The Big Three, Faron's Flamingos, and Earl Preston & The TTs are some of my original faves. I also like Beatle knock offs and novelties.
Ace Brown And His Helldivers ~ Seeing this current combo play is sort of like witnessing the beginning of Rockabilly. Check them out if they come to your town.
Alarm Clocks ~ Real mid-sixties garage band reforms and blows everybody away. Their new originals sound like their old originals. New release due out in September, 2006!
Bo
Diddley ~ I love the
other originators too, but Bo is the real thing. Without Bo there
wouldn't be the supreme genius that is the unequaled "Aussie"
bubblegum greatness of the Strangeloves.
And there wouldn't have been any killer British groups. The EARLY
Pretty
Things and EARLY Rolling
Stones are as great as they are largely because of Bo Diddley!
Thanks Bo!!!
ARF! ARF! Records ~ Some neat 60's garage releases. They even have 2 discs of stuff by Boston legends The Lost. Get both CDs. The Lost are GODS!!!!!! Search them out for their unique 60's sound.
Beat City ~ 1963 film for TV about Liverpool & its music. Can't do any better than this, except maybe with The Mersy Sound flick from the same year. Get both films at The Video Beat on their Liverpool Beat Music collection.
Buddah Records ~ This is the label that gave us Bubblegum! They released some cool "best of" collections by the Lemon Pipers, 1910 Fruitgum Company, the Ohio Express, and don't forget the soulful Five Stairsteps! Throw away your Led Zep albums and get these instead!
CRYPT Records ~ This is my favorite record label. They put out the finest '60's teen garage releases, the "Back From The Grave" series, "Garage Punk Unknowns," and the "Teenage Shutdown" comps. If you like outta tune sloppy amped up rawk'n'roll this label is for you. Their mail order catalog carries only prime rockin' stuff! I stick to the 60's and 50's stuff. Get the frantic "Trans-World Punk" albums & hear the way Rhino's Nuggets 2 box should have sounded!!!!!
The Beatles were coolest during their Hamburg (do you know about Germany's beat groups?) period (supposedly their best stuff...they probably sounded like The Kaisers...we'll never know...). Check out this Star Club site and check out Jerry Lee Lewis' GREAT Star Club CD. It's the best live album ever (with lots of help from the Nashville Teens)! I dig the wilder side of the Mersey sound!
Gotta plug my hatred
for the two DVD set Miramax did for the movie A Hard Day's Night.
They screwed with the sound and now it sucks. Thanks for ruining
a great movie. This review gets it pretty right! Hopefully, someday,
somebody will release the flick as it looked & sounded in
1964. Maybe they could also throw in the cut footage of "You
Can't Do That" as well as a few of those "here they
come..." trailers. Do it right.
Dig this cool clip from the Chesterfield Kings' cool lp Surfin' Rampage! Also check out this neat clip from
their not-so-rockin' movie Where Is The Chesterfield King?!
The Double Naught Spys ~ I was a part of this combo.
The
Kaisers are my favorite "current"
group even though there hasn't been anything new from them for
years. Their last album, SHAKE
ME!, is a MUST HAVE
for all who dig the big-beat sound! In my opinion,
it's a modern MASTERPIECE!!!!
You have to order the LP/CD through Get Hip mail order & sometimes even that
is a difficult order (can't get it from Amazon or Barnes
& Noble) but it's really worth the effort. Kaiser George is the best, and my favorite, songwriter
currently on the scene.
The Video Beat has the Kaisers live in '95-'96 here!
The Kaisers record all their stuff at swingin'
ToeRag Studios in London. ToeRag is run by ace producer Liam Watson.
Get the lowdown on Liam & Toe
Rag here!
The
Bristols are another Toe Rag group worth checking out. Their modern Joe Meek style sound is a pleasure
to listen to. Vocalist Fabienne
Delsol made a fab solo album (another one is planned
for 2007) that has four "Kaiser" George Miller originals.
I listen to Fabienne & the Bristols a lot!!! There is a new
Damaged Goods release out called The
Best Of Fabienne Delsol and The Bristols. It's a great collection for folks who want to hear
the gear goods!
Los
Straitjackets are a
fine rocking combo that will show you the mighty power of guitar
instrumentals. They're gonna do another "Twist Party"
tour this fall (2006) with host Kaiser George and The World
Famous Pontani Sisters.
There is even going to be a Twist
Party!!! CD/DVD
available October, 2006!
Eddie
Angel, from Los Straitjackets,
honored the Hamburg era Beatles with his chart topping CD Eddie
Angel Meets The Beatles.
Eddie's latest CD Eddie
Angel Plays Link Wray!
is a sonic blast of Link Wray coolness!
New
for 2006!!! Kaiser
George teams up with
the folks from Eddie Angel Meets The Beatles to make a
CD so explosive it can only be called TRANSATLANTIC
DYNAMITE!. It's full
of brilliant new George Miller originals (and the Hi-Risers' Greg
Townson pens some gems as well) that sound like they could have
been written in the early sixties! Today's top tune team delivers
the definitive version of "I'm Gonna Haunt You." Fab!
The Rapiers ~ This modern group recreates The Shadows
& other early sixties sounds.
Los Shakers and Los Mockers were Uruguay's answer to The Beatles
and the Rolling Stones! You can see'em on the International Beat Music DVD.
Some of Sam Leach's Merseybeat photos.
Curtis Mayfield ~ is one of my favorite songwriters. His sweet sixties soul stuff with the Impressions along with his various outside projects (the Fascinations, Walter Jackson, the Opals, and Major Lance to name a few) reveal a huge talent. The webpages linked here aren't all that great but they're okay. Find a copy of The Definitive Impressions CD and see what I'm talking about. Don't believe what rock dorks say, the early stuff rules! In the sixties, lots of folks were Impressed! with Mayfield's stuff.
NORTON RECORDS ~ Killer rock'n'roll catalog, great surf selection, Question Mark and The Mysterians, the Pretty Things!!!!!! They even sell a gear Xmas 45 by The Kaisers! Check out Question Mark & The Mysterians' new version of "Empty Heart" which is part of Norton's Rolling Stones covers series! Norton now has Gene Vincent stuff! Gene Vincent is one of my favorite singers.
The Ronettes ~ Phil Spector's grooviest gals! You can't beat The Ronettes. Here's a great Spector discography. Phil took teen music and made it arty without losing its teen focus.
P.F.
Sloan Website ~ This
site has a terrific Sloan discography! Forget Lennon/McCartney,
Sloan/Barri are the guys songwriters should study.
Get some Terry Black stuff to hear Sloan and Barri
try to do the British Invasion sound.
Start off by getting the P.F. Sloan CD Child
Of Our Times. It's
filled with demos from '65-'67!!!!!! As far as I'm concerned,
P.F.Sloan is the greatest songwriter of the '60s! In the mid '60s
his songs were all of high quality and spanned across a variety
of COOL musical styles, from girl-group to garage, surf to psychedelic
pop! He is the best folk rock songwriter ever!!! Sloan also has one of the
most intense & desperate vocal styles ever! Here's an interview.
Wikipedia's Sloan page.
P.F. is playing a few dates
this summer so catch
him if you can!
Sailover is the NEW Sloan album and it's great
to see P.F. back in action!
RAMONES ~ Their first three albums are the greatest
and the Rhino reissues of Ramones, Leave
Home, and Rocket To Russia are fucking genius!!! Johnny,
Joey, Dee Dee, and Tommy saved the seventies from completely sucking!
These guys were my "Beatles." Be sure to check out the
flick End
Of The Century!
The ultra-lame Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame decided to induct them
(to stand side by side with slews of bands and "artists"
I fucking hate!#@&%*#).
To me, the Ramones stand head and shoulders above all the other
seventies, eighties, nineties, and current punk groups.
Joey Ramone
will always be one of my heroes! He had one of rock'n'roll's greatest
singing voices (along with guys like Gene Vincent & John Lennon). Joey wrote the
best songs including my favorite Ramones song, "Oh Oh I Love
Her So." Hearing him sing always makes me wish he was still
around. Get Joey's fine solo CD!!!!!
Dee
Dee Ramone wrote some
of my favorites like "Rockaway Beach," and "53rd
And 3rd."
Johnny
Ramone taught generations
of kids how to play guitar. Now, if only those kids could write
songs as good as the Ramones...
There's a new Ramones "Greatest
Hits" package
that has their most accessible stuff. I suggest you compile the
following track line-up at home to get the full Ramones "Top
40" effect.
1. Blitzkrieg Bop (Single Version)
2. Beat On The Brat
3. Judy Is A Punk
4. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
5. Swallow My Pride
6. Oh Oh I Love Her So
7. Sheena Is A Punk Rocker (ABC Single Version)
8. Pinhead
9. Rockaway Beach
10. We're A Happy Family
11. Cretin Hop
12. Teenage Lobotomy
13. I Wanna Be Sedated
14. I Just Want To Have Something To Do
15. She's The One
16. Rock 'N' Roll High School (Ed Stasium Mix)
17. Baby, I Love You
18. Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio?
19. The KKK Took My Baby Away
20. Touring (1981 Version)
Folk
Rock ~ Sometimes folk rock really does it. Read some of
the titles on this site for the real folk rock scoop but keep
in mind that folk rock is more about the sound and the music than
"the message" despite what some "in the know"
guys will tell you (for example, ALL of The Byrds originals on
the definitive folk rock album Mr. Tambourine Man had NO
"important" messages.) All those guys really wanted
to do was, baby, be friends with you.
Also, real cool folk rock (and cool teen music in general) died
out when the drug scene started to take over. Once again, "experts"
will tell you differently but don't believe 'em. To hear the real
teen folk rock genius pick up CRYPT's Teen
Jangler Blowout!
and God-like Nobody
To Love album (get
'em directly from CRYPT mail
order).
PUNK ~ Great mag that I dug way back when and still dig now (though the Brezhnev jokes now seem strangely outdated.) John Holmstrom is the genius behind this work of genius. Funny as hell!
Mickey Hampshire ~ In the mid '80s I spent one summer listening to only the Milkshakes' LPs and the Beach Boys' TODAY album. Mickey was a key guy in the Milkshakes and he's also the main guy in Mickey & The Salty Seadogs and the Masonics. His stripped down style (sorta like Bo Diddley joins the Seeds & they go Merseybeat with a '70's punk rock influence) is about as basic as garage punk trash rock'n'roll gets. Billy Childish gets more attention but Mickey Hampshire is more my speed.
Richard
Hell ~ The first rock'n'roll
show I saw in person was Richard Hell and The Voidoids. He invented
the punk clothes style that the British copied. The single "The
Kid With The Replaceable Head" (the one produced by Nick
Lowe) is one of my all-time favorites. Dig it on Hell's new career
spanning CD SPURTS. It's a killer diller collection which
shows off Richard's unique style. Also check out his "remember
when" CD Time.
The late Robert Quine, guitarist for The Voidoids, had the coolest
look ever, real beatnik. I thought he was the coolest. One time
I spotted him at Venus Records (when it was on 8th St.) checking
out the rockabilly titles!
I'm not a big fan of Rhino's Children Of Nuggets box set. To get the real scoop on the true "children of nuggets" check out Tim Gassen's Knights Of Fuzz CD-ROM and DVD. After that, pick up VOXX's Be A Caveman comp! It's a Greg Shaw comp!
Shangri-Las.com ~ Mary Weiss is my favorite female vocalist and Shadow Morton is one of the coolest people ever. The Shangri-Las were tough chicks in real life and so they get extra points by not trying to sing rough & tough on their records.
Sundazed ~ Good label that has some worship worthy stuff. If you haven't heard Boston's legendary Remains you are an eternal resident of squaresville! Blow off Sundazed's psychedelic junk and dig the Shadows Of Knight, the Leaves, the Gestures and the Gants (new album- Introducing...The Gants is out!) instead! There's also the Rip Chords, Ronny And The Daytonas, the Boys Next Door, Bruce & Terry and the Fantastic Baggys (who are actually Sloan/Barri.) This last batch of groups are sure to please early BB5 fans!!!
Varese Sarabande ~ This label gives us P.F.Sloan's Trousdale demos! The Nino & April CD All Strung Out is really great Sectoresque mid 60's pop coolness! Let's hope they release more P.F. Sloan demos in the near future. Come on guys, we want more!
The Burns Bison guitar produces the finest sound ever known
to man! The Bison bass 
is also
a must hear! Heck, any Burns guitar is worth checking out. It's
a drag that they aren't gonna be making these reproductions anymore
(at least for the USA). Get'em if you can find'em. Sound like The Kaisers, The Milkshakes,
The Honeycombs, The Searchers and The Shadows with Burns!
Danelectro guitars are neato. They're getting
pretty hard to find these days, but if you want to be cool buy
one of these cheapie repro guitars and learn some Link Wray songs!
A Danelectro 12 string is what turned the Crossfires into the
folk-y-fied Turtles!
North Coast Music sells musical equipment that gave us the sound of the British Invasion (the FIRST one). If you've got dough to burn you can outfit your modern Mereybeat punk rock outfit (please, no more Beatles tribute bands!) with gear from these guys. Get your VOX gear here.
The guitar of choice for The Ventures and Johnny Ramone is Mosrite. Check out this cool Japanese Mosrite page (be sure to catch the M-VENTURES performing "Yellow Jacket")!