Chants across the water

The self-proclaimed “anti-Beatles” of mid-1960s West Germany were five American ex-GIs who, under the management of two visionary advertising students, changed their surf-rock cover band name from Torquays to the Monks; shaved the crowns of their heads; wore black robes; used an electric banjo as rhythm guitar and embraced distortion and feedback while befuddling the Beat scene its with original primitive, subversive, strange and estranging garage songs. The band broke up a year after its 1966 release of Black Monk Time; in 2009, the music-review website Pitchfork awarded that album a rave 9.2 rating in its Best New Reissues section. Now, Netflix has quietly moved Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback, a DVD chronicling the band’s amazing music and story, from its “saved” list into its ready-to-rent queue circulation. Go get it!