Monitor "Beak"

Monitor
Beak
7" single
(World Imitation, 1979)

OK, so maybe my return was a bit premature; my sincere apologies. I have several things lined up, now, and a ton more stuff ripped from vinyl and cassette, so hopefully there won't be another gap.

I first checked out Monitor because they had the mighty Meat Puppets cover one of their songs on their (Monitor's) eponymous, 1981 debut LP. The majority of the album was on the more mellow end of avant garde rock, with a blast of fairly insane noise rock stuck right near the end of side two. Not that I didn't like the rest of the record, mind you! I used to play We Get Messages and Mokele-Mbembe on my radio show moderately often, and probably other tracks, as well.

I discovered a few years after I bought the LP that it was preceded by a single. Now, you may notice the DM 8.– price tag on the sleeve, unless you're one of my blind readers, if I have any. I honestly can't recall if I bought this via mail order or on one of my handful of late '80s/early '90s trips to Deutschland (the DM is for Deutschmark). I don't like price stickers on my stuff, but sometimes the darn things won't come off without threatening to damage the cover, so they are allowed to remain. Ingrates.

Anyhow, this 1979 single is rather a bit more manic than the album, and sounds rather Residential. The b-side is also cool, but the a-side is the tits, as they say. Not me, mind you; I would never be so guoache, as I've never been fond of watercolors. Regardless, their MySpace indicates 2011 will see a CD containing all of their released material plus unreleased stuff. Yea!