MUSIC
FAMILY ALBUM Secret Monkey Weekend turns quips and memories into songs by DAVID MENCONI photography by TAYLOR MCDONALD
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lot of families mark the passage of time with photo albums. But the Hart household in Durham is doing that with a different kind of album: a 12-song collection of music called All the Time in the World that’s out this month. It’s the first full-length album from Secret Monkey Weekend, a rock trio made up of Jeffer-
son Hart (a local musician who worked at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill until his retirement a decade ago) and his adopted stepdaughters, 19-year-old Ella and 14-year-old Lila. The opening song “Honey Num” started out as a nonsense phrase drummer/ singer Lila was saying at age 6. “Fascist Blood Baby” is a song that bassist Ella came up with last year based on a vil-
lain from one of her favorite TV shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. “One day, they were both singing, Don’t kill me, fascist blood baby,” recalls Jefferson, who sings, plays guitar, and has led groups including The Ruins and Ghosts of the Old North State. “I said, That sounds like the chorus of a song, and they wrote most of it on the spot.” True enough. Secret Monkey WeekThe Art & Soul of Raleigh | 31
