Patchwork Monkey

Patchwork Monkey is a female fronted band grounded in blues, funky tunes, torchy jazz, rollicking rock, edgy folk, precious metal, post-grunge lounge, and apocolyptic pop.   While borrowing from sources as diverse as Bach, Arabic Maqa'am, and 1930s classic blues, the band is edgy, bawdy and whimsical. The band's 5 members feature the lovely Rebecca Sites's vocals, the deft piano of Blake Gilmore and the sweet guitar work of Alec Stanley, with Josh "Doogie" Venden delivering the groovy the bass (upright and electric) and "Miracle Max" Slater tapping and thrashing on the skins. They have been swinging around the wilds of Madison Wisconsin since 2005.  Patchwork Monkey puts on a visual spectacle when they play live ... transforming any stage into a sanctuary for stuffed monkeys that are concealed and revealed with the pulsing and spinning of the stage lights.  The light-hearted and joyful performances belie the dark subject matter, death... sex... and pain.  But people dance to it, so it's cool. From the guaranteed to grab your attention vocals, to the intricate interplay between the band, to whimsical staging, the Patchwork Monkey is confident that you will be entertained!
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 "Patchwork Monkey," whose members number 5 or so, is busy making original music about angels and aliens and love and muck and your mama.  Their CD, entitled "Titanic Quartet" is due out this summer. 

Rebecca Sites, simian chanteuse, beguiles the audience with primordial vocals.  This is her:

Alec Stanley-guitarist, lyricist, vocalist:

Josh "Doogie" Venden on bass:

Blake Gilmore on keys:

Miracle Maxwell "This Dude... will blow... your... mind" Slater on drums:

And so this is the band as seen recently on Red Dragon T.V.

The only thing we like more than making you laugh is making you cry... or dance... or give us money so we can buy bananas and gasoline and the occasional fermented beverage.  We earn your affection... it is easy to love on the monkey...

The patches on the monkey have moved around a bit, but the two founding members are the incorrigible Alec Stanley and the irrepressable Rebecca "Nebula" Sites.

In 1999/2000 they appeared on the midnight live show of WYOU's special Y2K New Year's show.  This was their first year in Madison, and may that tape remain forever obscure, but thus their duo was born.  Thor was baby New Year for the show (an adorable 1 year old at the time) and it was Rebecca's 29th birthday to boot.  (well, until midnight anyway)

Thus a tradition was born, and Alec and Rebecca put a show on for their friends and loved ones every year for Rebecca's b-day party, and "Patchwork Monkey" was born as such a name with the addition of Thomas Yellowfeather, another guitarist.  Acoustic blues and a bit of folk was the color of the band... Rebecca did a sketch of the monkey based on Alec's jovial appearance, and Patchwork the Patriarch was the rallying flyer/invitation/host

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So here is a list of the wonderful musicians who have helped propel the Patchwork Monkey project on his marvelous musical adventure:

Guitar-Thomas Yellowfeather, Zen Cats, Yellowfeather massage was a founding member and spent a couple years in Rebecca's living room with her and Alec making music while Thor slept growing from toddler to terror to teenager (jury out on the adjective... see "Thor's Locker")

Bass-Ben Johnson of wavelength studios, http://www.wavelengthpros.com/

Gadjo Players, Beefus, The Vandelays, New Speedway Players, and The Barb Cheron players agreed to a stint with the monkey while we honed our performance chops and repertoire.  He's a killer bass player, and a very talented tech monkey.  He did the some of the demo recordings we still love like Reflection (on this site). 

Drums-Matt Kreuger is Ben's backbone, can be found where Ben is found.  He is a drumming GOD.  Listen to him on the old studio version of St. James if you get a chance...

Guitar- Jason Vitela -a stellar rockin' blues guitarist, laid it down.  Proud papa, busy man, and only could ride the monkey for a year or so. You can hear him shred on a couple studio and live recordings we got kickin' around...

Drums-Graham Thorbrogger-solid Viking fella.  He rode the monkey for a couple of seasons, he has mojo for the hand-drums and still warms the skins with bands like The Handphibians and The Samba Novistas.  We've got some good pics of him rockin'g with us on Inferno stage in our gallery, it was legendary.

Drums-Joel Croyle -complicated hard rocker, composer, writer, and Renaissance man.  Patchwork Monkey propelled him into his next stage.  He just released his solo album!

Bass-Erik Reidasch - friend of the band, Groovulous Glove, Bagdhad Scuba review  special guested with us at the Inferno.  Damn good musician, all round awesome guy.

Hand percussion and harmonica-Marko Oles- honorable guest and friend of the monkey.  He's been known to make special appearances, and put in some time songcrafting.

Bass-Josh "Doogie" Venden -  He's ours now.  Read more about him in a bit!

Piano-(drums) Blake Gilmore-Yep, he's ours now too, read more in the press to come (friggin' prodigy...)!

Drums -Miracle Maxwell Slater- Our most recent addition to the Titanic Quartet (now Quintet, but who's counting...) Nuanced listener, clever beatmaker, tight grooveshaker.

Josh "Doogie" Venden is our bassist.

He plays both upright and and electric bass. 

He is good with the bow and plucks some good funk.  

His complex and catchy basslines have been the glue that

binds Patchwork Monkey's new original sound together.  

So much energy and humor and intelligence in a bassist...  we are blessed!

He is also resident soundmonkey.

He wears silly hats sometimes, which demonstrates his good nature.

This clever monkey is a blur when he hangs our lights and sets the stage.  He must be some kind of gibbon or maybe he has been hiding a prehensile tail,

It was rather impolite to ask...

This gentleman is no gentleman, good people.  He is a rapscallion of the most charismatic degree. 

He will fool you no doubt with his elegant old-world sensibilities, the bourbon, the hand-rolled cigarette, his proclivities for incandescent lightiing in a wooden room with wooden instruments.  His subtle wit erupting through his drop-dead one-liners, or especially through his fingers when his music speaks volumes. 

This cheeky monkey speaks piano.  English is his second language, but he still he toys with it enough to make his band nearly asphyxiate with laughter every time we are together.  Cheers, my provocative friend!