The story of the monks is a curious one. They were an arty garage band formed by American GIs stationed in Germany in the ‘60s.  They had their hair cut like real monks, and dressed in black robes in order to differentiate themselves from the musical competition. They even sometimes moved like monks on stage.  Their music was amateurish, raw, creative, and exhilarating. 

“The Monks: The Transaltantic Feedback,” a superlative and informative 2006 documentary on the band, is finally coming to Chicago for an extended run.  

It is playing on December 19-29 at the Gene Siskel Center. There areshowings during the week on Friday and Monday through Thursday at 6 pm and 7:45 pm; Saturday, December 27 at 3 pm, 4:45, 6:30 and 8:15 pm; Sunday, December 28 at 3 and 4:45 pm; and Sunday, December 29 at 6:00 pm. 

The film contains excellent archival concert footage (including a terrific appearance on the German version of “Shindig”) in which the band often plays minimalistically, interviews with late members, and insightful commentary from other people who knew the group such as their manager. 

The Monks originally tried to emulate the sounds of British invasion bands like the Beatles and Kinks, but they stumbled onto their own unique style. They also opened for Jimi Hendrix who apparently saw them as equals, and did a series of weird avant-garde cola commercials that have to be seen to be believed (some are included in the film). 

Later on, they soaked up some of the ambient creativity of the German music scene.  They began to dabble in what can be called pre techno, and/or pre metal music, and they ended up influencing many industrial rock bands such as Throbbing Gristle (the leader Genesis P-Orridge is briefly interviewed in this film) as well as Krautrock bands such as Faust. 

They never gained much popular success in their original incarnation, but they had a moderately successful reunion tour, and their lone recording “Black Monk Time” is available again. There’s never been a band quite like the monks or a film quite like this movie. The film is an exhilarating journey down a forgotten alley in pop music history. “The Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback” is more worthy of attention than many of the over hyped Oscar contender documentaries.