*** Punch Drunk Monkeys

CRUEL AND UNUSUAL

(Mpress Records)

This is the best band led by a firebreathing clown I've ever heard. No, wait, that's faint praise. Let's say instead that singer/human flamethrower Crappy the Clown and company are eclectic, daring, funny, hard-edged, and -- in a deeply twisted way -- poignant. They're raw enough to tear through hardcore-inspired rave-ups, hip enough to cover Texas blues bad-ass Albert Collins' "I Ain't Drunk, Just Drinkin'," and dead-on with the beat-big, Marshall-driven, meat-and-'taters rock and roll.

But there's something very special in tunes like "A Bad Childhood" and "The Rabbit Boy," which are not merely funny in a Bart Simpson-esque way. I get the feeling at least somebody in this band remembers all too well what it was like to be singled out for ridicule as a child, to feel like an inadequate, bumbling, insecure kid. And beneath all the cob-edged laughs, the undercurrents of these feelings are evident. Nonetheless, this foursome ain't sensitive artistes; they're ass-kicking fools -- in the best way. (Write to Mpress Records at Box 742, Westview Station, Binghamton, New York 13905; e-mail zaremba107@aol.com.)

-- Ted Drozdowski

(Punch Drunk Monkeys play Mama Kin this Sunday, February 9.)