FISHBONE”Give a Monkey a Brain and ....

FISHBONE

“Give a Monkey a Brain and . . .”

Columbia

* * 1/2

On its sixth album, the L.A. band kicks out jumbles of jazz-fusion confusion, skanking ditties, charged ranchera tunes and hyperactive funk. Inspirational Sly & the Family Stone grooves shake their booty next to charged hard-core tunes and scampering horns, while the vocal harmonies go from sinister to downright goofy. The schizoid combo trampolines you from song to song, but unlike the effect of a finicky friend punching the radio buttons, Fishbone’s need for ever-changing stimuli isn’t annoying. Instead, the sextet’s oddball impatience is entertaining in a freaky-funhouse sort of way.

Fishbone does relax in spots. Swaying, reggae-influenced numbers and creamy R&B; ballads are like rest stops in between charged drives of craziness. The downside of “Monkey” is its lapses into mundane, sleepy grindcore metal, which cut the experimental essence of the album.

Once again, Fishbone is too “out there” to gain MTV-level acceptance. But the band’s sheer weirdness and cartoonish effervescence have influenced such funk-rock bands as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and there’s enough of it here to maintain Fishbone’s respected position in the underground music scene.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).