Mark E Smith of the Fall was touting the Monks back in the 80s, and covered two of their songs on "Extricate" (1989) but they remained largely unheard until a mid-90s CD reissue on Henry Rollins' short-lived Infinite Zero label--that's when I was finally able to hear them.
Infinite Zero was rad--they also issued on CD for the first time very early Trouble Funk recordings, the middle two Gang of Four albums, and Devo.