Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion
Encyclopedia
Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion is the debut studio album of Fight Like Apes
. It was released in Ireland on 26 September 2008, the UK on 26 January 2009 and Japan in April 2009.
The album charted in the top ten of the Irish Albums Chart
upon its release, at #9. It was nominated in the Best Irish Album category at the 2009 Meteor Awards, as well as for the Choice Music Prize
in the same year. Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion was named 31st best album of the decade by Phantom FM
at the end of 2009.
, in early 2008, recording tracks for the album, produced by John Goodmanson
. The album title is the beginning of a franchise intended to rival George Lucas
, J. K. Rowling
and Steven Spielberg
, and was inspired by a 1980s Mr. T
cartoon. The episode was called “The Mystery of the Golden Medallion” and followed Mr T as he coached an Olympic
gymnastics
youth team.
The album was released on 26 September 2008 on Model Citizen Records, selling continually well in Ireland and the UK. It was preceded by the release of the single "Something Global" on 11 July 2008. Fight Like Apes played a sold-out launch show at Whelan's
in Dublin, which was broadcast live on Phantom FM
on the day of release.
described the album as an "astonishing debut that encompasses melancholy
and whimsy (both lyrically and musically). The Irish Independent
, on the other hand, "strongly urge[d] all not to waste their money" on "the woeful debut" of a band with "lots of blog
ger and media friends, all aurally challenged". These blogger friends responded to the criticism of the band but the band's frontwoman, MayKay
, remains unbothered by criticism as long as the album is simply being reviewed. RTÉ
also gave the album a lukewarm response. Neil Dunphy, writing in the Sunday Tribune
, said producer John Goodmanson had "managed to capture Fight Like Apes' red hot live energy on record".
In the UK press NME awarded the album 7/10 and described it as "Relentlessly pilfering the brightest parts of post-hardcore synthery, cartoon punk and sugar-rush twee, these totally hinge-free magpies have built a nest from shards of Enter Shikari, Test Icicles and Le Tigre and then thrashed the shiny fuck out of it." The album also received 8/10 in Rocksound and "4 flies" in The Fly.
In October 2008, Sony Music Entertainment Japan
signed the band for the Asia
n release of Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion. It was released in Japan in April 2009.
It was released in the UK on 26 January 2009.
, meaning the band became the first alternative act from Ireland to achieve this for several years.
in January 2009. The award was won by Jape
for the album Ritual
on 4 March 2009.
|-
| 2009 || Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion || Irish Album of the Year 2008 ||
in 2009, in the category of Best Irish Album.
|-
| 2009 || Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion || Best Irish Album ||
|-
Fight Like Apes
Fight Like Apes are an Irish alternative rock band formed in Dublin in 2006.Their current members are Mary-Kate "MayKay" Geraghty , Jamie "Pockets" Fox and Tom Ryan , while original member Adrian Mullan left the band in 2010 due to creative differences...
. It was released in Ireland on 26 September 2008, the UK on 26 January 2009 and Japan in April 2009.
The album charted in the top ten of the Irish Albums Chart
Irish Albums Chart
The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically...
upon its release, at #9. It was nominated in the Best Irish Album category at the 2009 Meteor Awards, as well as for the Choice Music Prize
Choice Music Prize
-Establishment:It was established by journalist Jim Carroll and manager Dave Reid in 2005. as an alternative to the industry-dominated Meteor Music Awards. The Choice Music Prize is modelled after the Mercury Prize which is awarded each year to the best album from the United Kingdom or Ireland...
in the same year. Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion was named 31st best album of the decade by Phantom FM
Phantom FM
Phantom 105.2 is a Dublin based radio station, founded in 1996 as a pirate radio station. Phantom broadcasts under a contract awarded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland ....
at the end of 2009.
Recording
The band spent a month in Seattle, WashingtonSeattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, in early 2008, recording tracks for the album, produced by John Goodmanson
John Goodmanson
John Goodmanson is an American recording engineer and indie rock record producer.-Selected discography:*Aiden "Conviction " *Simple Plan "Crash and Burn"...
. The album title is the beginning of a franchise intended to rival George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
, J. K. Rowling
J. K. Rowling
Joanne "Jo" Rowling, OBE , better known as J. K. Rowling, is the British author of the Harry Potter fantasy series...
and Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
, and was inspired by a 1980s Mr. T
Mr. T
Mr. T is an American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team, as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III, and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. Mr. T is known for his trademark African Mandinka warrior hairstyle, his gold jewelry,...
cartoon. The episode was called “The Mystery of the Golden Medallion” and followed Mr T as he coached an Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
youth team.
The album was released on 26 September 2008 on Model Citizen Records, selling continually well in Ireland and the UK. It was preceded by the release of the single "Something Global" on 11 July 2008. Fight Like Apes played a sold-out launch show at Whelan's
Whelan's (music venue)
Whelan's is a small music venue in Dublin, Ireland, located on Wexford Street.The venue and pub was initially started by Gary Whelan and Ian Keith in 1989 and ten years later was bought by Frank Gleeson. Local musicians and actors frequent it...
in Dublin, which was broadcast live on Phantom FM
Phantom FM
Phantom 105.2 is a Dublin based radio station, founded in 1996 as a pirate radio station. Phantom broadcasts under a contract awarded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland ....
on the day of release.
Reception
The Irish TimesThe Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
described the album as an "astonishing debut that encompasses melancholy
Melancholia
Melancholia , also lugubriousness, from the Latin lugere, to mourn; moroseness, from the Latin morosus, self-willed, fastidious habit; wistfulness, from old English wist: intent, or saturnine, , in contemporary usage, is a mood disorder of non-specific depression,...
and whimsy (both lyrically and musically). The Irish Independent
Irish Independent
The Irish Independent is Ireland's largest-selling daily newspaper that is published in both compact and broadsheet formats. It is the flagship publication of Independent News & Media.-History:...
, on the other hand, "strongly urge[d] all not to waste their money" on "the woeful debut" of a band with "lots of blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger and media friends, all aurally challenged". These blogger friends responded to the criticism of the band but the band's frontwoman, MayKay
MayKay
Mary-Kate Geraghty—known as MayKay—is an Irish musician known as the frontwoman of Fight Like Apes, with whom she has released numerous records and received several award nominations. She has also given solo performances as a DJ...
, remains unbothered by criticism as long as the album is simply being reviewed. RTÉ
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...
also gave the album a lukewarm response. Neil Dunphy, writing in the Sunday Tribune
Sunday Tribune
The Sunday Tribune was an Irish Sunday broadsheet newspaper published by Tribune Newspapers plc. It was edited in its final years by Nóirín Hegarty, who changed both the tone and the physical format of the newspaper from broadsheet to tabloid. Former editors include Conor Brady, Vincent Browne,...
, said producer John Goodmanson had "managed to capture Fight Like Apes' red hot live energy on record".
In the UK press NME awarded the album 7/10 and described it as "Relentlessly pilfering the brightest parts of post-hardcore synthery, cartoon punk and sugar-rush twee, these totally hinge-free magpies have built a nest from shards of Enter Shikari, Test Icicles and Le Tigre and then thrashed the shiny fuck out of it." The album also received 8/10 in Rocksound and "4 flies" in The Fly.
In October 2008, Sony Music Entertainment Japan
Sony Music Entertainment Japan
is Sony's music arm in Japan. SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Corporation and independent from the United States-based Sony Music Entertainment due to its strength in the Japanese music industry....
signed the band for the Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n release of Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion. It was released in Japan in April 2009.
It was released in the UK on 26 January 2009.
Track listing
Personnel
- MayKay - Synth, vocals
- Pockets - Synth, vocals
- Tom - Bass
- Adrian - Drums
- John GoodmansonJohn GoodmansonJohn Goodmanson is an American recording engineer and indie rock record producer.-Selected discography:*Aiden "Conviction " *Simple Plan "Crash and Burn"...
- Production - Zoran Orlic - Photography
Chart performance
Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion reached the top five of the Irish Albums ChartIrish Albums Chart
The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically...
, meaning the band became the first alternative act from Ireland to achieve this for several years.
| Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
5 |
Choice Music Prize
Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion was nominated for the Choice Music PrizeChoice Music Prize
-Establishment:It was established by journalist Jim Carroll and manager Dave Reid in 2005. as an alternative to the industry-dominated Meteor Music Awards. The Choice Music Prize is modelled after the Mercury Prize which is awarded each year to the best album from the United Kingdom or Ireland...
in January 2009. The award was won by Jape
Jape (band)
Jape are an Irish electronic–rock band from Dublin. Formed as a side project by Richie Egan whilst part of The Redneck Manifesto, they have released four albums to date; Cosmosphere , The Monkeys in the Zoo Have More Fun Than Me , Ritual and Ocean of Frequency...
for the album Ritual
Ritual (Jape album)
Ritual is the third studio album from electronic rock band Jape, released on Co-op Records in 2008. It won the Choice Music Prize for the 2008 Irish Album of the Year in March 2009....
on 4 March 2009.
|-
| 2009 || Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion || Irish Album of the Year 2008 ||
Meteor Music Awards
Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion was nominated at the Meteor Music AwardsMeteor Music Awards
The Meteor Ireland Music Awards are a group of music awards in Ireland...
in 2009, in the category of Best Irish Album.
|-
| 2009 || Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion || Best Irish Album ||
|-
External links
- Video for "Lend Me Your Face"
- Video for "Something Global"
- Video of a recording session in SeattleSeattle, WashingtonSeattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
- Review of "Lightsabre Cocksucker Blues" single