The Monks Remembered

The Monks, receiving their signature 'do

The Monks were a band of GIs who overstayed in West Germany following their Vietnam-era discharge. They shaved their heads, dressed in robes and made abrasive music that everyone hated (including one of my favorite songs, "I Hate You").

Forty years later, a reissue of their album, Black Monk Time, and the DVD release of the documentary Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback are rescuing the group from obscurity--if only for a time. Their sound was rarely loved.

Their insistent rhythms recalled martial beats and polkas as much as garage rock, and the weirdness quotient was heightened by electric banjo, berserk organ runs, and occasional bursts of feedback guitar. To prove that they meant business, the Monks shaved the top of their heads and performed their songs -- crude diatribes about the Vietnam war, dehumanized society, and love/hate affairs with girls -- in actual monks' clothing.

--via All Music

And from Fresh Air:

The band went on German TV when [Blank Monk Time] came out, and the tape is excruciating: the band does its best, but the kids are utterly confused. The Monks toured, but audiences remained mostly hostile. ... Finally, in September, 1967, the band called it quits. ...

The Monks remained unknown until they were rediscovered during the punk era, although they had influenced some of the later generation of krautrock musicians. Polydor reissued the album, which again didn't sell.

They're up against Lady Gaga now. Hard to imagine the album will sell this time around, either.