Some songs shuffle out of the speakers with a limp and a leer, brandishing incense and a scratchy old postcard from the underworld. Silver For My Sister, the latest spell cast by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, stirs up a dust devil of grief, friendship, and uncanny delight. Plucked from That Delicious Vice (freshly stamped with a second pressing), the track sidesteps sentimentality and waltzes into weirdness with gleeful reverence.
The video, directed by Max Flick and Ambar Navarro, is a marvel of hand-built dream logic. It’s stitched together like a scrapbook left out in the rain, crawling with stop-motion critters, painted skies, and theatrical backdrops that nod to both Saturday morning cartoons and desert-fried surrealism. Amid the tilt-a-whirl of textures and motion, there’s a quiet gravity: this is a tribute, after all. The song was sparked during Kid’s bedbound recovery after a brutal bike crash, and floats as a tribute to his late friend, jeweller and wolf advocate Julie Long Gallegos. She wore red in her hair and loved all things lupine. The song howls in her name.
Musically, it’s classic Congo: part B-movie blues, part noir cabaret, equal parts desert grease and garage glitter. A slow stomp saunters beneath Kid’s hypnotic chant, while guitars coil like snakes under a porchlight. There’s heat in the notes, but also cool calculation…every beat lands with the grace of a junkyard ballet.
Alice Bag, punk priestess and co-conspirator, plays the jeweller onscreen, her presence a full-circle moment from their first crossing in 1977’s Hollywood punk trenches. The two have since formed Juanita & Juan, an outfit they cheekily dub “Loud Lounge.”
Watch the video for “Silver For My Sister” below:
Listen to Silver For My Sister below and order That Delicious Vice here.
With a September tour snaking through the Midwest and Canada, the band moves forward with the slow power of folklore. Wolves still run. The desert still sings. Kid Congo, ever the punk shaman, reminds us: the dance never ends, it just changes costumes.
Catch them under various phases of the moon below:
Juanita & Juan Tour Dates:
- July 1 – Milwaukee WI – Cactus Club
- July 2 – Chicago – Cobra Lounge
- July 3 – Detroit – Third Man Records
- July 4 – Columbus OH
- July 20 – Los Angeles .. Bob Baker Marionettes at Ford Field Theater
Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds Tour Dates:
- 9/9 Kansas City, MO Record Bar
- 9/10 Omaha, NE Reverb Lounge
- 9/11 Green Bay, WI UFO Museum Shop & Records
- 9/12 Minneapolis, MN Palmer’s Bar
- 9/13 Milwaukee, WI X-Ray Arcade
- 9/14 Chicago, IL Beat Kitchen
- 9/16 Detroit, MI Lager House
- 9/17 London, ON Palasad Social Bowl
- 9/18 Toronto, ON Monarch Tavern
- 9/19 Hamilton, ON The Bright Room
- 9/20 Cleveland, OH Grog Shop
- 9/21 Cincinnati, OH MOTR Pub
Follow Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds:
Or via: