There was a time when Austin's HairyApes BMX could draw a crowd based solely on its relation to old-school funk-punk outfit Billygoat, but as each year passes that connection becomes more and more tenuous. That's not necessarily a bad thing. No doubt there were 'Goat fans aplenty who came to see the Apes hoping for a chanting, Cheeto-tossing, foot-stomping good time, only to be met with a trimmed-down version of the Lawrence Welk Orchestra on acid jazz. Count those Billygoat fans who stuck around among the converted. Now the Apes lure listeners with some of the most erudite, Latin-flavored rump shakers this side of the Rio Grande. This clattering collection of keyboards, congas, vibraphones, disembodied voices and interplanetary bass lines turns audiences into an aroused, writhing mass, which should interest even the most skeptical surviving Billygoat fans.
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