Garageobit: Gary Burger

Gary Burger, lead singer of The Monks, has died.

An American band who formed in Germany (all the members were GIs), they threw in "wacky" elements like banjos to keep themselves entertained as they slogged round the German toilet club circuit.

There was a look, too: vaguely Monkish robes and roughly Monkish haircuts:

“We didn’t like it that much, the haircut,” Burger chuckled [in an interview with The Current]. “You had to shave the thing almost every day, or else you’d get a stubble like a guy gets after a day of not shaving. So we all had electric razors—it was a funny sight, you’d see us all in our room shaving our heads.”

Here's the group on German TV in 1965:


The band only recorded one album, but were held in great affection; they'd started to reach a 'rediscovered' period in their story. Burger appeared on the fifth collection of the Minnesota Beatles Project, which uses covers of Fab Four songs to raise funds for local schools.

Gary Burger was 72; he'd had pancreatic cancer.

Listen with No Rock: Tegan And Sara

With thanks to the ever-delightful Minnesota Public Radio, here's Tegan And Sara in session from last week:

Taking the Rage to the Machine

Yesterday's planned "secret" gig outside the Minnesota State Capitol got closed down by police - whose handling of anything that might seem like dissent outside the Republican National Convention leans towards the 'my god, these people are enemies of the State and must be subdued before they murder my family in the bed and establish some sort of worldwide caliphate, whatever that might be' heavy-handedness.

The band instead embarked on a march towards the Xcel Center. It's not clear if the police who fired tear gas at the more determined members of the group were also sponsored by Xcel.