Dave Matthews Band - 'Shake Me Like A Monkey'

Please, don't feed the animals...

There are two kinds of people in the world who dig Dave Matthews Band. The first are South Africans, mainly because Sir Matthews is a bona fide JoBerg boy, and the second are musos, because DMB are classified as a 'jam band' on many an online encyclopaedia and frequently pull out some ridiculously amazing licks on their records. I have resisted this band's pull for a number of reasons over the years; I doubted their credibility in the face of a wave of people who think the rand is an awesome form of currency, and I felt like if I got into DMB, I'd be just the same as everyone else with their sentimental claptrap, John Mayer meets Goo Goo Dolls Ipod playlists to sing on long drives through the poor parts of town. A quick look at Matthews' life reveals that he is a lot deeper than many of the variations of fans he has garnered; he's witnessed death, suicide and displacement in his early years and much of this is channeled into his most well-known songs. But at heart, Dave Matthews Band, including drummer dynamo Carter Beauford and the recently deceased sax doyenne LeRoi Moore, are just a group of awesome players who love to pull crazy shit out of their collective hat. And boerewors aside, I think I can handle that.

'Shake Me Like A Monkey' comes from DMB's most recent album, their fifth to go number 1 on the Billboard charts in the US and possibly with the worst title in recent memory, Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King. Must be a South African in-joke or something. In any case, the phenomenal drumming, huge horn stabs and general push behind this track all sounds like early (Hillel Slovak-era) Chili Peppers, and Dave growls along with the best of them, helping you imagine what Eddie Vedder sounds like when he has an orgasm. More pertinently (what is more pertinent than a Vedder orgasm?), the band is so freaking TIGHT that it kind of makes sense why they've won multiple Grammys and attract followers like rabid dogs. Everything about this band screams 'Huge', but their approach to song-writing still smells organic and even studio gloss can't wash away the fact that this is an incredible collection of people playing in sync. I assume this is what good music sounded like in the mid-70s, when I was minus-20 years old. In any case, I'm a total convert now, and I will never doubt these guys again. Big ups to Segal for the song tip, he always knows where to find the funkiest tunes.

Dave Matthews Band - 'Shake Me Like A Monkey'


DMB for You and Me...