61 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
paint-shaker banjos and laser-gun organs, September 12, 2002
This review is from: Black Monk Time (Audio CD)
Somebody -- I can't remember who, and I don't know why -- but somebody gave me the Monks collection, "Five Upstart Americans" and I listened to it a lot and really liked it. They sound like a garage band, y'know, that does a little surf music, does a few songs about girls, probably wouldn't have looked out of place appearing in "Pop Gear"....
And I like it all right, and started looking into what other tunes I could get by the band. At the time, they only had one other disk out, "Black Monk Time," so I ordered it.
When it came, I looked at the songs and -- damn -- the songs were almost all the same as on "Five Upstart Americans." I was, like, "Shoot, these are just different versions of the same songs."
But I got home from work and put in the CD anyway, plopped my headphones on and thought, "I hope it's at least marginally different...."
And then it kicked in.
Bang!
You know that scene in movies where everybody's at the hop and nobody wants to dance and somebody puts a record on and all of a sudden everybody springs into action?
That's what this was like. I literally sat straight up in my La-Z-Boy and dropped my jaw. My legs, involuntarily, began to do what I believe is the Jitterbug and my hands reached toward the ceiling, trembling going "amen."
Yeah, these are the same songs, but here they're re-worked, streamlined, and gassed up full of juice. The banjo sounds like a paint shaker and the organ sounds like a precision laser. Trust me, that's a good thing. It may not sound like it. But it's a Good Thing.
And years later, this is one of those albums that I drag out every few months and listen to, I can't get away from it and wouldn't if I could. This music puts chase sequences and "Endless Summer"-esque surf footage directly into your brain.
Get this CD, even though you can't listen to snippets of it. Get it, even though you probably never heard of the Monks. Get it. Get it, and maybe someday, everybody will know who the Monks are.
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51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I like, November 13, 2002
This review is from: Black Monk Time (Audio CD)
Drum goes PUM. Amplified banjo goes JNK. PUM JNK PUM JNK PUM JNK. Aaaaaaaaah! It's BLACK MONK TIME all DAY and all NIGHT. Neighbors disagree, so I turn up volume. Police come. I don't care. I pay fine. Police leave. BLACK MONK TIME again!
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