Melancholy jangle tune with sweet, haunting melody; discussed the trials and tribulations of those little bands that slip under our musical radar, however worthy. Reminiscent of garage band struggles, all who picked up a guitar in school in hopes of making it big. For those who make it big, hundreds - no, thousands - of bands are still waiting to be heard.

"And never thought it'd go this far / We never thought that / We'd ever go far / Like all my friends who play guitar / Know who we are? / We never go far / Like all my friends who play guitar"

(btw, I had no idea these guys were Christian; never sounded like any Christian music I heard!)

Up fer listening to some snotty American teens brag about how utterly monged they all are?!... Lord, just writing that there sentence makes me want to clutch my head and groan� �well exactly, so how does no strike you?� Fair, it strikes me as fair. But hear me out. You see, these drug-addled Wailers set their braggings against a backdrop of the crankiest, mankiest rock�n�roll the wrong side of the Sonics. �Is that the tape disintegrating?�, �Do I hear the wallpaper of heaven being torn down?� No, you don�t, that�s the music. �And is that the �Satisfaction� riff honk-honking like an ocean liner in a storm?� Aye yes captain, like the truest garage rockers they filch their riffs from the big leaguers (listen to that other meisterwerk �Psychotic Reaction�). It�s a genre that favours execution over original ideas, and man the Wailers execute that �Satisfaction� riff alright. Yes, sir, by the end there�s black smoke billowing out like burning plastic. ��And I can hear a�a wicked organ swirling around in the cacophony. It sounds really big, like it was recorded in a church, you know like that Belle & Sebastian track� �Lazy Line Painter Jane�?� �well, yeah� I suppose�

�Still these lyrics though�? I cannae bear kids, ANYONE, recounting their drunken, drugged, whatever, adventures out on the town. ESPECIALLY when every other word is �crazy�. I thought psychedelic drugs were meant to expand your mind?� Well, yeah, I agree, but like when you listen to any other drug-addled teen, your brain just switches them off after a time, �out runnin� around/seein� every crazy sight� ma na na na ma na ma ma!� At least until the chorus, when the kids notice you drifting, and jolt your slumbering brain by bellowing in your ear, �HEY! We gotta be� OUT OF OUR TREE!!! OUT OF OUR TREE!�� Yes, yes, it certainly sounds like it.

An inspirational ballad written by Victor Moulton about the trials and tribulations of being a one-handed drummer. Moulty tells his story over a lamenting harmonica, then the chorus kicks in and he goes rock n' roll on your ass, urging you to "try to make it, baby!" Don't turn away from this garage gem.

"The Witch" was the Sonics' debut single, released on Etiquette, the Tacoma, WA-based label owned and operated by local hero Buck Ormsby, member of garage rock pioneers the Wailers, who are known for unearthing the obscure R&B song "Louie, Louie." Reworking the tunes of Little Richard and Bo Diddley, the Sonics worked the local teen-hop circuit as a rock & roll cover band until eventually coming up with some original material with "The Witch" and what would become the flip side to the single, "Psycho." After revamping the lineup, taking on various members of the Searchers, Gerry Roslie commandeered the vocal duties with a bracing blues shouter style that would become the group's trademark. "The Witch," roughly recorded in mono, is a brooding rocker based around a revved-up blues progression with quivering guitar and a basic sax line holding down a simple riff, drums kicking away in the background. Roslie belts his cautionary tale, sagely advising all to steer clear of "evil chicks," with vocal-chord-shredding wails: "So you know the little girl/Who's new in town/Well you better watch out now/Or she'll put you down/'Cause she's an evil chick/Say, she's the witch, oww!" The band barrels on, lacking any semblance of finesse, stomping into a tempo shift and doubling the speed as Roslie howls, "Well she walks around/Late at night/Most other people sleepin' tight/If you hear her knockin' on your door/You better say get away/Wha whoo!" Guitarist Andy Parypa lets loose a note-stumbling guitar solo in a style similar to Dave Davies of the the Kinks. "The Witch" would become a regional hit, receiving extensive airplay on the powerful Seattle AM station KJR, but the Sonics would never break nationally, most of the country not yet ready for the extremely aggressive attach of the group's rough-and-tumble music.
(AMG)

An absolutely brilliant fuzzy, snarly, angst-ridden, stomping teen garage cut from this legendary Texas band. Sounds almost like it was recorded in somebody's bathroom. Beautiful stuff.

A rather quizzical Latin jazz workout of the Count V's garage classic, rendered here with fuzz guitar and flute! It sounds to me like this uses the same rhythm track as the original version, and since they were both released on the same label, that's quite likely. Another version exists by Brenton Wood (of "Oogum Boogum" and "Gimme Little Sign" fame), also on the same label and also with the same backing track! Talk about getting as much mileage out of the royalties as you can!

Female fronted 60's garage groups are hard to come by, so this song intantly got my attention. I don't know a lot about this band; I happened to come across this song on a comp cd with little info in the liner notes. I'm assuming the band was named after the '64 film of the same title. I do know, however, that some of their stuff was just re-released. This song may have been recorded in '65 or '66. If you're the type that shuns away from buying an entire cd for one song, fear not, there are quite a few gems on this one (including another by this particular group).

A manic swirl of Zombies magic and Byrds jangle. Transcends the garage genre. All eight sides of their four singles are essential listens.

Alias Blowin' In The Wind.

I don't really care for Bob Dylan, and it is for one reason only; his whingey voice. It just, for me, undermines all the cleverness of his lyrics since he sounds like a child who's dropped his ice cream.

But there's no denying the man writes cracking songs. Virtually every time I hear someone other than him perform a Dylan tune, I find it a great listening experience. Another favourite is Linda Gayle's version of Maggie's Farm (on one of the Girls In The Garage volumes).

Peggy March is famous (if 'famous' isn't stretching it) for a couple of saccharine hits in the early 60's. Few people realise she had a later dimension to her career - great popularity as a German language singer. Her vocal treatment of this Dylan song adds a shyness and grace to the protest, all accompanied by, naturallment, that slight oompah-ness endemic to a great deal of German pop of the period.

This is a classic garage tune from New York mid sixties band.The rythm is catching and it treats the problems of lower class folks with their classy dates.
The sixties garage at it's best.

i don't understand a single word of his, but that does not matter in this case. dutronc recorded several garage-pop songs in the 60s. he worked at the legendary label disques vogue. i found this song on the flip of 'il est cing heures, paris reveille' which is rather dull but the b-side delivers! check jacques out!

I love the WCPAEB, they really seem to encapsulate Psychedelia perfectly. Light, blurred and dreamy. And unlike many of their contemporaries seem completely untouched by Garage authenticity. Not that theres anything wrong with garage punk per se, but it means that theres none of blundering of 'talk about girls' to fray those tinted moods.

Oh, it has loud guitars and harmonies right enough, but the whole thing is pitched just right to lift the dregs of any mood enhancers you may have floating around in your bloodstream and send them spinning into your brain.

One of my all time favourites.This is garage psychedelia at its best.It has a haunted manor feeling with the organ sound (Darryl)which is just hypnotising.The lyrics are also perfect.One of those mistery songs which were blasters but did not make it for some reason.

Just discovered this cover of the Neil Diamond song on Youtube, along with several other videos by the Music Machine, and it really stunned me. It's a beautiful soft pop version of "Cherry Cherry" complete with flute solo-nothing like the other songs I've heard from the band. Nothing garagey about it at all, more in the easy listening vein...and I mean that in a good way!

Another great cover version that the Music Machine do is "Hey Joe"-their's is my favorite version of that oft-recorded chestnut.

�sound and instrumentation:Slightly garage-sounding psych rock with Portuguese lyric- creative use of 1960s sound processing methods to give a somewhat spacy aspect. This is one of the more commercially rocking tracks from a very creative and groundbreaking psychedelic rock group.

I first heard Tom Rapp's music via the version of 'The Jeweller' on one of the This Mortal Coil albums. From their first album on, Pearls Before Swine used a broad palette of sounds, in contrast with many of the garage punk guitar combos popular at the time and stood out like a sore thumb on the ESP Disk label (later Warners). It's one of the moving songs I've ever heard. Plaintive strings, understated brass and the most restrained steel guitar ever. Rapp's lisp contributes to the atmosphere of the song beautifully. 'Rocket Man' is a cracker too. That's also on this complimation.

Yes it is the title tune from the hit musical, but this Dutch band played it fast and funky. Kind of like Speed Lounge. The single comes from a five CD set which has plenty of other wonderful garage/pop tunes from the 60s.

one of my fave dj's, michael wink, played this at the 1st sinful swedish mod weekender. i was kind of doped (kids, don't use hard drugs...) up so i really liked it. it's a heavy, "beardy", as my friend ricky rickenbacker would describe it, kind of a tune. late 60's garagerock... i really like it. the cover of the 45 shows the guys bare breasted. mmmm.

heavy 60's garage... lots of guitars and even some double bass drumming? wicked guitar solo... i seem to like this late very white 60's garage thing. well, i guess we're all human beings.

Os Jovens were a duo from Rio de Janeiro in the mid 60s. "Coração de pedra" (heart of stone) is an powerful sixties garage track. With an over-the-top organ sound, fuzz guitar and a tight beat, this song shows that Brazilian musical history has a lot more to offer then Samba, Bossa Nova and MPB. The Jovem Guarda scene, which was concentrated in Rio and São Paulo, hosted some great musicians like Roberto Carlos, Erasmo Carlos, Wanderlea, The Beat Boys and Brazilian Bitles.

pretty straightforward mid-sixties garage tune.
what really grabs me about this is the ambience created by the organ/ drum combo in the refrain, wich gives it a kind of mideval/ primal feel. (feel free to arrest me on this one as i know virtually nothing about those genres. it's just the description that sprung to mind:)
don't know too much about the band, as this was a random file sharing find.

is there any kind of music that fits better into a compilation format than the countless garage one hit- or no hit- wonders of the sixties? didn't think so.

i heard this song for the first time in spain at the purple weekend. the dj (mike stax) is as rather famous guy in the mod/garage/60's-scene. so i didn't have the guts to mail him about it for a year or so. but eventually i did and he gave me the details and told me that it was his girlfriend ho spun it. the song is a weird version of black sabbath's paranoid. i love this stuff. can be found on some german comps various artists as well as c&b comps. i saw the original cornet single on ebay a couple of months ago for a mere $180.

Lounge lizards rarely get more reptilian than this. Another brilliant example of Ferry�s cover mad, song-stylist solo work outside of Roxy Music in the early to mid 1970�s � totally rethinking some well-known standard, yet grasping something intrinsic about the song�s core. Here he gives the tune just the hint of a Philly-soul groove, and keeps the production/arrangement as open/eerie as an empty parking garage. Very sexy, and more a little creepy � its like being hit on by the ghost of Bela Lugosi in the toilet of a disco in 1975.

Avant-garde punk funk played by pre-teens from The Bronx. Rarely has anything this groovy been made with such few elements. A main point must be that these kids from the same family could barely play.

ESG played the closing night of Paradise Garage, NY and the opening night of Hacienda, Manchester.

One of Franks best solos and one he liked as well. From Joes Garage

Great garage rock track from Alex Chilton's fantastic "Life flies on sherbert" album. Really simple but infective riff, and a catchy shouty chorus. May be a bit of a surprise to people who've only heard Chilton's work with Big Star, as he'd obviously been heavily influenced by the New York garage bands he's been working with in the late 70's.

the peak of 80s garage from this boston based group! of all the 'new' garage bands who played 60s influenced music i think this one's the absolut best. danelectro guitars, fuzzed up tremolo and pop organ orgasm!

classic swedish 80's garage. the creeps finest hour. find it and enjoy!

A perfect segue into a perfect album, King of the Carrot Flowers is a masterpiece. This is the way songs should be written, performed, and produced. Jeff Mangum strums the catchiest 3 chords on his acoustic guitar while his piercing vocals spill lyrics of psychedelic sophistication. I can still remember the first time I heard him sing the lyric - 'and your mom would drink until she was no longer speaking, and dad would dream of all the different ways to die, each one a little more than he would dare to try' - in a rising climax. The energy and power is then sustained into a C drone from an organ, followed by an amped acoustic guitar being plucked clumsily. And like a street preacher we again hear Jeff, he belts 'I love you Jesus Christ' while the rest of the band hit fuzzed-out power chords F and C until a storm swells with cymbals, horn, bass, guitar, Jeff's voice and another rising movement to yet another climax. Propelled by an electric frequency that chops like a helicopter blade inches over-head we are lead into Part 3, often referred to as 'Up and Over'. This last part explodes into fuzz rock in all it's garage-roots glory with lyrics like - 'I will shout until they know what I mean, I mean the marriage of a dead dog sing, in a synthetic flying machine'. As the fuzz is sustained heavily the song ends with 1 last climax; the one-note piano brings us to a close.

King of the Carrot Flowers Part 1 introduces the theme of 'loss of innocence'. The narrator, addressing his lover nostalgically, compares the emotional deterioration of the older parents with the emotional and sexual discovery of their youth - 'your mom would stick a fork right into daddy's shoulder, and dad would throw the garbage all across the floor, as we would lay and learn what each other's bodies were for.' This motive returns later in the album, as does his 'Jesus Christ' theme. Jeff Mangum alerts the listener in his lyric sheet that he believes what he sings, and that this 'Christ' theme is but the spiritual light he finds within everything. The album further treats themes like the Holocaust, death of loved ones, visions of ghosts, and all the horrors of man with this light. It is a beautiful and terrifying experience unlike any rock record to date. Personally, my favorite song of all time.

I didn't know it then, but when I purchased the album 'In the Aeroplane Over the Sea' my world changed. When I put the album into my CD player, I did it with a naivete of someone who thought they'd 'heard it all.' I did it clumsily, with haste, handled like a Beatles or Beach Boys album, the way I had done for years. When I listened to the album I did it with reckless abandon while driving 38 miles per hour on my lunch break, and later in the drive-through at McDonald�s. These mistakes were inherited, and I refuse blame. They were passed through the genetic make-up of our peers and born out of the music we've been given; I didn't expect this! Well, our music has changed, and it did so without our knowing and our approval. This album proved and disproved an entire treatise of critical analysis on a generation of music that I thought I had known, and it did so with a fucking velvet sledgehammer.

The lyrics: "And one day we will die and our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea, but for now we are young let us lay in the sun and count every beautiful thing we can see." More lyrics: "What a beautiful face I have found in this place that is circling all around the sun, what a beautiful dream that would flash in the screen in a blink of an eye and be gone from me." The melody: A timeless, haunting thing that was metaphysically resurrected from a wiser place. The voice: Wrenched out of the jaws of a holocaust from 50 years ago, we hear a possessed Jeff Mangum invest his soul. The sound: An apocalypse that can reinvent the turntable by it�s simplistic form; with a saw, guitar, drum, bass, horns, and lord knows what else all handled with deceptive elegance of a garage mechanic constructing a supermodel. And, lastly, the spirit: A tragedy and rape of virginity known only to the persecuted and executed; the ghost of Anne Frank materializes long enough to show us her world, and in her hands we are strangely at peace.

This song is a gift very few will experience. It is endless in its reach and should be accepted like a sibling into your collection. It will one day prove itself beyond category, but for now it is a masterful novel from the hands of a mysterious songwriter who should know how sincerely I cherish his songs.

A masterpiece of jazz meets garage rock meets middle eastern music by a musician who constructs his own instruments out of junk. The whole album is fantastic.

There have never been drums with as much texture
and style ever recorded as in this song. Nor has
there ever been a song that has capture an energy
like this. Screw INC, Hives, and any talk of garage
rock revival. Eat this. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
meets Prince and the New Power Generation.

*3:00*
Svenonious' perfect screaming that sets off the
battle between Michelle Mae's bass versus James
Canty's dirty little guitar riff. Oh so perfect.

The recording may be raw, but this song reeks of pure insane genius. 60's-inspired organ-fueled sleaze. The band boasts the former organist of "The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black". This is one of many instrumental numbers consisting of guitar, organ, shakers and what sounds like an old drum machine. Shamelessly derivitive, lo-fi and spooky. It's one part surf and equal parts garage and swing. Henry Mancini-meets-The Mummies-meets-The Stray Cats.

Great sleazy short 'n' snappy blues number from two girls deeply influenced by Howlin' Wolf.

If you like the blues, i dare you to defy me.