“This was about saying NO, a new freedom, a positive NO. Musically it was like a new beginning; everything was based on one beat, archaic rhythm and feedback. It was for the first time that a band seemed loose and free and oriented towards the future.”
Jochen Irmler, Faust
“A banjo with a microphone in it to make it electric, a fuzz bass en ’66, and an amazing singer, not to mention the drummer and organist, both out of this galaxy with what they were doing.
Their melodies were pop destructive and must be played to your younger brother.”
The White Stripes
monks Tribute Album Will Be Released In US - June 19 2007
silver monk time - features the following 29 international artists covering Monks songs :
The Fall
Faust
Fehlfarben
Doc Schoko
Gudrun Gut
Die Goldenen Zitronen / Chicks on Speed
PTB 3 (psychic tv)
Noise Conspiracy
The Havletones
Alexander Hacke
Michaela Melian
Barbara Manning and the Go-Luckys.
Floating Di Morel
S.Y.P.H.
Alex Empire/Gary Burger
Silver Apples/Alan Vega
Mouse on Mars
The Raincoats
Jason Forrest
Singapore Sling
27/11
Nista Nije Nista
Mense Reents
The 5.6.7.8’s (the band in Kill Bill 1)
Cycle
The Gossip
Jon Spencer/Solex
Charles Wilp / The Monks
liner notes to silver monk time - 29 international artists take on the legacy of the monks
in 1965 the monks were looking for a new zero point in pop music and created what later turned into the milestone record “black monk time”. “black monk time” accidentally or intentionally pre-dated several genres that were to come: kraut rock, electronic music, heavy metal, punk, industrial and techno.
when the monks in january 1966 launched their “living (pop) art project” at famous reeperbahn top ten club the largest german tabloid “bild-zeitung” wrote “noise, noise and no melody – robot music!”.
in july of the same year the monks presented their black record for the first time live on the teenage tv show “beat-club”. to the surprise of many they started the show with an improvised new song, which wasn’t even on the record. you could call it commercial suicide. the song itself was archaic, one repetitive beat, three monks beating on gigantic tambourines, an organ gone mad, a guitar on the floor that fed back and at one point was shyly touched by four band members. all typical macho rock attitudes were taken out. it was pure and swinging joyfulness and seemed to have more in common with avant garde art than with regular pop music. therefore maybe it was misunderstood. to some degree though it was the end of rock music as we knew it. the monks called the song “monk chant”. rumor has it that “monk chant” was supposed to be the one and only idea for their second long player. one primitive beat spread out on two lp sides. “the rolling stones are baroque, the beatles for old grannies, you, the monks are playing the music of the future, you are supposed to play the audience into ecstasy,” demanded their two german managers. this second (never released) record was to be called “silver monk time”.
play loud! is proud to announce 29 international pop bands who continue the musical journey initiated 40 years ago by the seven monks: gary burger, larry clark, dave day, roger johnston, walther niemann, karl-heinz remy and eddie shaw.crank it up and enjoy this brand new ecstatic monks record.
it is (finally) silver monk time.
MASTERED AT Faust Studio BY HANS-JOACHIM IRMLER (FAUST).
buy the album from the Play Loud Shop
words about monks’ sound
excerpted from the original liner notes of BLACK MONK TIME
Gary Burger plays guitar and was born in Minnesota. Roger Johnston, a Texan, gives his drums the works. Chicago boy: That is Larry Clark - crazy-fingers at the organ, for his father was no gangster, but a priest. And Dave Day has more than one banjo and more than one microphone built into each of his banjos. He claims that he was born in Washington. And Eddie Shaw, who hails from California, uses his bass guitar as he sees fit!
as part of an introduction to the monks, Spazz Chandler described their music thus :
The backbone of the Monks’ music is in Roger’s drumming. The thudding of his omnipresent toms is constantly accenting and coloring his sharp snare work and sparse use of cymbals. He is always in control. It sometimes sounds as if he is directing the band, which is a rhythmic experiment in itself, from the rear. Dave, whose banjo is exclusively rhythmic, usually takes his cues from Roger’s snare, often playing at twice the drummer’s speed. The hollow, mad clacking sound of Dave’s banjo is at times evocative of a locomotive that has dropped its cars and cargo in favor of a faster pace. Playing somewhere in between the two is Eddie’s overdriven bass seeking to put everything into some kind of harmonic perspective. Gary and larry play what might be viewed as the “melody” of the song as well as the solos. Gary’s soloing technique is to rip sheets of feedback out of his guitar, which yammers and howls in protest, before slapping it back into the framework of the, er . . . “groove.” Larry usually skitters across the keyboard allowing occasional glimpses of fat cathedral-esque tone. His infrequent chords show the kind of caterwaul his organ would actually be capable of, if he slowed down long enough. The overall effect is maddening. It is without a doubt the most uncompromising stuff ever to call itself rock ‘n’ roll.
How Minnesota musicians revived ’60s rockers the Monks
the monks accomplished a lot during their time in Germany, but it is no small detail that each musician hailed from the USofA before being relocated by the Cold War. check out this article to read about their further adventures in Minnesota, and how the Twin Cities inspired the revival of the monks 40 years after the band had disappeared.
Living Like a Monk by Peter S. Scholtes
monks demo tapes 1965
previously unavailable material! CD Will Be Released May 1 2007
these early monks recordings were made seven months before Black Monk Time.
play loud! and Munster Records release them now for the first time in Europe
plus 3 additional tracks by The 5 Torquays and Jason Forrest.
inner sleeve with liner notes and never-before-seen photographs!the cd will be ready for shipping on may 1st, 2007
the 12″ vinyl can be purchased now from the Play Loud Shop
play loud! productions presents - a documentary film by Dietmar Post & Lucía Palacios
monks – the transatlantic feedback a retrospect into the evolution and devolution of UBERBEAT
the original press release [warning - pdf format] from Play Loud describes the film, monks – the transatlantic feedback :
the film (short synopsis)
The monks were 5 American GIs in cold war Germany who billed themselves as the anti-Beatles; they
were heavy on feedback, nihilism and electrical banjo. They had strange haircuts, dressed in black,
mocked the military and rocked harder than any of their mid-sixties counterparts while managing to
basically invent industrial, heavy metal, punk and techno music.
The genre-overlapping documentary film not only illustrates the pop music phenomenon in its political,
social and cultural-historic contexts, but also reveals the monks project as the first marriage of art and
popular music and this months before Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground.
The five protagonists of the film came to cold war Germany in 1961 as soldiers and left the country in 1967
as avant-garde monks. For more than thirty years they were not able to talk about their strange
experience. In the film the five original band members recount for the first time their adventure.featuring
Gary Burger (vocals/guitar)
Larry Clark (organ)
Dave Day (banjo/guitar)
Roger Johnston (drums)
Eddie Shaw (bass)
Charles Wilp (fashion photographer, composer, Afri-Cola guru, ARTronaut and collaborator of the monks)
Jimmy Bowien (Polydor record producer of the monks)
Werner Henjes (Polydor sound engineer of the monks)
Wolfgang Gluszczewski (tour manager of the monks)
Joachim Irmler (Faust, 60’s eyewitness, fan, musician)
Jon Spencer (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, 90’s fan, musician)
Byron Coley (Spin Magazine staff writer)
Genesis P-Orridge (Psychic TV & Throbbing Gristle, 60’s fan, musician)
Peter Zaremba (Fleshtones, 90’s fan, musician)credit list
production company : play loud! productions
produced and directed by : Dietmar Post & Lucía Palacios
edited by : Dieter Jaufmann
additional editing : Karl-W. Huelsenbeck
camera & sound by : Dietmar Post & Lucía Palacios
additional camera : Renato Falcao
script : Dietmar Post
music by : the monksspecial dedication
in memory of monks drummer Roger Johnston (1939 – 2004)
monks collaborator Charles Wilp (1932 – 2005)format DVCAM – DigiBeta | 4:3 | 100 minutes | USA, Germany, Spain 2006
original language English + German (with English subtitles)
quicktime movie trailer which you can also view on both the monks’ website as well as Play Loud’s site.
German Film Festival Showcases Monks Film In Australian Cities
Sydney
Chauvel Cinema
Palace Norton Street Cinemas
Sat 21.04. – 8.45 pm
Sun 22.04. – 1.30 pm
Mon 23.04. – 9.00 pm
Sat 21.04. – 3.30 pm
Melbourne
Palace Cinema Como
Palace Brighton Bay
Wed 25.04. – 8.45 pm
Sat 28.04. – 4.15 pm
Thu 26.04. – 7.00 pm
Brisbane
Palace Centro
Sat 28.04. – 4.15 pm
Perth
Cinema Paradiso
Sun 29.04. – 6.30 pm
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