There Must Be Evil Going On

It sounds like it could have been recorded at any time or place over the past 40 years, but as it happens it was 1981 or so, in England. That great thuggish thump from the drums is enough to make you believe that boy- or girlfriend blues really ARE the same thing as an oppressive, all-encompassing dread. But it’s the harmonica that really makes it for me. Not an instrument I have any love for, but this one is on the edge of bursting out into a richer, fuller life as an organ.

• The Terraplanes, “Evil Going On”

Speaking of thuggish, it doesn’t get much more so than the Monks. It’s beat time, it’s hop time, and it’s Black Monk Time – one classic stomp of a record that, incredibly, seems to be out of print at the moment. This one’s a little more dated than “Evil Going On,” if only because of the words (“Why do you kill all those kids over there in Vietnam?”). But I guess the music is timeless enough – I saw this used in a beer commercial a few years ago. And a little part of me died.

• The Monks, “Monk Time”

And while we’re enjoying that garage sound, the Onion AV Club website has a newish feature where they get someone to run their MP3 player on shuffle and talk about the first few tracks that come up. This week it’s comedian Patton Oswalt, and incredibly (yep, this is a two-“incredibly” post), the first song up is the Haunted’s great “1-2-5.” Says Oswalt: “I think this was a garage band from the ’60s, and I can’t remember. I think they’re British, because they’re on the British Nuggets set. I don’t know, you do the research. I love the ’60s garage shit. I’m obsessed with it.” Dude, I’m happy to tell you that the Haunted were not British but in fact were Montreal’s own.

• The Haunted, “1-2-5”