Information AboutThe Monks |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT THE MONKS | |
| german musical groups | |
| musical groups established in 1965 | |
| rock music groups | |
| 1960s music groups | |
| pre-punk groups | |
| beat groups | |
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The Monks are a Rock And Roll band, primarily active in Germany in the mid to late Sixties . They reunited in 1999 and have continued to play concerts, although no new studio recordings have been made. The Monks stood out from the music of the time, and have developed a Cult Following amongst many musicians and music fans. Artists to have acknowledged The Monks as an influence include Henry Rollins , the Beastie Boys and Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys , as well as The Fall . The latter covered both "I Hate You" and "Oh, How To Do Now" on their 1990 album '' Extricate '' (under the titles "Black Monk Theme Part I" and "Black Monk Theme Part II", respectively), as well as the song "Shut Up!" on their 1994 album '' Middle Class Revolt .'' The Fall have also covered "Higgledy-Piggledy" for a forthcoming Monks tribute CD. PERSONNEL
THE FORMATION OF THE MONKS All the members were American songs and played music inspired by the British Invasion bands. But the band experimented together musically - Gary Burger said: "It probably took us a year to get the sound right. We experimented all the time. A lot of the experiments were total failures and some of the songs we worked on were terrible. But the ones we kept felt like they had something special to them. And they became more defined over time." Upon their discharge from the army the band developed a distinctive musical style, and took up a distinctive name and image to go with it. The transition from their earlier, more conventional and less provocative aesthetic to the abrasive and cutting-edge sound of their "Black Monk Time" period was partly induced by the influence of "a pair of loopy art scene on the early Beatles . THE MONKS STAGE GARB At the beginning of . THE GROUP'S SOUND The band abandoned common elements of much sixties rock n roll:
Many of these musical elements are also found in sixties New York acts like The Fugs and The Godz in particular, but also The Velvet Underground . When the Monks developed their sound, the only one of these bands who had put out any records was the Fugs; it is unclear if the Monks had actually heard the Fugs or developed their sound independently. Because of these features, the Monks are often referenced as forerunners of the later punk movement. AFTER THE MONKS As of August 2006, lead singer Gary Burger serves as mayor of Turtle River, Minnesota . In 2006 [http://www.playloud.org/themonks.html play loud! productions] completed the documentary film "monks - the transatlantic feedback" in conjunction with the release of the album "silver monk time - a tribute to the monks". TRIVIA
DISCOGRAPHY
Singles
BOOKS Shaw, Eddie & Klemke, Anita ( 1994 ). ''Black Monk Time''. Carson Street Publishing Inc., ISBN 0963337122. EXTERNAL LINKS
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