SLOW RETURN TO ABNORMALCY

Stop the presses. I got nothing tonight but a link to an LP many of you probably already have. I don't care, it also serves as a heads up that the hosting blog, Primitive Offerings, has more cool shit. But this one is essential. Black Monk Time by the Monks is oddball garage at it's finest. And by oddball I don't mean bad, they just ignored the norms and, with encouragement from their manager, let it fly. It being the freak flag. Do I have to explain everything? Shit.

Anyway, like I said, Black Monk Time is an essential LP, Primitive Offerings posted the whole LP in a zip (MediaFire, no pop-ups), blah, blah, blah. I've posted their stuff a bunch in the past, scroll down the page linked here. There's bound to be some links that are still good. Scavenge elsewhere if you must.

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Listen:
The Monks - Monk Chant mp3 at Pretty Goes with Pretty
The Monks - Black Monk Time (Full LP) at Primitive Offerings (zip via MediaFire)
The Monks - Past posts here (scroll down)

IT'S CHURCH MUSIC SOMEWHERE

We're rounding the home stretch to 3000 posts here and I was getting a bit nostalgic. I thought I'd head back to old favorites and the first band that came to mind was the Monks. They've been posted here several times but some of the older links were no longer working, so an update was in order regardless. The bonus is that I found the 2006 documentary on them The Transatlantic Feedback. Pillaging the old posts I was reminded that the first bit of writing that I ever got paid for was about the Monks, on Woodstock.com of all places. If you want to read it, there's a link below, but their story is much better told at the Monks official site. I think you might get an idea of the direction they lean by some of the song titles. It's 1967, do you think Donovan is going to be singing a song called "I Hate You"? "Shut Up"? This is punk rock.Yeah baby.

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Listen:
The Monks - Monk Chant mp3 at Pretty Goes with Pretty
The Monks - Monk Time mp3 at Pretty Goes with Pretty
The Monks - I Hate You mp3 at Internet Archive
The Monks - Shut Up mp3 at Kalifontecchio
The Monks - Love Come Tumblin' Down mp3 at The Rising Storm
The Monks - Complication mp3 at Pretty Goes with Pretty
The Monks - Boys Are Boys and Girls Are Choice mp3 at Tumblr
Video:
The Monks - Boys Are Boys and Girls Are Choice (German TV) at YouTube
The Monks - Cuckoo (German TV) at YouTube
The Monks - Oh, How To Do Now (German TV) at YouTube
The Monks - I Can't Get Over You (German TV) at YouTube
The Transatlantic Feedback - Documentary at YouTube Over two hours
Visit:
The Monks Official site
The Monks Were Manufactured Before 'N Sync Were Even Born at Vice
I Know Just What You Kids Need Earlier post here about the Monks

ELEMENTARY THUD

I heard a cover of "Monk Chant" by the Raincoats the other night and it sucked me into a Monks binge. I know, I know, most of you probably have Black Monk Time or, if you've been hanging around here for any length of time, have seen one of the other old posts with Monks stuff. You locals, take a pass or dig through the index. This is for the peagreens.

In a nutshell: The Monks were ex-GIs, Americans, who stuck around Germany after they were discharged in the mid-sixties. Originally called the Torquays, they shaved the tops of their heads started wearing black and became the Monks. Their sound was built on organ, electric banjo, distorted guitar, an ample amount of feedback, nearly cymbal-less drums, and an unrelenting thud of a beat. They sometimes got into fights with members of the audience, and they probably got laid a time or two. Read the lengthy bio on their site, all of it. Listen. Watch the videos. This, as they say, is the shit.

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Listen:
The Monks - Monk Chant mp3 at Pretty Goes With Pretty
The Monks -  Monk Time mp3 at Dk Presents
The Monks -  Complication mp3 at Detour
The Monks -  I Hate You mp3 at Kalifontecchio
The Monks -  Boys Are Boys and Girls Are Choice mp3 at Smartest Giant
Video:
The Monks - Complication (German TV) at YouTube (HIGHLY recommended)
The Monks - Boys Are Boys and Girls Are Choice (German TV) at YouTube
The Monks - Cuckoo (German TV) at YouTube
The Monks - Oh, How To Do Now (German TV) at YouTube
The Monks - I Can't Get Over You (German TV) at YouTube
You're A Monk, I'm a Monk, We're all Monks, profile at YouTube
Visit:
The Monks Official site
The Monks at Wikipedia

THANK YOU ISAK AND KARL

Twenty some odd years ago, my friend Max stopped by to have a beer and talk music, bringing with him a crappy quality video, definitely one of those recorded and duped to exhaustion. But I'd never seen it so, what the hell, right? The tape was of the Monks. Fuh huck. Instant fan. They were nuts. They looked nuts, they sounded nuts, and they acted nuts. In an unsettling to squares sort of way.

Musically, there's three things you will notice right off the bat. The electric banjo, the near absence of cymbals and snare, and that beat. That relentless, steady beat, all toms and bass drum.. That thud is menacing right where it is, it doesn't need a wall of Marshalls behind it. Their lyrics? These guys were pissed, I'll leave it at that. The band's whole story is pretty remarkable, but I'm not going to go into that. There's a few profiles linked below, if you're so inclined (and you should be). Much more thorough versions than I'm capable of.

I'm posting these because something happened that got me thinking. Remember the kid Isak, from a few weeks back, that did his class project on Moondog? His pop Espen wrote that, the other day, he was reading a bit about the Monks' Gary Burger (who passed away in March) online when Isak and his friend Karl were walking by. Karl was taken aback by a photo of the Monks, so while Isak, who is eleven years old by the way, explained to him who the Monks were, ol' man Espen dug the CD out, and played it for them. Forty minutes later they were walking around singing "Cuckoo". (Espen tells this story way better in the comments on this post).

It made me happy that, although Gary Burger had died (the third Monk to pass), here was a couple preteen kids keeping the beat alive. Not even of hipster age, and they could end up cuckooing down the hall at recess. It got me thinking that this world would benefit if all parents and children made more time for weird. Quality weirdness, often and early. How could that not open doors? But, that's the yapping of someone with no parenting experience whatsoever. Regardless, here's to parents, to kids, to roads less traveled and all that folksy jive. To Gary Burger. To the Monks. To the beat.

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Listen:
The Monks - Monk Chant mp3 at Pretty Goes With Pretty

The Monks-  Monk Time mp3 at Dk Presents

The Monks-  Complication mp3 at Detour

The Monks-  I Hate You mp3 at Moodle Web

The Monks-  Boys Are Boys and Girls Are Choice mp3 at Sonny Venice (?)

Video:
The Monks - Complication (German TV) at YouTube (HIGHLY recommended)
The Monks - Boys Are Boys and Girls Are Choice (German TV) at YouTube
The Monks - Cuckoo (German TV) at YouTube
The Monks - Oh, How To Do Now (German TV) at YouTube
The Monks - I Can't Get Over You (German TV) at YouTube
You're A Monk, I'm a Monk, We're all Monks, profile at YouTube
Visit:
The Monks Official site
The Monks at Wikipedia

Famed local artist Gary Burger dies at 70 at The Bemidji Pioneer

MONKS AND THE MONKS

If you've hung around here for any length of time, you know that the Monks are practically deities in these parts. Though not really Monks, their story and recordings are just the type of stuff that I eat up. I've mentioned them a few times here, and that doesn't include the first time I wrote about them elsewhere, back in the good ol' days when I used to get paid for polluting the interwebs. Where was I?...oh yeah, back in the late sixties there was a Wisconsin band that were actual Franciscan monks, called the Cords. Some of you may know of them from one of two compilations (the first "Back From the Grave" and "Garage Beat 4"). The song on both compilations was "Ghost Power" a full on stomping garage type instrumental. Listen to it. It's a great song, made even better by the day job these robed crackpots were holding down.

The Monks

Speaking of crackpots, I, of course, had to take this opportunity to slip the Monks (the non-monks Monks) in front of you, just in case you've missed them. There's a link to seven songs of theirs, and some videos, below. (Here's a shortcut.) Back to the Cords, Garage Hangover just did a post about them, with three more songs I hadn't heard, so my Cords collection just quadrupled. (Garage Hangover doesn't like direct linking, so go there to get them.)

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Listen:
The Cords at Garage Hangover - Five mp3s and bio. Garage Hangover doesn't like direct linking to mp3s so go there to get them. The version of "Ghost Power" is an 1:11 chopped version, but the YouTube link below will give you an idea of the low fi knuckleheaded unholy racket.
The Cords - Ghost Power (streaming) at YouTube
The Monks -A loaded previous post Seven Monks mp3s and several videos

THIS WOULD BE THE RESET BUTTON

If ever a band represented everything this humble dimension of junk favors, it is the Monks. In short, they were raw, primitive, inventive, and weird. They had their own sound, their own look, their own hair cuts, and their own reasons. They went where few of their contemporaries would; they challenged their audience. Sonically, verbally, and what-the-fuckingly. I cannot be objective. There are too many specifics to start checking them off. They stir something in me, and I'm not quite sure what it is. (If you don't know it already, I recommend familiarizing yourself with their story.)

Take a look at that video above, from a German TV. While they were doing that whacked out shit, the Dave Clark Five were doing this. The Beatles were doing Rubber Soul, Syd Barrett was doing god-knows-what, and Johnny Rotten was still in grade school. The Monks had their own world, and it included banging on guitars, fuzz, feedback, and that beat. That gloriously monotonous beat.

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Listen:
The Monks - Monk Chant mp3 at Pretty Goes With Pretty
The Monks - Oh, How To Do Now mp3 at Popop
The Monks - Shut Up mp3 at One Sweet Song
The Monks - I Hate You mp3 at Merry Swankster
The Monks - Drunken Maria mp3 at Popop
The Monks - Love Came Tumblin' Down mp3 at Gorilla vs Bear
The Monks - I Can't Get Over You mp3 at Popop
Cover:
The Gossip - Drunken Maria (streaming) at YouTube
Video:
The Monks - Complication (German TV) at YouTube (HIGHLY recommended)
The Monks - Boys Are Boys and Girls Are Choice (German TV) at YouTube
The Monks - Cuckoo (German TV) at YouTube
The Monks - Oh, How To Do Now (German TV) at YouTube
The Monks - I Can't Get Over You (German TV) at YouTube
You're A Monk, I'm a Monk, We're all Monks, profile at YouTube
Visit:
The Monks Official site
The Monks at Wikipedia
Earlier post about the Monks:
I Know Just What You Kids Need A profile of the Monks