Polish boy, monkey man

Anyone
who remembers The Resisters (“Slut Rock,” “I Like Her Ass”) or Dog’s Life
(“Dog’s Life,” “Queenie Gots a Pinworm”) will remember the odd-ball, sea-foamed
Strato-twang of one Lee Chabowski, a nice Polish boy from Dansville. Both
aforementioned groups proved to be tragically ahead of their time and
comfortably out of place in a past era of Rochester’s nebulous music scene.

            These days, Chabowski is continuing
in the off-kilter spirit of those two outfits with the Queens-based trio New
Delhi Monkey Man.

            “I like to call it psychotic
bubblegum music,” Chabowski says on the phone between mouthfuls of cereal.
“I’ve always been torn between the twisted and bubblegum.”

            This approach is illustrated by
Chabowski’s haphazard, deadpan references to things like serial killer Ed
Gein’s human-skin lampshades, clown killers, monsters, and shrunken heads. It
also sheds light on the origin of the band’s name.

            “A little over a year ago, my web
browser would open up to this news page,” he explains. “For about a week, there
were headlines like, ‘Fears of New Delhi monkey man grow in India.’ There
actually was hysteria over a supposed monkey man going around biting and
scratching people in New Delhi.”

            Chabowski
was moved by the monkey man scare. “In a creepy, capitalist rampage, I
dot-commed it on the spot and it became our name.” (See
www.newdelhimonkeyman.com.)

            Chabowski’s move from Rochester to
Boston in 1994 ended up being a hiatus. “That was a two-year hell-void,” he
says. “I was very plugged into the music scene in Rochester, the sense of
community. In Boston, I’d go up to bands and say, ‘Hey, I like your band,’ and
they’d literally grunt and walk away. I hated Boston.”

            A 1996 move to New York City proved
a little more promising, despite that town’s over-saturated scene. After
searching unsuccessfully for a singer, Chabowski took the vocal reins himself
and released a solo record, Drinky-Poo (Half Wit Records). With the subsequent addition of bassist Gary Manifold (né
Langol) and drummer Chris Moore, New Delhi Monkey Man became the next rung on
Chabowski’s ladder.

            “This is basically an extension of
the solo stuff, which was basically an extension of Dog’s Life,” he says. “It’s
just a mix of what I like — surf beats with punk rock, ska, and rockabilly
all thrown in together.”

            “And,” he adds, “melodies.”

            Chabowski looks forward to
rekindling his friend- and fan-base here. “I wish the NYC music scene was as
fun as Rochester’s,” he laments. “It’s actually against the law to dance in
most clubs here.”

            Incidentally, they never did catch
the monkey man, but you can when New Delhi Monkey Man plays with The Grinders
and The Quitters on Saturday, October 5, at The Bug Jar, 219 Monroe Avenue, at
10 p.m. Call for cover. 454-2966.

This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2002.