Monks
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Monks has one upcoming show in the Netherlands: on October 22, 2026 at Left of the Dial, Rotterdam.
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About
Five American GIs stationed in West Germany in the mid 1960s, the Monks built one of rock history's most genuinely strange sounds: all rhythm, no frills, with a six string banjo, guitar feedback, distortion heavy bass, and drums that ditched cymbals almost entirely. Their sole studio album, Black Monk Time, released in 1966 on Polydor Records, threw anti Vietnam war lyrics and shrill yelping vocals into that abrasive mix, and critics have since flagged it as a landmark precursor to both punk rock and krautrock. They even looked the part, dressing in black habits with tonsure haircuts and billing themselves as the anti Beatles. The album barely registered at the time, but a cult built steadily from the 1990s onward, landing them a spot on the legendary 1998 Nuggets compilation and a reunion show at Cavestomp in New York in 1999. Artists as varied as Iggy Pop, Jack White, Jello Biafra, and the Beastie Boys have named them as an influence, which tracks once you hear how far ahead of their era that stark, locked in rhythm really was.
