THE BRYMERS
Sacrifice
60sgaragebands.com
Where Are They Now?
www.myspace.com/thebrymers
‘Sacrifice’ by The Brymers (pronounced Brimmers) will be well-known to old garage heads who’ve listened to its insistent fuzz & harp attack on Volume Four of the ancient Boulders series on Moxie. The other selections include the gentle folk-rock jangler ‘I Want To Tell You’ which was the original topside of their single, and a fine Dave Clark 5 rip-off they called ‘Only By Your Own’.
It’s fascinating, however, to hear some of their unissued efforts, like them taking on the truly wonderful beat ballad ‘I Should Be Glad’ by Swedish group Tages. The rest is made up of just okay, if mostly fairly tame covers of the day.
The group came out of retirement a few years back, and recorded a whole batch of new material they’ve issued as Where Are They Now? This set also includes the original versions of ‘Sacrifice’, and ‘I Want To Tell You’ as bonuses, though the sound quality here is inferior to Sacrifice. I tried to listen to the new stuff but in all honesty, even with a supposedly just-like-the-sixties-sound, I just couldn’t get into it, it being too Traveling Wilburyesque for my taste, and thus nowhere near as good as, you guessed it, ‘Sacrifice’, the only reason The Brymers are anywhere at all on the garage punk radar.
Lenny Helsing
COLD SUN
Dark Shadows
World In Sound CD
www.worldinsound.com
“Do not operate motor vehicles or power tools while listening to these recordings” read the liner notes to the first widely available release of the legendary Cold Sun material from 1970. Billy Miller would later go on to back Roky Erickson in BleibAlien, but here he leads his own band through a demented Texas peyote trip, one part Elevators, one part VU and with a dash of something purely original.
Miller’s modified Autoharp (described in the liner notes as a ‘Hyper-Zither’) provides a sound all of its own to the recordings. He wrings all sorts of weird textures and melodic dissonance from the instrument, particularly on the near nine minute ‘Here and Now’. Maybe even better is the opener, ‘South Texas’ – a rival to ‘Rollercoaster’ for anyone seeking a lifestyle guide to late sixties Texan trippery.
This wonderfully lysergic record has floored me completely. For anyone who thinks they’ve heard everything – think again.
Austin Matthews
THE LOLLIPOP SHOPPE
Just Colour
Rev Ola CD
www.revola.co.uk
With ‘You Must Be A Witch’ appearing on an early Pebbles set, The Lollipop Shoppe were sure to gain legendary status. The fierce vocal and careening, fuzz-imbued backing ensures the track is a much-loved ’60s anthem.
The Shoppe’s potent acid-punk collateral is further evidenced by such high-grade offerings as ‘Who’ll Read The Will’, ‘Don’t Close The Door On Me’ and the menacing crawl of elongated freak-stormer ‘Underground Railroad’. Occasionally they substitute angst and electrifying howl for a more subtle temperament, best displayed on the outstanding ‘It’s Only A Reflection’.
Originally appearing in 1968, Just Colour has been bolstered here by the inclusion of their final 45, the topside of which, ‘Someone I Know’, is gut-wrenchingly affecting, its off-kilter strings adding a somewhat giddy air to an otherwise stark, bleak vision. That single’s coupling ‘Through My Window’ pilfers it’s chordage from Love’s ‘Orange Skies’. In Jon Mills’ accompanying text we learn that Love were a major influence, yet, especially with Fred Cole’s extraordinary vocal intensity, and Eddie Bowen’s raw lead wail, the overall sound leans closer to such Texas psych-deities as The Golden Dawn, and, indeed, The 13th Floor Elevators.
Lenny Helsing
THE MONOCLES & THE HIGHER ELEVATION
The Spider, The Fly & The Boogie Man
Gear Fab
www.swiftsite.com/gearfab
‘The Spider And The Fly’ has become something of a classic after appearing on Pebbles #3, but other than occasional compilation airings of earlier single ‘Psychedelic (That’s Where It’s At)’, and a few sides from the group’s later incarnation The Higher Elevation, little is known about this truly great band from Colorado. If interested in hearing more The Spider, The Fly & The Boogie Man compiles all of the singles, starting with The Monocles’ Brit Invasion pop from 1965 through to The Higher Elevation’s late ’60s recordings for Liberty, which veer from pleasing psychedelic folk-pop to sunshine pop and blue-eyed soul. Throw in unreleased material, detailed notes and 31 tracks in total and the story is complete.
All in all, a solid and varied set of garage/psych related music that benefits from the whole picture. Don’t you just hate discovering that the killer garage/psych 45 B-side you know and love from years of compilation appearances is in fact a weird diversion by a bunch of preppy squares? Thankfully this was clearly not the case with The Monocles and Higher Elevation.
Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills
THE PATRON SAINTS
Before Bohob 1966-1968
Patron Saint CD
www.maxmulti.com
The Patron Saints are best known for their ultra-rare private-press 1969 folk-rock masterpiece Fohhoh Bohob, a record so rare that copies fetch thousands of dollars.
But prior to ’69, the New York state “basement band” played a wide swath of rock covers, 45 (!) of which are collected on the new double CD Before Bohob, compiled and released by Saints bassist Eric Bergman, who keeps an incredibly detailed band website. The Anglophilic Patron Saints dug deep into the Stones catalog (‘Flight 505’ anybody?) but also played Kinks, Beatles, Monkees, Yardbirds and Spencer Davis songs, and by ’68 had mastered The Doors, Cream, Jimi Hendrix and Moby Grape, reflecting the global movement toward acid rock.
These recordings of rehearsals and live gigs are good fun as well as historically fascinating, featuring “regular” American teenagers playing the music they loved with energy and abandon.
If you want to know what it was really like back then, this CD is as good a document as you’ll find.
Stuart Shea
THE RUGBYS
The Rugbys
Gear Fab
www swiftsite/gearfab.com
The Rugbys gained some success in 1969 in the mid-west and north-east states playing alongside Bob Seger, Grand Funk and The James Gang, having national Top 30 hit ‘You, I’ and releasing the album Hot Cargo. This compilation features the group’s debut Sir Doug-penned single ‘Walkin’ The Street’ and a vast array of unreleased material from the ’65-69 period, ranging from competent pop ans garage to (what sounds like) some cringe-worthy late ’70s rock.
‘I Gotta Find A Way’ the powerful, fuzz, psych rocker, which opens the set, is the best by far. A shame really as what starts out as a promising set soon peters out.
Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills
SAVAGE RESURRECTION
Savage Resurrection
Mod Lang
www.modlang.com
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of its first reissue, the good folks at Mod Lang have seen fit to re-re-issue the magical testament that is the sole album by Savage Resurrection, where garage punk upper cuts and the sweat of the bay area ballrooms coalesce into a magical mixture and peacefully live side by side.
‘Thing In E’ and ‘Someone’s Changing’ echo the hard English sounds of The Yardbirds and Cream whilst the middle Eastern tinged ‘Tahitian Melody’ and freak flag flying ‘Expectations’ bring forth the mind expanding Fillmore sounds. Bonus tracks come in the form of three decent quality high energy songs, one of which is an MC5-esque take on ‘River Deep, Mountain High’.
The packaging is excellent and well worth your dollar. If you feel that your third eye has been a little dry lately and in need of some moisture, then this album serves as the perfect dropper.
Eric Reidelberger
VARIOUS ARTISTS
A-Square (Of Course)
Big Beat CD
www.acerecords.com
Now THIS is a good idea!
A-Square was a Michigan record label, management company and talent agency run by Jeep Holland whose books included (get this) The MC5, The Scot Richard Case, The Thyme, The Up, The Rationals and The Frost among others – a veritable role call of the area’s prime movers. Oh, and them too. Yes, hearing the young Iggy Pop wailing away on The Prime Movers’ ragged breakdown of garage band staple ‘I’m A Man’ is just one of the curios on offer here.
Of rather more consequence are a half dozen previously unreleased Scot Richards Case (soon to become SRC) recordings that demonstrate their rampant anglophilia perfectly: The Pretty Things’ ‘Midnight To Six Man’ and ‘Get The Picture’, Cream’s ‘I’m So Glad’ and even The Who’s oddball 1966 instrumental ‘Cobwebs And Strange’. Possibly even more fascinating and worthy of a CD release of their own are The Thyme, whose stew of folk-rock, Britpop and psychedelia dominates this set.
Also in attendance are both sides of The Mc5’s ’68 debut 45, an assortment of oddities from lesser-known players The Rain and Half-Life (whose ‘Get Down’ is a ringer for Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’, a year early) and a lone, truly deranged offering from The Up called ‘Just Like An Aborigine’.
Valuable stuff.
Andy Morten
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Allergic To Flowers: Garage, Beat & Popsike 1965-1968
RPM Retro CD
www.rpmrecords.co.uk
Following up on their first exploration of the eclectic output of LA indie Challenge Records, RPM moves beyond the surf and pop sounds of the first volume and pulls together a sensational set of frenzied garage rock and some early US popsike sounds.
From the Knickerbockers’ blistering Beatles-like hit, ‘Lies’ to such Nuggets staples as The Brogues’ ‘Don’t Shoot Me Down’ and We The People’s ‘You Burn Me Up And Down’, the case is made for Challenge being one of the most reliable purveyors of high-energy rock singles of the era. With highlights that include a couple of stomping tracks – particularly ‘Bird Doggin’’ – where ’50s rocker Gene Vincent puts his distinctive spin on the raunchy sounds offered by his younger label mates – and both sides of The Boston Tea Party’s trippy debut ‘Words’/’Spinach’, and you pretty much have a perfect ’60s US rock comp.
Stefan Granados
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Bullet and Sur-Speed Records Rock’n’Roll
SPV Yellow CD
www.blueslandproductions.com
It makes sense to compile the releases of a small label if the music is stylistically similar, but Bullet and its sister label Sur-Speed ventured into many disparate areas during the ’60s. Mid-60s garage bands like The Villains and The Nomads rub shoulders with the ’50s style roadhouse R&B of Big C, some country pop/rock and strange southern rock ’n’ roll (Sharman Bratcher’s ‘Stack-O-Lee’).
This is the best of Yellow’s recent ’60s compilations. Most of the tunes are good examples of their type, as Bullet was trying to make hits with largely original songs. However, some of the songs are such strange bedfellows that the garage band cuts might have been better as a separate mini-album. The Villains four cuts, The Fountain of Youth’s ‘Hard Woman’ and The Nomad’s classic ‘Coolsville’ are great, as is Patty Oden’s 45, which would fit nicely on the Girls In The Garage series.
Phil Suggitt |
LENNY'S IN THE GARAGE
Here come the next 10 45s from Garage Greats, Britain’s rare garage reissue label. The central theme focuses more on the psychedelic strain this time around, but a strong teen punk element still prevails, so lysergi-phobes needn’t worry unduly.
Two contrasting sides from THE HUMAN EXPRESSION in ’67 begin the tantalising trip. ‘Calm Me Down’ is compelling, het-up garage, with nasal whine vocal. ‘Optical Sound’ is darker, more ominous, aided and abetted by piercing acid-effect guitar.
TC ATLANTIC’s ‘Faces’ is a flower-punk winner – “Can you see, what I see / on the street below faces hanging low / as I sit and watch them die / travelling into darkness” – and instantly familiar to anyone who has been in earshot of the infamous Pebbles #3 collection.
Before a name-change to The Lollipop Shoppe, Fred Cole fronted THE WEEDS, executors of the deadly ‘It’s Your Time’, a supreme attitude-ridden punker. This gang of Las Vegas teens score with a boss version of Them’s ‘Little Girl’ too, swapping organ for guitar, building to a blaze of intensity. This is the third time around for this remarkable 45, originally appearing in ’66 on the Teenbeat Club label, and issued again for us hungry garage-fiends back in late ’87 on Behemoth.
Time finally granted a piece of the action to THE THINGS TO COME too a few years back, rewarding them with a full-length set on Sundazed. I swear every time you spin ‘Sweetgina’ and ‘Speak Of The Devil’ you’ll be left stunned and drained. They are the essence of primitive – vocalist Steve Runolfson sounding like the genuine missing link.
Then there’s the unforgettable ‘Goin’ Away Baby’ by THE GRAINS OF SAND, a bona-fide garage punk classic, and then some! ‘Golden Apples Of The Sun’ is the totally freaked-out B-side. Both sides co-authored and produced by the most gifted Michael Lloyd of The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Smoke, Max Frost & The Troopers and more.
‘Cuttin’ Grass’ shriek the delightfully named Californian combo CARETAKERS OF DECEPTION, and once more we are hit full-on with a thrillingly hectic blast of garage mayhem. Flip it over for the awesome ‘X+Y=13’, a deceptively simple, yet ultra-cryptic organ punker.
GRAF ZEPPLIN sound an odd lot too, if ‘You’re In My Mind’ is anything to go by; tough garage raunch, straying into dementoid teen-psych corridors. For the comedown, ‘Sunset’ is gloriously mellow and achingly romantic, without being in any way trite.
Also rejoicing in diversity is THE PURPLE CANTEEN’s ‘Brains In My Feet’/’If You Like It That Way’ coupling. Heavy fuzz-drone occupies the topside, while its quieter counterpart excels with some gorgeously winsome melodies.
Obscure outfit THE ES SHADES offer up ‘Anyday, Anywhere’ and ‘Without My Love’, two not dissimilar slices of downcast, yet exhilarating psych-punk, embroidered with lines of jabbing staccato fuzz. Very cool!
Last on deck, but by no means least, we have South Carolina’s THE TOMBSTONES – stars of the Back From The Grave series – with the pulverizing ‘I Want You’, a real Diddley-on-fuzz tambourine smasher. Flip ‘You’ll Regret It’ is the exact opposite, a lament that, while charming enough, is positively mumsy in comparison.
Overall, these wild platters will appeal to those in the know, and those who seek to expand their knowledge of far-out garage sounds.
Lenny Helsing |
