the last set I saw them play.

'Lumpy Dough' from Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion.