The Early Years 1964–1965

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The Early Years 1964-1965
Early coverLrg.jpg
Compilation album by The Monks
Released April 14, 2009
Recorded 1964, September 1965
Genre
Length36:13
Label Light in the Attic Records
Producer Matt Sullivan
The Monks chronology
Demo Tapes 1965
(2007) Demo Tapes 19652007		The Early Years 1964-1965
(2009)		 Hamburg Recordings 1967
(2017) Hamburg Recordings 19672017
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Pitchfork 7.5/10 [1]

The Early Years 1964–1965 is a compilation album by the German-based American garage rock the Monks, and was released on Light in the Attic Records on April 14, 2009. The album chronicles the group's recordings as the Five Torquays, which was a traditional beat band, up to their demo sessions as the Monks in late 1965. It exemplifies a period in the Monks' musical career in which their rebellious avant-garde style was in its primitive stages. Most of the songs on The Early Years 1964-1965 were featured on the band's only studio album Black Monk Time in 1966. The compilation marks the third time that the demos have been released; however, this latest installment includes much more extensive liner notes and rare photographs.

A compilation album comprises tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several performers. If by one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intended for release together as a single work, but may be collected together as a greatest hits album or box set. If from several performers, there may be a theme, topic, time period, or genre which links the tracks, or they may have been intended for release as a single work—such as a tribute album. When the tracks are by the same recording artist, the album may be referred to as a retrospective album or an anthology.

Garage rock is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced various revivals since then. The style is characterized by basic chord structures played on electric guitars and other instruments, sometimes distorted through a fuzzbox, as well as often unsophisticated and occasionally aggressive lyrics and delivery. Its name derives from the perception that groups were often made up of young amateurs who rehearsed in the family garage, although many were professional.

The Monks rock band

The Monks, referred to by the name monks on record sleeves, were an American garage rock band formed in Gelnhausen, West Germany in 1964. Assembled by five American GIs stationed in the country, the group grew tired of the traditional format of rock, which motivated them to forge a highly experimental style characterized by an emphasis on hypnotic rhythms that minimized the role of melody, augmented by the use of sound manipulation techniques. The band's unconventional blend of shrill vocals, feedback, and guitarist David Day's six-string banjo baffled audiences, but music historians have since identified the Monks as a pioneering force in avant-garde music. The band's lyrics often voiced objection to the Vietnam War and the apparently dehumanized state of society, while prefiguring the harsh and blunt commentary of the punk rock movement of the 1970s and 1980s. The band's appearance was considered as shocking as its music, as they attempted to mimic the look of Catholic monks by wearing black habits with cinctures symbolically tied around their necks, and hair worn in partially shaved tonsures.

Contents

Background

Formed in 1964 by five American G.I.s, the Monks, originally known as the Five Torquays, began as a conventional rock and roll ensemble which covered the classics of the 1950s American rock scene. Late in the year, the group released an independently recorded single, "There She Walks", with 500 copies distributed at the Five Torquays' live performances. Compared to the group's later demo sessions and the album Black Monk Time , the record hardly hinted at the experimental songs the band composed as the Monks. [2] With the help of the German management duo Walther Neimann and Karl Remy, the group slowly evolved into the Monks after leaving the army, placing emphasis on rhythm, and innovating unique sound manipulation in the studio. [3]

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s from musical styles such as gospel, jump blues, jazz, boogie woogie, and rhythm and blues, along with country music. While elements of what was to become rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s, the genre did not acquire its name until 1954.

Cover version later version of a song already established with a different earlier performer

In popular music, a cover version, cover song, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by someone other than the original artist or composer of a previously recorded, commercially released song.

Single (music) type of music release usually containing one or two tracks

In the music industry, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular. In other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album.

Guitarist Gary Burger said "It probably took us a year to get the sound right", as he recalled the Monks' demo sessions in September 1965. [4] Music critic Mark Deming described the tracks on The Early Years 1964-1965: "the almost psychotic zeal and ferocious energy that set the album's performances on edge aren't quite in evident; this music may stomp and clank, but it doesn't bite, and that's a big difference". [5] Another noticeable difference from the songs on Black Monk Time is the altered lyrics on some demos, which, in comparison, are less blunt than the album versions. [5] It also saw keyboardist Larry Clark open with a brief instrumental, reminiscent of a hymn, followed by an introduction by Burger; however, the practice was short-lived. The two tracks "Hushie Pushie" and "Space Age" are two tracks from the sessions which did not appear on Black Monk Time, but were featured in the Monks' concerts. [6]

Guitarist person who plays the guitar

A guitarist is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar by singing or playing the harmonica.

Keyboardist musician who plays keyboard instruments

A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more general term for a person who plays them. These keyboards include:

Hymn type of song

A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word hymn derives from Greek ὕμνος (hymnos), which means "a song of praise". A writer of hymns is known as a hymnodist. The singing or composition of hymns is called hymnody. Collections of hymns are known as hymnals or hymn books. Hymns may or may not include instrumental accompaniment.

The Early Years 1964-1965 was released on April 14, 2009, corresponding with an expanded reissue of Black Monk Time by Light in the Attic Records. [7] It marks the third time that the Monks' September 1965 demo sessions have been released, with the others being Five Upstart Americans and Demo Tapes 1965. [8] Deming labels the album as an "aural document of the Monks as they were trying to sort out the proportions of their singular approach". [5] Each album includes a detailed 36-page booklet written by Kevin "Sipreano" Howes and lyrics to each song. [7]

Light in the Attic Records is an independent record label that was established in 2002 in Seattle, Washington by Matt Sullivan. The label is known for its roster of reissue projects and for its distribution catalog. Light in the Attic has re-released work Betty Davis, Serge Gainsbourg, Jim Sullivan, Jane Birkin, Monks and The Free Design. The label has also released albums by contemporary bands The Black Angels and Nicole Willis and The Soul Investigators.

In a review for Pitchfork , critic Joe Tangari praised "how clearly the band's vision had already crystalized-- the recording is structured something like a musical mass, with little churchy organ interludes from Larry Clark and a bit of banter from Burger". [8] Tangari also noted that "For a fan, to hear them honing their rhythmic attack is gratifying-- their sound was no accident". [8] Commenting on the musical inventiveness of the group, music critic Ken Shane wrote "They were punks years before we used the term to describe a genre of music". [9] Writer Rob Nay of Exclaim! magazine reported the album "conveys a keen sense of the group's antics on tracks such as 'Boys Are Boys' and 'Higgle-Dy-Piggle-Dy', and the package as a whole adds "to the mystique of the Monks". [10]

<i>Pitchfork</i> (website) online music magazine

Pitchfork is an American online magazine launched in 1995 by Ryan Schreiber, based in Chicago, Illinois, and owned by Condé Nast. Being developed during Schreiber's tenure in a record store at the time, the magazine developed a reputation for its extensive focus on independent music, but has since expanded to a variety of coverage on both indie and popular music.

<i>Exclaim!</i> magazine

Exclaim! is a monthly Canadian music magazine that features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and cutting-edge artists. Content is based on the monthly print publication, which publishes 9 issues per year, distributing over 103,000 copies to over 2,600 locations across Canada. The magazine has an average of 361,200 monthly readers. Their website, exclaim.ca, has an average of 675,000 unique visitors a month.

Track listing

All tracks written by Burger, Clark, Shaw, Day and Johnston.

No.TitleLength
1."Monk Time"2:22
2."Love Came Tumbling Down"3:01
3."Boys Are Boys"1:50
4."Space Age"2:39
5."We Do Wie Du"2:41
6."I Hate You"3:59
7."Pretty Suzanne"3:46
8."Higgle-Dy-Piggle-Dy"4:10
9."Hushie Pushie"2:57
10."Oh, How to Do Now"2:53
Bonus tracks
Features songs on the single by The 5 Torquays, an early incarnation of the Monks.
No.TitleLength
11."Boys Are Boys"3:05
12."There She Walks"2:37

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References

  1. ↑ "The Monks: Black Monk Time / The Early Years (1964-1965) Album Review - Pitchfork". pitchfork.com.
  2. ↑ Shade, Will. "The Monks Discography". themonks.com. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  3. ↑ Benard, Will. "The Year of the Monks". themonks.com. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  4. ↑ Pickard, Joshua. "How the Monks Predicted the Rise of Punk". nooga.com. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 Deming, Mark. "The Early Years 1964 - 1965 - Review". Allmusic.com. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  6. ↑ Howes, Kevin (2009). "The Early Years 1964-1965 (CD booklet)". Light in the Attic Records.
  7. 1 2 "The Early Years 1964-1965". lightintheattic.net. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 Tangari, Joe. "The Early Years 1964-1965 / Black Monk Time". pitchfork.com. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  9. ↑ Shane, Ken. "CD Review". popdose.com. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  10. ↑ Nay, Rob. "The Monks The Early Years". exclaim.ca. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
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