Saturday, May 30, 2009

Complication





Back in 1965, four American GIs stationed in Germany

started to play music. After they were discharged, they stayed in Germany
snd became the Monks.
Totally unknown in the USA, the Monks had invented their own esthetic.
Proto Punk? Proto No Wave? Proto Noise?
They billed them selves as the anti-Beatles and their biggest hit was called
"I Hate You".
Instead of Beatle haircuts, they tonsured themselves and a cheap
electric organ and 6 string electric banjo were part of their sound.
This video is from German television in 1965 and the song is called
Complication.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Fascinating.

microdot said...

Even more fascinating, they are still alive and reformed last year and played live shows. They released a new cd called Black Monk Time.

Truly an art project, they played music in 1965 that would not have been out of place in NYC in 1980.
The word games, the attitude, the concepts were so ahead of their times. Iknew NY Bands who didn't sound as good or as quirky as they did.