Stone Monkey

Band: Stone Monkey

Members: Kevin Beichner (guitar), Joe Brown (bass), Kevin Conley (rhythm and lead guitar), Randy Gray (drums), Jim Dunlap (vocals)

Who we talked to: Gray, 38

Where'd the name come from? We were just kind of all sitting around and throwing a couple names here and there. We wanted something different that you wouldn't forget.

Describe your style: We do anything from Black Sabbath to Nickelback. We do a little classic, a little southern. We're trying to emphasize on the new stuff like Green Day, Stone Temple Pilots, Buckcherry. We're doing covers right now. We have a lot of originals, which we're going to start working on doing after the first of the year. We're just getting the ball rolling again.

Who are your influences? Some of the guys like Anthrax, some are into southern kick. We've always looked up to bands like Molly Hathchet. No one could really duplicate them. . . . As for stuff right now, you've got to respect bands that are still going like Aerosmith . . . and Van Halen. You've got to respect the fact that they're still doing it.

What songs do you like to cover? The song "Cumbersome" (by 7 Mary 3) I really like. I like Candlebox. We do "Far Behind." We have a lot of people tell us we really nailed that song, and that's a hard song for us. I think we do (nail it), not trying to ring our own bell.

Plug one other local band: Friends of ours, Paddywak. They've played with us through the years, and the music they do is still good.

What do you guys need to work on as a band? What bothers us a lot are the little things we don't get (into a performance) that normal people wouldn't even hear. It bugs us whether it's a note here or there or an extra beat. Other people call us crazy when we nag on each other about it. We want to do it right or not at all.

Shoutouts: Speaking for the whole band, there's other people we've played with throughout the years. Thanks to them for putting up with us.

- JASON COX, FLIPSIDE STAFF