Remember the Audio Monkey House

• 1The Future Is Almost Gone06:21
• 2Remember the Audio04:24
• 3New York Owes You Nothing05:30
• 4We Will Meet Again04:52
• 5Skin in the Game03:35
• 6Before You and After04:43
• 7Major Minor04:48
• 8Last Days of Pompeii04:11
• 9Do Whatcha Gonna Do04:04
• 10Let Jenny Be Jenny04:08
• 11Ever Since the World Ended05:04
• Total Runtime51:40

Info for Remember the Audio

Don Breithaupt is back with a brand new Monkey House album titled Remember The Audio - an 11 track project that was conceived during the pandemic and arguably their finest collection of songs in the Monkey House canon. The core of the band remains steady, with Breithaupt on lead vocals and keyboards, Mark Kelso on drums, Pat Kilbride on bass, and Justin Abedin on guitar. The album also contains guest appearances, including trumpeters Randy Brecker, Guido Basso and Michael Leonhart, guitarist Drew Zingg, and singers Lucy Woodward and David Blamires.

The world has changed a lot since 1992, when Don Breithaupt first collected an album's worth of his irresistibly hooky and jazzy pop songs and formed Monkey House. Since then, the talented and prolific Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, and producer has stamped the band's Kurt Vonnegut-inspired moniker on five albums of original material, including Headquarters (2012), Left (2016) and Friday (2019), the latter a blazing tour de force which topped the iTunes jazz chart and went to #11 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. Now, to mark their thirtieth anniversary, Monkey House presents their most accomplished and exciting set yet, Remember The Audio, on which Breithaupt is joined by his A-List wrecking crew of Mark Kelso on drums, Pat Kilbride on bass, Justin Abedin on guitar, and guests including trumpeters Randy Brecker, Guido Basso and Michael Leonhart, guitarist Drew Zingg, and singers Lucy Woodward and David Blamires. After years of fluid lineups, Breithaupt says he had an epiphany back in 2011 while rounding up the usual suspects to make Headquarters: Hey, wouldn't it be nice if this coalesced into a steady band? Breithaupt got more than just a band: Monkey House is a crack team of virtuosos playing in sync and in service to his instantly hummable songs. Like the last three Monkey House albums, Remember The Audio was produced by Peter Cardinali and Breithaupt. Breithaupt had already written most of the music on Remember The Audio pre-COVID, but he figures at least half of the lyrics were written in the spring of 2020, after the world shut down. That's why the only cover on the album, Mose Allison's 'Ever Since The World Ended' fit right in. I thought it would be a good coda for the album because it's fatalistic, but it's also really funny and not too heavy. Remember The Audio is sophisticated pop for now people, and a new high-water mark in Monkey House's musical journey.

Monkey House

Monkey House (Don Breithaupt)
is perhaps best known for composing the music for the animated series 6teen with Anthony Vanderburgh. In 2009, the duo won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Song for their theme to this series. Since 2007, they've won three SOCAN Awards, two for Domestic Animated Television Series music and one for International Television Series music. They're currently working on the animated series Sidekick, which airs on YTV. Breithaupt has also composed original themes and/or scores for HGTV’s Home to Keep, Fresh TV’s Really Me!, CBC’s Disability Network and TVO’s Benjamin’s Farm.

Breithaupt also composes songs with his brother Jeff, which are featured in their revue, The Breithaupt Brothers Songbook, which has regular performances in New York. He's the current keyboard player for the Kim Mitchell Band, and he tours with Rik Emmett and Sass Jordan. In addition, Breithaupt leads his own group Monkey House, who have released two well-received albums with strong airplay, and have just finished recording a new one, Headquarters, to be released in early 2012. The band makes melodic pop with a sophisticated, jazzy twist, clearly influenced by Steely Dan.

In fact Breithaupt is the author of Steely Dan’s Aja, Vol. 46 of Continuum Publishing’s 33-1/3 series of books about albums. His previous books include Precious and Few: Pop Music in the Early '70s and Night Moves: Pop Music in the Late '70s. He received his musical education at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and his literary education at Queen's University in Kingston. He has written extensively on music and film, most often for The National Post.

As a songwriter, Breithaupt has had his work covered by such artists as Alfie Zappacosta, Marc Jordan, Dione Taylor, Sarah Slean, Denzal Sinclaire, Patricia O'Callaghan, and Chris Smith, and he's currently co-writing new material with Rik Emmett, Kim Mitchell and Wendy Lands.

Booklet for Remember the Audio