Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback
Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback is a 2006 film directed by Dietmar Post and Lucia Palacios about the seminal German-American beat band the Monks. The film was produced by Play Loud! Productions and shot on location in the US and Germany between 1997 and 2002. In 2008 the filmmakers obtained the German TV Oscar, the Adolf Grimme Award.
Promotional poster by Daniel Richter
The Monks, referred to by the name monks on record sleeves, were an American 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 rhythm over melody, augmented by the heavy use of distortion. The band's unconventional blend of shrill vocals, confrontational lyrics, feedback, and guitarist David Day's six-string banjo baffled audiences, but music historians have since identified the Monks as one of the most innovative rock bands of their time. The band's lyrics often voiced objection to the Vietnam War and social alienation, prefiguring the harsh and blunt social and political commentary of the punk rock movement. The band's appearance was considered as shocking as their 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.
The Monks in 1966