Record #37: The Monks’ ‘Black Monk Time’
The story of The Monks is an incredibly strange and fascinating one. They formed in the early ’60s while stationed in Germany as American GIs. After being discharged from the service, they remained in Europe, eventually evolving from a rather typical beat band to a proto-psychedelic garage-rock troupe with songs that ranged from radically absurd to prophetically socially conscious. They only released one studio album—1966’s Black Monk Time—and it’s frighteningly ahead of its time.
When I listened to The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, I mentioned that their incredibly loose instrumentation—as much as I like psych rock—was occasionally a bit grating. Perhaps because The Monks wrote music before there was really much of a psychedelic movement going on*, their playing is much more together and agreeable. The vocals, however, sometimes get wild: Songs like “Cuckoo” feature shrill, redundant howling that, by my third listen, was starting to make me feel like I was losing my damn mind. And then you have songs like “Complication,” which seem to critique the appalling nature of war, forced military service and humanity in general.
Basically, Black Monk Time blows my mind with its prescience. The Monks somewhat bridge the gap between conventional early-’60s R&B, rock and doo-wop and the psychedelic movement that was to follow; but more than that, they approach their music with aggression that is sometimes comical and sometimes eerily righteous. According to the material I’ve read, The Monks were pretty immediately dismissed because of their unconventional and socially radical approach. It’s a shame they only made one record—especially considering the popularity of similar bands that followed—but that’s what makes a band a cult hit. Besides, apart from being influential and smart, a lot of these songs are straight-up awesome. An absolute must-listen for psych fans or really anyone interested in the trajectory of rock music from the ’60s on.
* Black Monk Time actually came out the same year as 13th Floor Elevators’ debut, but The Monks had allegedly been working on their songs for something like two years, honing their sound and nihilistic “anti-Beatles” approach in somewhat insular conditions.
