monk time!!!
The Monks’ Monk Time is one of those all-time legendary cult recordings, the kinda record that’s referenced way more than it has been heard, in part due to insane $30 import CD prices and being incredibly tough to find. Well, for us eMusic peoples, that stops now, as the album hit the site today, and you’d be wise to snag it.
Monk Time often gets credited as a punk precursor, which is half-true. It certainly has the frantic energy of, say, a Devo (themselves only punk in the loosest sense of the word), but its origins are very much of its time (late ’60s), with lotsa organ drone and staccato guitar strumming. It is also, to put it lightly, very very very weird — sudden exclamations like “SHUT UP! DON’T CRY!” coming out of nowhere (“Shut Up” is one of my faves on the album), and then of course “Complications,” probably the best-known song on the record, which is about as soothing as a porcupine sandwich. So good!
The best way to clinch this is a YouTube video. Here’s the band playing in Germany in the ’60s. Anyone who likes the early Captain Beefheart stuff (Safe As Milk is one of my favorite rock albums ever made) needs this ASAP!
I love this album – I’m very very happy it’s arrived.
That is some great stuff. I had never heard of them before…thanks for highlighting them!
NICE!
My favorite is the video for “Monk Chant”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5iI0__9S1c&feature=related
Holy crap that is good! I’ve been meaning to get this record for ages. Sent a note with a link to this post to my friend Patrick… and I’m thinking he’s the one who left the comment right above me. D’oh!
Hey Yancey, do you know if emusic is getting Alla – Es Tiempo (on Crammed) or Kassin 2 – Futurismo (Luaka Bop)? Thanx
or the new andy votel mix “brazilika” (on Far Out)??
This is a rare instance where I think the hype is justified. I bought the domestic version on Infinite Zero (Henry Rollins & Rick Reuben’s reissue lable) ages ago and am glad I did. Good news for anyone who hasn’t picked it up.
i don’t know on any of those pneumatic. i will check.
our label relations dept is badass. already i have an answer: the alla album is coming 6/10, and the kassin is coming, but it keeps getting delayed.
Yancey, _Totally_ with you on Safe As Milk, Beefheart’s soul songs on that album are so so good. His voice is just perfect! I think i’ll be grabbing this album for sure.
TOTALLY on the soul songs. “So Glad” is such an amazingly weird doo-wop song. That record is just perfect.
Ah, feck… different Patrick. MY Patrick’s been pestering me about The Monks for years, though… and he’s prone to NICE’s. So please forgive me, other Patrick…
OK two free daily downloads later I am now in luv with The Monks. At first I was like “This isn’t anything Special” but then (after those two songs) I realized where they were in the musical time stream and I was like “WTF,’ I actually said the words but I think I used that word enuff in my posts for a little bit. “How the Heck,” also NOT the word I used, “did these guys get a time machine?!!?”
Then I read this
“The Monks were a bunch of American G.I.s in Germany who picked up on the beat-group fad; . . . . After they got their official discharges, they got a lot weirder, changing their name, adopting costumes and turning considerably more confrontational to keep the attention of easily bored audiences in Hamburg nightclubs . . . their gimmick at that point was that every song began with a churchy introduction by organist Larry Clark before singer/guitarist Gary Burger started screaming”
That’s fucking awesome!!!!!! (oh shit I said fuck again shit . . . fuck . . .shit) I love it Henry Rollins must’ve loved these freaks. . . Suicidal Tendencies must’ve stay up at night lip syncing to the Preacher-Rants.