Music Archive: The Monks – Live in Germany 1965

Before punk rock there was The Monks.

One of the strangest stories in rock history, the Monks were formed in the early ’60s by American G.I.s stationed in Germany. After their discharge, the group stayed on in Germany as the Torquays, a fairly standard beat band. (They played The Top Ten Club in Hamburg during the same period as The Beatles.) After changing their name to the Monks in the mid-’60s, they also changed their music, attitude, and appearance radically. Gone were standard oldie covers, replaced by furious, minimalist original material that anticipated the blunt, harsh commentary of the punk era. 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.

The transition from their earlier, more conventional and less provocative aesthetic to the abrasive and cutting-edge sound of their first and only LP Black Monk Time was partly induced by the influence of “a pair of loopy existentialist visionaries” called Walther Niemann and Karl-H.-Remy. Remy, a university student of design in Ulm, and Niemann, a student of Folkwang Arts Academy in Essen, “designed” the Monks as “anti-Beatles”: short hair with tonsures, black clothes, ropes around the neck, image of being hard and dangerous.

This was pretty strong stuff for 1966 Germany, and their shocking repertoire and attire were received with more confusion than hostility or warm praise. Well known in Germany as a live act, their sole album and several singles didn’t take off in a big way and were never released in the U.S., it was rumored, because the lyrical content was deemed too shocking. They disbanded in confusion around 1967, but their album — one of the most oddball constructions in all of rock — gained a cult following among collectors, and has ironically made them much more popular and influential on an international level than they were during their lifetime. Bassist Eddie Shaw’s 1994 autobiography, Black Monk Time, is a fascinating narrative of the Monks’ stranger-than-fiction story.

Sources: all music guide/wikipedia

We’ve included The Monks standard opener “Monk Chant” and probably their most well-known song “Complications”, which appeared on the Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era box-set . Links for other songs from the same 1965 German tv performance are included below the videos.

The Monks – “Cuckoo” – “I Can’t Get Over You” – “Boys Are Boys and Girls Are Choice” – “Oh, How To Do Now“

Music Archive: Mae West “Hard to Handle” from 1970′s “Myra Breckinridge”

Mae West performs “Hard to Handle” in one of the best worst movies of all time, 1970′s Myra Breckinridge.

Via Wikipedia:

Myra Breckinridge is a 1970 American campy comedy film, based on Gore Vidal’s 1968 novel of the same name, the film was directed by Michael Sarne, with Raquel Welch in the title role. It also starred John Huston as Buck Loner, Mae West as Leticia Van Allen, Farrah Fawcett, Rex Reed, Roger Herren, and Roger C. Carmel. Tom Selleck made his film debut in a small role as one of Leticia’s “studs”. Theadora Van Runkle was costume designer for the film, but Edith Head designed Mae West’s costumes.

Like the novel, the picture was controversial for its sexual explicitness, but unlike the novel, Myra Breckinridge received little to no critical praise and has been cited as one of the worst films ever made.

Learn more about the film via AllMovie.

Below watch an extended version of the clip which includes Mae West performing “You Gotta Taste All the Fruit” while Racquel Welch, Farrah Fawcett and Roger Herren discuss how a man should act.

Music Archive: Godley and Creme “Cry”

So, I was up late with my Chef Cousin Rick. We recently hooked up some rabbit ears to my other cousin / roomate’s HD television. This video from Godley and Creme for their 1985 single “Cry” came on this random crappy music channel and cracked us up. I was unaware that GAYNGS was on top of this hilarity almost a year ago. Apparently I’m out of the loop as far as Godley and Creme covers are concerned. Regardless, if you haven’t seen it or haven’t seen it since 1985, watch it again.

Via Wikipedia:

“Cry” is a song released by the British music duo Godley & Creme in 1985.The duo also directed the song’s music video, which featured faces blended into each other using analog cross-fading, it has a visual similarity to an earlier video by the Australian group The Reels “Shout & Deliver” (1981), both anticipate the digital effect of morphing used in a very similar way in Michael Jackson’s 1991 video, “Black or White”.

Music Archive: Junior Kimbrough “All Night Long”

Junior Kimbrough playing “All Night Long”. This performance is from Deep Blues, a documentary directed by Robert Mugge and written by the late Robert Palmer.

According to Fat Possum, the last record label to represent Junior:

David “Junior” Kimbrough, quite possibly the most important blues guitarist of the second half of the 20th century, redefined blues. Junior’s approach to music is so hugely different from anything that came before him that he ranks among the three greatest bluesmen of all: Son House, Bukka White, and Fred McDowell. An originator, Junior did more than build on certain tradition or perfect a certain style. Junior re-imagined the blues; he made a sound for himself.

Junior couldn’t remember the exact date he deliberately set out to create music but knew the reasons. He was still a young man and had gone as far as he could go at John Deere. If Junior was gonna make his mark in the world, he’d have to do it with a guitar. Up until then he’d been playing the same country blues standards, as well as the contemporary hits of Little Milton and Albert King, in the same jukes and clubs that his long-time friend and rival R.L. Burnside played. And then Junior stopped playing covers and stopped taking requests. Determined not to become just another “entertainer” or “performer,” Junior realized playing covers only helped the composers or the artist who first recorded the song. He wasn’t going to help anybody, ever again. From then on, Junior would only play Junior…

Unfortunately, David “Junior” Kimbrough didn’t release his first album until 1992, when he was 62, but when he finally made his first album, All Night Long (produced by Robert Palmer for Fat Possum Records), the world took notice. Rolling Stone was the first to acknowledge Junior and awarded the album four stars. In addition to giving his music long overdue exposure, All Night Long gave the Fat Possum label hope…

Junior was 67 when died of heart failure on January 17, 1998 at Mildred’s apartment in the Holly Springs, Mississippi public housing project, watching TV on her couch. Mildred Washington, his companion of 30 years, had been taking care of him. Junior Kimbrough still kept a one-room bachelor’s apartment at the time of his death: immaculately clean, with nothing whatsoever on the walls or tables, no pictures, no tour posters, nothing. Junior knew what he had accomplished, and didn’t need any souvenirs. In addition to the 36 children he claimed, Junior put his brand on music.

To learn more about Fat Possum and their relationship with the last of the hill country bluesmen, including Junior, T-Model Ford, R. L. Burnside and more, we highly suggest watching a 2002 documentary entitled You See Me Laughin’.

Watch it seven parts on Youtube: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

Music Archive: Yann Tiersen, Eurockeennes de Belfort 2001 (Live)

Yann Tiersen is a genius. Aside from the masterpiece that is the score to Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, the iconoclast himself has mountains of musical gems to offer. Here’s an amazing exhibition from 2001’s Eurockeennes de Belfort 2001. Wait until he’s playing accordion and rubbing the viola bow against the steel xylophones…at the same time. Watch the whole thing. Warning, you made need a couple rolls of Brawny to wipe up the tears that may fall to the floor.

Yann Tiersen will be coming to Austin, TX February 3, 2011 @ Mohawk. It’s the day before my birthday, so, yeah, I’ll be there with my pen clicked and my paper towels readily available.