
"The Monks - Black Monk Time -1966 GERMANY":
'Black Monk Time' is the only album of the band 'The Monks'. Produced by Jimmy Bowien, and recorded November 1965 in Cologne, Germany. Released March 1966 by Polydor in Germany.
All the members were American GIs (a nickname for a United States Army soldiers) stationed in Germany in the mid-sixties.
'The Monks' started as another surf band called the Torquays, but "got bored" and started experimenting wildly, reducing rythyms and riffs to basics, using feedback and screamed vocals, the elements of ' the Monks' music have been deconstructed, isolated, repeatedly stabbed and distorted. The results are raw and phenomenal and to later ears sound like the birth pangs of punk rock way ahead of it's time.
When the group were demobbed, they started wearing tonsures and monastic robes on stage with nooses around their necks, making their live experience unforgettable.
The Monks can be seen as precursors to ' The Velvet Underground' or 'Stooges', more so in attitude rather than sound but in the long run the attitude was perfect.
Make sure you hear "Black Monk Time", they were punks way ahead of their time.
The Monks:
Vocals/Guitar: Gary Burger
Organ: Larry Clark
Drums: Roger Johnston
Bass guitar: Eddie Shaw
Banjo: Dave Day