Despite a résumé that includes extended stints in the Cramps, the Gun Club, and the Bad Seeds, these laurels merely serve as a backdrop to the primordial bounce Kid Congo Powers creates with his band the Pink Monkey Birds. Rhythm masters Kiki Solis, Ron Miller, and Mark Cisneros flow effortlessly between class and crass with Kid's bespectacled charm at the helm. They fuse their talents into a sinister psychedelic strut that recalls either the funkiest Russ Meyer soundtrack never produced or a fictional Vincent Price/James Brown collaboration in a Back from the Grave wonderland. On their brand-new full-length, La Arana Es La Vida, Kid Congo & Co. once again utilize that vaunted Monkey Bird cave rave to highly infectious and darkly danceable results—there's no doubt this monster mash is going to be an absolute must! CHRIS SUTTON