past members include:
jon rybicki
liz armstrong
rand sevilla
david diarrhea
joey o'mahoney
eleanor balson
jeremy fisher
zack pink shoes
jonathan kennedy
Influences
REGGEAYH,
E.E.E.B.B.B.M.M.M.
&
THE CORPSE OF MIKE PATTON
Sounds Like
LAST SHOW OF 2008 @ MTBTL
footage courtesy billy joyce
BEFORE SANTA BOMBING CHAUSER
from the Chicago Reader:
STRESS APE One of the most aptly named bands I can think of offhand, Stress Ape is part of the local Hardscrabble Amateurs cassette scene that also includes Mayor Daley, Cave, and Rotten Milk vs. Bubblegum Shitface. The band’s latest release, 42012, is the perfect soundtrack for giggling maniacally while beating the guy in the next cubicle to death with a femur. Not quite industrial, not quite noise, not quite Melt-Banana spaz rock and yet closely related to all three, Stress Ape stake out a niche for themselves by acting erratically enough to make potential competitors edge away nervously—yet there’s a crisp, lean quality to their fucking about that suggests Machiavellian premeditation. -- Monica Kendrick
from The Onion A/V Club:
Many bands purport to be "noise rock," but they are lying to themselves. Chicago's STRESS APE is the real deal: The band literally sounds like white noise, seemingly overlaid with bootlegged tapes of some disturbed soul's primal-scream therapy session. When grooves and harmonizing occur, it's purely accidental—the intentionally crude recordings only resemble songs in that they contain repeating parts. The rest is random. Still, none of that is to detract from the local band's glorious celebration of all that is ear-shattering—or that this is its final show before breaking up. Pack some Tylenol and prepare to find out what happens when a passionate noise-rock band gets triumphant and maybe a bit wistful.
from The Speed of Silence.com:
Chicago’s Stress Ape had scared us a bit when we were checking out their Myspace before the show. We were pretty sure we were getting into some terror-core and might get our faces ripped off or something along those lines. Not to say these guys didn’t mean serious business, but the reality was that the four-piece roared through a set of post-hardcore grooves that had the room jumping and dancing almost immediately. When you replace guitars with a Casio keyboard run through a dozen or so effects pedals, you are bound to end up at least a little on the funky side. With both bass and guitar pounding out rhythms and the singer laying into every word or scream, it came together in a powerful, visceral package that was impressive to see.
from the Columbia Free-Times:
Stress Ape comes to the Capital City via Oakland and Chicago, but its noisy, spazzy post-hardcore comes from outer f!king space. The noise-rock quartet celebrates all things ear-shredding, laying down grating sheets of white noise and primal screams and pairing them with furious distorted bass grooves and Casio keyboard thrashings. You will get a headache, reader, and you will love it. -- P. Wall
im glad u guys are playing el defe. theres a huge theatre squat there, im not sure if it still exists but some noise buddies o mine lived there. good times. cuidan se mucho.
AMAZING SET LAST NITE AT THE BOTTLE YA'LL ARE THE SHIT KEEP IT GOIN AND HAVE A GREAT SET ON WZRD...actually STREAMING now so fans should be ready to get down!
Online Now!
