MP3: The Casualties of Happiness
Over the last six months or so, you may have attended one of the diverse bills that our city is known to offer and stumbled into the bar to see three (or more) costumed dudes lip-synching onstage to weird, cartoony singalongs and skits. Some of the audience was engaged by these goofy merry-makers and their choreographed antics. At the same time, it’s likely that there was also a portion of the crowd who couldn’t get into it and retreated to get another drink, smoke, etc. What you were witnessing was the polarizing material of Hugs & Kisses, the trio of Columbusites Donny Monaco (lead vocals), Jacoti Sommes (beats), and Phonzie Davis (art, onstage shenanigans).
The album plays out like some sort of depraved after-school special. There are twenty tracks, but many of them are skit-length, sometimes-recurring interludes that help maintain the themes of the overall work. These themes seem to revolve around pursuit of happiness through questionable lifestyles (drugs, debauchery, etc.) and acceptance of who you are and how you’ve lived your life. The road to these topics is paved with Donny’s (and others’) exaggerated vocals over Jacoti’s fun, yet minimal beats that are often fleshed out with “dum-diggity-dums”, “waah-waah-waaahs”, and other maniacal helium-ed backing vocals. The title track stands out as a near-perfect synthesis of the different ingredients in the equation at work, as Donny croons about the painful remnants of chemical, criminal, or sexual excesses over Jacoti’s technicolor keyboards while the alien chorus pumps out the soul in the background.
The songs get “heavy” at times, but that’s basically impossible to notice with the wacky presentation involved. Though tracks like the aforementioned title track, “Alota Drugs,” and “Big Brown Eyes” stand up well on their own, this 28-minute opus is best consumed in one ADD-riddled piece that bounces off the walls like a Superball from hell. As I described before, this album (and band) may not be for everyone. But if you can tolerate high amounts of wackiness and have a good sense of humor, the catchy melodies and playful beats will put a smile on your face.
In honor of the release of The Casualties of Happiness, Hugs & Kisses is having a release party on Saturday night at Carabar. Also performing will be Hills, The Unholy Two, Uncle Scratch’s Gospel Revival, and Pat Minotaur. This show will also serve as a joint birthday celebration for Brooke and Cara, both of Carabar fame, so there will be much fun to be had.