Black Monk Time
by Monks (US)

From RockyRaccoon TOP 100 COMMENTER 02/13/2014 23:20 | #103076 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This is a great example of a band saying "screw it" and doing whatever they want. It feels like the band was just like "Hey, no one's gonna hear this album anyways, let's go nuts." It's crazy and goofy and just pure awesome

Amazing to say but this one is a late find for me. But now its in the third place in My Chart.You ask me why? This album is made in 66, same year as Blonde on Blonde, before VU & Nico, before the Stooges came and the scene start to really rock, before the amazing krautrock albums. The Monks were a german band and u might say they were ahead of everyone. Angry and even violent as punk, motorik as the later krautrock and with a touch of naive avant-garde sound.Check it out!

From Jimmy Dread TOP 100 COMMENTER 11/06/2010 18:09 | #16256 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Sorry to correct Mr. Music - they weren't German, they were American G.Is stationed in Germany. Ironically their proto-punk not only pre-dates the Stooges and VU, but they also kick-started the hypnotic, metronomic drumbeat found in the Krautrock of the early-mid 70s, got covered by the Fall and were as scary as shit live (check out the YouTube videos). The benchmark by which all modern bands should be set, if you ask me. The album's wonderful.

From Cymro2011 06/14/2013 23:28 | #78896 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Perfection. Also has the best intro to an album ever.

From mdbaxter TOP 100 COMMENTER 10/29/2019 15:37 | #244247 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

I was blown away by this album. With or without context it's a great album but given the fact that this came out in 1966, it's incredible. I don't know how much of an impact it had on music because of its limited commercial success but it is raw and gritty before anything else was. The electric sound of the album sounds like something you'd hear on White Light/White Heat but the vocals are more akin to a Beach Boys type band. The lyrical content is like a mix between the two. The songs all sound pretty similar to each other but I don't think that's a knock on it because there was literally nothing else that sounded like any of these songs when they came out. I wish this album would get more attention because I really think it's an important benchmark in popular music. "Shut Up" is my favorite song on the album but I like every single one. The bonus track, "Pretty Suzanne", is also very worth listening to.