It's 2006, the Monks of Doom from California just released their first album since 1992, and it's all cover songs. The new album entitled "What's Left for Kicks?" is a representation of the groups biggest influences. The album contains sixteen covers from bands like Soft Machine, Red Crayola, the Kinks, Peter Green, Steve Hillage(from Gong), Richard Thompson, Syd Barrett and it gets more obscure from there. The finest moments are in"La Dolce Vita Suite"which you can listen to here under recent news, "What's Left for Kicks?". The record is all over the place and like all Monks of Doom records, if you listen to hard you might get sick. The guitar work of Lisher is precise and Immergluck's guitar is all emotion creating a marriage of guitar styles to blow one's mind, while the drummer Chris Peterson (one of my all time favorites) is directing the group through the often complicated musical journey. "What's Left For Kicks" is as good any other Monks record but they had their true climax with the "Meridian" record about sixteen years ago. Don't hold your breath for any original material, the drummer lives in Australia and they can't do it without him, I wouldn't want them to anyway. This album will continue to creep up with continuous listens becoming very atmospheric. Well done Monks, thanks for the new record!
2 comments:
Thanks for the kind review. btw, although I live in Sydney I do travel to the US (once to twice a year over the past 8 years) and I generally try to fit in a few gigs and/or recording sessions with the Monks/CVB guys. We hope to also record some new (!) original material, perhaps by mail (e or otherwise) soon as well. Cheers, Chris (Pedersen)
This is an EXCELLENT CD! Their best since Meridian. Highly recommended. Louis in Georgia
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