The Monks

http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/pscholtes/2004/11/15

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu8qGjUfpTw

And now I must own everything from this wonderful band.

1966. Holy mother of fuck. God bless, em.

The "Five Upstart Americans" is good for background 'Study'.

"Let's start a beat" is the heartwarming 'end of the movie' moment. Less essential naturally, but nice.

And you have to get the book. It's worth the effort.

And all the youtube stuff...

The Monks vids from YouTube - Classic or Dud?

There is no such thing as too much Monks love.

videos still unavailable.

better than the sonics

true, and the sonics fucking ruled.

I am so glad the absolutely wretched "Nice Legs" isn't the REAL Monks, because I honestly wasn't sure (well, obviously I knew it wasn't the proper lineup, but I thought it might be a Kokomo moment, you know?).

I guess this thread all that time ago (it was something on 2000/2001-ILM or one of the associated blogs, anyway) got me to pick up Five Upstart Americans, which was pretty neat but not quite as neat as I was hoping. I really should get Black Monk Time, which I still hope is where things really are that neat.

Sort of figured I must be the only ILMer not to have heard BMT, which I've been aware is a shameful hole in my musical education for some time, so I'm surprised this thread isn't a good deal longer. Maybe it all just went without saying?

I dig the shit out of the Monks.

My friend saw Transatlantic Feedback, the movie about the Monks, in Chicago sometime in the last year or two. I'd really love to see that.
Any info on upcoming screenings or DVD release?

Black Monk Time is amaaaaaaaazing

RIP

(er, Dave Day has passed)

He's going to be buried in the same cemetery as Jimi Hendrix.

Bless you Dave Day. You never knew who I was and not nearly enough people knew who you were but your music meant the world to me.

I'm a Monk.
You're a Monk.
We're all Monks...

It's Monk Time.

I'm beginning to wonder if this ain't the wrong board for this...

New documentary out !

http://www.playloud.org/themonks.html

This screened at the WFMU fair, apparently. Too bad I was 3,000 miles away. According to that link the dvd release is postponed indefinitely, though it looks to be touring around the country from movie house to movie house--why the hell not in LA??

I bought Black Monk Time about a month ago and it is easily one of the best things I've picked up all year.

That's hard to do: It's out of print, and hardly ever turns up second-hand. EEspecially the 'infinite zero' one with all the singles/extra tracks.

I've got the release on Retribution Records. Am I missing anything?

I'm so excited about this film coming to Seattle!!!!

ILX love the Monks:

Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback
The Monks' Dave Day RIP
the monks: INTERVIEWED!
Monks documentary
The Monks vids from YouTube - Classic or Dud?
Silver Monk Time - Monks tribute CD
it's BEAT time, it's HOP time, it's POLL time !!! (The Monks)
When you first heared the Monks, did you love it straightaway? Of course you did.

By way of warm up for... the news that the Monks music is back in print! (Just got an eight in Spin. Geez, what does it take to get a nine or ten?)

https://lightintheattic.net/buy/item.php?product_id=523

BTW, I posted a 2004 link above about Roger Johnston that has since been broken (ugh, City Pages), so here's that post again:

http://blogs.citypages.com/pscholtes/2004/11/death_of_a_monk.php

The documentary is apparently now available on dvd, too.

I was all set to preorder both CDs from Light in the Attic but now I can't find any mention of the planned Black Monk Time reissue- not on their front page, in their store, anywhere. I hope they didn't run into last-minute rights issues or some such bullshit.

BMT has been on eMusic for months now... not much help if you don't use eMusic, though.

i love every last song i've heard from this band.

me too. i wish there was more of the late singles and such, stuff like "cuckoo" and "i can't get over you"

Light in the Attic confirms April 14 as release date for both BMT and The Early Years, with premium vinyl versions due out in May.

Is the BMT version the same as the old Infinite Zero version or is it like the slightly inferior Repertoire version?

"He went down to the Sea" is friggin incredible.

Is the BMT version the same as the old Infinite Zero version or is it like the slightly inferior Repertoire version?

What was the difference? Sound quality or bonus tracks? I've only ever heard the Repertoire disc myself, if this ends up sounding better I'll be extremely happy.

On a side note, has anyone heard Light in the Attic's Melody Nelson remaster yet?

Bonus tracks definitely. I'm not so much of an audiophile that I can tell the difference.

Yeah, bonus tracks.

That version was my singular best purchase last time I was in New York. Mondo Kims.

Gonna be back soon! :)

Those bonus tracks are a mixed bag. "Cuckoo" is almost my favourite monks moment ever, but "Down to the Sea" and "Love Can Tame the Wild" show what a Fugsian, psychedelic turn they were likely going to take with their second album. Not sure if they're great cuts, but they're food for thought.

The Light in the Attic reissue of Black Monk Time has all but two of the bonus tracks from the Infinite Zero reissue of same, the 1965 demos of "I Hate You" and "Oh, How to Do Now." Both of those tracks are collected on Light in the Attic's other Monks reissue, Monks: The Early Years 1964-1965, along with 8 other 1965 demos, and the "Boys Are Boys"/"There She Walks" Torquays single.

As an enticement, Light in the Attic's Black Monk Time adds "Pretty Suzanne," a previously unreleased '67 track. But the remastering and beautiful liner-note photos would be enough to recommend it. I'm keeping the Infinite Zero one too, though, for its own unique liner notes, and because Eddie Shaw autographed it.

So, of the albums, there b.

1) Black Monk Time
2) Five Upstart Americans (aka)
3) Let's start a beat (live at Cavestomp)

left over =
1) A flexi, "Don't ha ha", a version of "Don't you just know it"
2) "Pretty Suzanne" the 1967 unreleased version (it's on 1 and 3 above, different versions)

"Cuckoo" is almost my favourite monks moment ever
Srsly? Song annoys the hell out of me.

Man this reissue sounds illy

as in "this is sick" or as in "bad sound quality"

I saw that one vinyl Monks thing the other day but it was too $$$ for me

IT'S MONK TIME

IT'S BEAT TIME, IT'S HOP TIME

WHAT ARMY WHO CARES WHAT ARMY

JAMES BOND WHO IS HE???????

PUSSY GALORE IS COMIN' DOWN AND WE LIKE IT

MY BROTHER DIED IN VIETNAM!!! WELL, NOT LITERALLY MY BROTHER...

^ been waiting for this to show up

RIP, The Monks were amazing, way ahead of their time. Hell, they are STILL ahead of our time imo.

What they did almost 50 years ago still brings out fresh, creative responses on the '07 tribute album, where Gary memorably materializes, still on top of things: http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-06-05/music/silver-monk-time-a-tribute-to-the-monks/full/ Still sounds good. Never did see the doc.

True hero of music
RIP

RIP. I remember first hearing about the Monks in a WFMU catalog and got the Repertoire reissue shortly afterwards, and I've listened to it pretty consistently since. Dude was great. Love his crazy voice and that guitar sound is still awesome.

Sad news. Thank you for the music Gary.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Most recent post on The Monks' message board is kind of poignant

This was one of the albums Henry Rollins reissued on his short-lived Infinite Zero imprint...1995-ish I guess? Anyway, it was a revelation to twenty-something me.

That documentary is really great, too. Nice to revisit all those guys when they are older and they are totally the most normal, nicest people just living in their little towns maybe singing w the church, etc. They are so humble and chill and yet the music they made in the 60s was just sooooooo off the leash, just wild, wild stuff. They combined punk, industrial, alt country, krautrock, and genres into a rad electro-acoustic minimalist garage rock stomp that no one has come close to topping.

i meant "and genres yet undiscovered"

Yeah, I tracked down the Infinite Zero reissue in Mondo Kim's. That's what New York is for!

Missed this until now. Gary was so hugely generous and kind, and amazing live. When I saw him with the "Mock Monks" at the Bryant-Lake Bowl circa the Iraq War he growled "George Bush, who the hell is he?" This was after my article came out about them, and when I shook hands with him before the show, he smiled and said, "I have something for you," and gave me an honorary noose, which I put around the collar of my black shirt.

THIRD MAN RECORDS ANNOUNCES
THE MONKS'
HAMBURG RECORDINGS 1967
FEATURES FIVE UNHEARD TRACKS
AND NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS

NEW TRACK "I'M WATCHING YOU"
PREMIERED VIA DANGEROUS MINDS

HAMBURG RECORDINGS 1967
TO BE RELEASED JUNE 23, 2017

Third Man Records is excited to announce The Monks' Hamburg Tapes 1967, featuring five unheard tracks from the legendary group. To ring in the announcement, Dangerous Minds has premiered the new track "I'm Watching You," noting that "these songs aren't just some forgotten cast-offs, they're as vital and as punchy as everything else the Monks recorded." The album will see a vinyl and CD release on June 23.

The Monks - a strange, rare group with a story that sounds like a drunk friend's generous hyperbole. A group of American G.I.s stationed in Germany on the precipice of Western cultural revolution starts playing music loosely connected to the rock n' roll craze, contrastingly incorporating a critical and often offensive avant-garde edge. Nothing was off limits - screeching vocals, dark aesthetics, staccato-strummed banjo, sardonic lyricism, critiques of the Vietnam War and full monk costuming down to the tonsure. When viewed on the whole, it seems like an art school student's senior thesis on what the craze means and its future possibilities. Due in large part to original Polydor vinyl collectability and years in the word-of-mouth hype machine, their legend and cult status has steadily blossomed since their last shows in 1967.

Fast forward to 2017, the crew at Third Man, already huge fans, are presented with an honest-to God treasure trove of original Monks photos, newspaper clippings, business cards, letterhead, contracts, postcards and, yes, analog tapes, containing trailblazing, wild compositions completely unheard by public ears.

"I'm Watching You" would have been recorded on February 28th, 1967 at the same sessions that would produce the Monks' final single "Love Can Tame the Wild" b/w "He Went Down to the Sea." The remaining four songs were recorded after hours in the Top Ten Club later that year, just prior to the break-up of the band.

These songs have been unreleased for 50 years and are quite possibly the last music left to be heard by this legendary band.

Hamburg Recordings 1967 track list:

1. I'm Watching You
2. Julia
3. P.O. Box 3291
4. I Need U Shatzi
5. Yellow Grass

http://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A1purPOW-3L._SL1500_.jpg

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A1purPOW-3L._SL1500_.jpg

Absolute capital C-classic! Thank whomevers responsible that the Beat Club footage of them is still around. They were a very charismatic and entertaining live act. And prolly thank my beloved Fall for helping repopularize them in the 90s. And that one album BMT is a stone avant garage groove from back to front. Addendum re: pic above, wow! Gonna have to get that. Thanx for the tip, NYCnative.

Yeah!

thank the germans for not being the bbc! _all_ the beat club stuff still exists, afaik, including unbroadcast material.

by the way, has anyone actually heard dave day's "don't ha ha" that he released as a 7" at some point?

Was the Rollins reissue of Black Monk Time before the Fall cover?

nah, extricate was 1990, infinite zero issue was '97. apparently the first cd issue of it was an israeli pirate on israphon in 1990.

I believe its a version of "Don't you just know it" with 'authentic' laughing in the chorus.

What?

Oh i see

pretty psyched for this tbh. just curious about the cover art. i thought by these final sessions they had ditched the haircuts and uniform.

Never knew about this Raincoats cover single until just now.

Also can’t remember if I commented on this thread that Eddie seems to have been named after Lawrence of Arabia

it's from the tribute album "silver monk time", has some good stuff on there including gary burger with faust (not sure which faust). there's also a nice live show from around that time (2006 or so) of the monks in berlin with the raincoats, the recently departed mark e. smith, etc., guesting.

It’s BEAT time, it’s HOP time, it’s *BUMP* time!

Just watched the doc with my mother- and sister-in-law. Both loved the band so much.

HI DERE!