The Monks - Bad Habits

Best known for "Nice Legs, Shame About the Face" The Monks were a short lived band who seemed to come out of nowhere from the UK along with a host of other imports and disappeared almost as quickly after they released Suspended Animation in 1981.

The band was part of the early wave of British New Wave with punk leanings that seemed to catch on with Canadians in the very early '80s. Bad Habits although released in 1979, didn't hit the shore here until the first quarter of 1980, and while "Drugs in My Pocket" cracked the top 20 on the Canadian charts, it's not the song most of us associate with the band. I suppose it depended on where you were at the time. Growing up in a small town where radio was somewhat problematic we tended to rely more on word of mouth and The Music Express.

The band would draw the ire of the record buying public in the UK because John Ford and Richard Hudson, were not a real punk rockers as they were once a members of The Strawbs - the antithesis of punk and Rick Wakewan was once a member of the band ... ick. Which was a shame. As this was a lot of fun, but apparently it was too much to allow a couple of old establishment wankers pull a fast one on the record buying public, and Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols) said The Monks were rubbish and a poor imitation of his band.

The songs are all decent, and while listening now they don't have the same gut punch and impact this seemed to have when I was a kid, it was still a lot of fun getting to hear this again. I'm still drawn to "Nice Legs, Shame About the Face" as it's the most fun, and a close second is the band's trippy surf instrumental "Skylab (The From The Monks)" ... okay it's not a true instrumental as every so often someone yells out "Skylab" every once in a while.

It would seem that in North America, particularly here in Canada, the band was taken at face value and the band enjoyed a degree of commercial success they were never afforded in their home country. Bad Habits would end up going double platinum (depending on the timing, this was between 200 and 300 thousand units), and their follow up album, that was only released in Canada would go gold. Then as quickly as they burst onto the scene they would disappear leaving behind two records and a legacy

Comments

6 Cylinder

As a kid we had one radio station, not counting CBC, and generally there was very little that was worth listening to, although there were times something would come on that would make you pay attention. It was 1979 and on a couple of occasions I heard "There Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" and it cracked me up, and I always wanted to get a copy for myself. A few years ago when my niece was dancing, they did a performance to this song, and now I can't separate my niece from a bunch of dancing chicks in chicken suits. Such is life. When I found this in the dollar bin I actually let out a little chirp, my goodness could it be? It was, and it was in great shape - including the inner sleeve. Score. I had no idea what to expect, for all I knew there was only one song worth listening to, and if that was the case it was still a dollar well spent. If I could buy an album by Showdown and enjoy it, odds are I'll find something to enjoy here to. Before I put this on I...

Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell

File under: TLDR Note to the reader. First sorry, second not really, but I am sorry I don't have the ability to edit. Oh happy Valentine's day. To celebrate let's take a gander at Meat Loaf's 1977 Bat Out of Hell. Over forty three million people disagree with me but for decades I thought this album was, and continues to be, one giant disappointment. I'll be the first to admit that despite decades of baggage the overwhelming power of nostalgia managed to erode even the hardest of convictions and I found that Bat Out of Hell was one of those albums I wanted to have in my collection, but I wasn't looking all that hard. It was an album I knew more about than I actually knew about. So at this moment in time I'm still holding firm on my long held opinion. But before I get into things, it's time for some meanderambling blurbage ... I remember seeing the cover when I was a kid and thinking it was the single greatest cover I had ever seen. What wonders were to b...

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTOs Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) who knows maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust - it seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight ahead pop, or rock. It was leaning to the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough the vocals reminded me of Mi...

Old Enough to Forget

Search This Blog