Dave Day, Electric Banjo Player For The Monks, Died This Week

News was just released today that the legendary and pioneering noise-rock band The Monks lost their original electrified banjo player this week. Dave Day, real name Dave Havlicek, suffered a heart attack and massive brain injury earlier this week and was on life support immediately after. The Monks' Eddie Shaw is quoted in a WFMU blog as saying:

Two days before the birthday of his hero, Elvis, Dave Day of the Monks suffered a heart attack and massive brain injury. He has been taken off the life support system today. His work is done.

Indeed, it is safe to say that the man finished what he started. And, luckily, 2007 was a big year for the band who's popularity peaked in the '60s. Their original Demo Tapes was reIssued and a documentary film about The Monks was released: the transatlantic feedback a retrospect into the evolution and devolution of UBERBEAT. The Monks were a big inspiration for The White Stripes who described the music as:

A banjo with a microphone in it to make it electric, a fuzz bass en ’66, and an amazing singer, not to mention the drummer and organist, both out of this galaxy with what they were doing.Their melodies were pop destructive and must be played to your younger brother.

Dave's chaotic banjo rhythms are probably best described by Spazz Chandler in his introduction to The Monks:

Dave, whose banjo is exclusively rhythmic, usually takes his cues from Roger’s snare, often playing at twice the drummer’s speed. The hollow, mad clacking sound of Dave’s banjo is at times evocative of a locomotive that has dropped its cars and cargo in favor of a faster pace.

Light In The Attic Records shared this fond memory, which is published in HARP Mag today:

My personal favorite moment at a show this year was at Seattle's Havana when robust, excited Dave and his lovely wife danced with my wife and I and LITA owner Matt Sullivan, all of us drinking and laughing and enjoying a fist-pumping Saturday Knights set. At the end of the night they gave the three of us Monks nooses, placing them around our necks, and made us "honorary Monks." We have the punk rock ropes hanging proudly as shrines in our offices. Sullivan says, "He is the definition of rock and roll. No band has ever done it better."

For further reading:The Monks websiteLight In The Attic Records - R.I.P. DaveHARP Magazine report on Dave's passingHARP Mag's review of the Demo Tapes released in 2007For extensive info and insight into The Monks, their music and lots of links to their works, check out a piece I published last Spring (I barely new how to write articles at the time, so it's lots of quotes and links. Kinda like this report...)The Monks Revived In 2007