The Monks : Rolling Stone

Recordings and Reviews

Black Monk Time

In November 1965, the doors had just opened for business, James Osterberg was not yet Iggy Pop, and the Velvet Underground were four months away from recording their debut album. Meanwhile, the Monks – five ex-GIs living in what was then West Germany – were in a studio in Cologne cutting...

1966 RS: 4of 5 Stars

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Biography

The Five Torquays were just another garage band of American G.I.s in Germany in 1964. Then they shaved their heads and dressed in black; started calling themselves the Monks; and wrote a bunch of single-minded, bilious one-and-a-half-chord rockers like "I Hate You" and "Shut Up," built around electric banjo and organ. (They claim to have invented feedback by accident, though that's, er, open to de...

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