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SouthCoast five-piece follows eclectic beat

By Lisa Maria Cabral, Standard-Times correspondent

FALL RIVER -- The SouthCoast is going bananas over Snow Monkey.

The five-man band intoxicates fans as it pours out home-blended earshot concoctions of funk, blues, hip-hop, rock and jazz.

In less than a year, the group has jammed its way out of their basement and onto countless SouthCoast stages and radio stations, including WBRU-95.5, WHJY-94 and WSMU- 91.1.

The group says the diversity of the area has had an impact on its style and success. "We never pigeonhole ourselves," said lead singer and lead guitarist Neal Thomas McCarthy of Fall River. "What makes us grow is the fact that we represent different styles, and the diverse musical interests of this area show up in our music."

In addition to Mr. McCarthy, Snow Monkey is composed of rhythm guitarist Ivo Mattos of Lakeville; Gary Langevin of Acushnet on Fender Rhodes keyboard; bass guitarist Mark Misturdo and drummer Todd Salpietro, both of Assonet.

Four of the five went to Apponequet Regional High School. Mr. Langevin graduated from Fairhaven High School.

While the quirky quintet takes pride in being a local band, original music is what keeps it on sound ground.

"What's really good is that we're a local original band," said Mr. McCarthy. "We have all been in cover bands, but to be a legitimate artist you have to create something of your own."

Their first CD is called "We Ate The Plum."

"There's a lot of pride in the fact the CD was 100 percent produced, recorded and engineered by us in a weekend," in a recording studio in Mr. McCarthy's second-floor Union Street apartment.

Although "We Ate The Plum" includes 11 tracks on the song list, listeners are surprised to discover an extra track, titled "The Find."

Band members say the track was completely spontaneous and is an example of their creativity.

"We all came up with a riff," Mr. Langevin said. "It felt good and sounded good so we decided to see where it took us. The song wasn't planned. We're very spontaneous and constantly improvising, which is what makes us so unique."

By cutting the disc themselves, the group engineered sounds to their perfection. But they say the CD is not completely representative of their music.

"What you hear on the recording is only one small part of what we can do," Mr. McCarthy said. "To see us live is to best appreciate the band. When we play live it's all about energy. The audience is just as important as the people on the stage. There's a lot of improvisation and the audience becomes part of the band."

Mr. Langevin, a more recent addition to the band, said he was initially hesitant to improvise.

"It took me several months before I could improvise a solo," said the former Berklee School of Music student. "School teaches the fundamentals and it can help you expand, but it can't teach you to be creative. But after a few months with the band I felt like Jerry Lee Lewis, kicked back my chair and found 'Great Balls of Fire.'"

Percussionist Salpietro said it's his job to establish a study beat while the band improvises.

"When we're improvising, it's highly important as a drummer and part of the rhythm section to lay down a serious groove and foundation the band can build upon," Mr. Salpietro said.

"I like to use a series of drum kits," said Mr. Salpietro, the owner of TJ's Drums and Percussion of Fall River. "I might bring anything from my White Marine Pearl (drum) kit to my natural-finish Magstar if the club is a mellow and dark place. I also use congas, bongos, timbales, cow bells, blast blocks, tambourine, maracas, afuche/cabasa and guiro (rattle-like instruments)."

While some band members have studied music, they say producing the CD would have been impossible without the self-taught ingenuity of bass guitarist Misturdo.

"We look to Mark when it comes to technical input," said Mr. McCarthy.

Mr. Misturdo, the owner of Java Dog Studios, said, "I make up for schooling with my technical knowledge.

"I'm self taught and experiment with sonic creativity. This allows me to grow with the band."

"We Ate The Plum" is a limited edition with only 1,000 copies in circulation. And generating the CD has been costly.

"It cost us about $1,500 to get the CDs on the shelf," said Mr. McCarthy. "And as you can imagine, I don't live on Union Street anymore."

Since the recording, Snow Monkey has made TJ's Drums and Percussion its new experimentation laboratory. "The CD was recorded in July of 1997, and TJ's didn't open until September," said Mr. Salpietro. "We wish we had that space to record, but at the same time we were looking for a certain sound and we achieved it with the hardwood floors, high ceilings and the setting. Now we practice and do just about everything here including merchandising T-shirts, bumper stickers, handling the mailing list and providing supplies."

The band has regular performances at Krickets of New Bedford, The Bridge Street Station of Fairhaven and The Regatta of Fall River. For show dates and information, call the Snow Monkey hot line at (508) 999-2104, Ext. 177, or e-mail at www.tonight-line.com/snowmonkey.

Staff photo by Mike Valeri
The Snow Monkeys are, left to right, Mark Misturado, Neal Thomas McCarthy, Todd Salpietro, Ivo Mattos and Gary Langevin.