“It’s a new lineup,” landlord of the avant-garage Kid Congo Powers exclaims of the Pink Monkey Birds edition responsible for the fifth studio full-length of their nineteen year recording career, That Delicious Vice. “We’ve gone from a four piece to a three piece,” continues Kid, whose unique guitar style has been at the center of some of the most forward-thinking bands in punk and garage: The Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Knoxville Girls, to name a handful.

“I’m not sure if living in the desert is making me want more space in music or not,” laughs Kid, a Tucson resident for a few years now. “Maybe I’m turning into a desert stoner rocker. But I’m not a stoner, so that’s not happening.”

No, the former Brian Tristan is most decidedly not unleashing a Kyuss tribute album. But one hears the desert all over That Delicious Vice. But the album’s major hallmark has to be its extended collaboration with Alice Bag, the face of and voice of early LA punk titans The Bags. How and why these two took this long to unite creatively is a dense mystery, considering both graduated with honors from early Hollywood punk palace The Masque.

That Delicious Vice was produced by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, recorded and mixed by Jim Waters (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Sonic Youth) at his Waterworks Studios facility in Tucson. It features nine new original tracks that are the band’s strongest to date!