In Dan's Garage...#23

Have no fear...I'm still here. I had a pretty busy weekend, and that's the main cause of my delay this week. Last week, I waxed poetic about my love of the weather here in western New York (note the sarcasm). Well... this week was even WORSE!!! I had to clean a foot of snow at 5:00 in the morning and do it again at 5:00 at night. Then I did it again Saturday. Sheesh. Enough already. The upside to all of this is that when I'm done, I get to cozy up to my turntable and rip some new tracks for this week's blog. I got some new stuff this week too! So enjoy. As usual...

Bugs w/ Albert De Salvo - Strangler In The Night / Albert, Albert

The Bugs were a band from the Boston, MA area, and were around for quite a few years. They're best known for their awesome two sider Slide/Pretty Girl, but this was a weird 45  supposedly concocted by James Vaughn and a New York radio personality Dick Leviathan. I guess these are Al's "thoughts and words" which amount to a corny and hilarious soliloquy about how good ol' Al feels when he's ready to commit murder. The flip is great though. 

Furys - Parchman Farm

A really good early rocker from a Pacific NW group who eventually became The Wilde Knights of "Beaver Patrol" fame.

Bluebeards - Come On A My House / I'm Home

Real cool psyche/pop with an arabian flavor to it. I love it when tripped out studio musicians decide to mess with Rosemary Clooney hits. This was co-written by none other that Ross Bagdasarian, better known as David Seville, keeper of Alvin, Theodore, & Simon, those infernal Chipmunks. The B side is a terrific Beatles styled beat number.

Chosen Three - Givin Up For Lost

Not sure where this bunch is from, but they sound a lot like some Greenwich Village refugees attempting folk/rock.

Fifth Order - Goin' Too Far / Walkin' Away

YEAH!!! Here's a CLASSIC garage/punk/folk/rocker in the truest sense of the word. The Fifth Order were big in Columbus, OH around '66/'67, and you can hear their poppier "Today I Got A Letter" on #8. By the way... where the hell is this 10 cent record store?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!

Wayward Five - Good Times / Shake A Tailfeather

Obscure garage from who the hell knows where. The flip is fantastic frat rock.

Astronauts - My Sin Is My Pride / Almost Grown

I can't say enough how great this band was. So versatile. They played awesome surf, frat rock, garage punk, and even dabbled with folk rock, and all done so well. This original is a cool moody garage tune, and the flip is an ace version of Chuck Berry's classic.

Ides Of March - Roller Coaster / Things Aren't Always What They Seem

Another great group. It's really hard to believe that these are the same guys that recorded "Vehicle". This was one of five great 45's they released on Parrot records before they transformed into a full blown horn band, typical for bands in Chicago for the late 60's/early 70's.

Ingredients - Please Don't Leave Me / Hey Who

Another Chicago area band. I don't have much info on these guys, except they were on the same label as The Todds who did "I Want Her Back" from #1.

Guise - Long Haired Music

Let's welcome The Guise and their "Mod Sound"! These "guise" were fro St. Louis, and the organist was in Bob Kuban & The In-Men. This clever little tune is a about a guy trying to score a chick who's into "Long Haired Music". We're not talking about those famous "british invasion" groups. No. We're talking real longhairs. Like Bach and Beethoven!

Sangralads - Think Of What You're Saying / Mary's Kidd

Here's a nice 45 by a group of youngsters from Logansport, IN. The A side is a nice laid back garage tune, and the flip is a sort of garage/punk version of "Mary Had A LIttle Lamb". Very interesting......

Scott Bedford Four - Take The Last Exit To Brooklyn

The Scott Bedford Four released the extremely cool "You Turned Your back On Me", a great folk/punker. This one on the other hand, is still really garagey, but has a "Vogues" feel to it.

Trolls - Every day And Every Night / Are You The One

We heard from the Trolls in the last post (#22), and they gave us two cool pop/garage songs. Emphasis on "pop". This, their first on ABC, is straight up garage,, but still retains that awesome pop flair. This one is real good....

Loved Ones - Ever Lovin' Man / More Than Love

There used to be this cool little record store in nearby Newark, NY, where I would often travel to buy stuff. The owner was a real nice guy who also made the rounds at all the local and regional records shows and he still does to this day. I see him twice a year, and you know...I'm one of those kind of "annoying" guys who has to see everything, even if it's not in a box or sorted out yet. Yup. I'm one of those guys who drives dealers crazy, especially the anal ones who want all their stuff "in order". Yeah, yeah. For what some of these guys charge, they can spend a half hour putting the stuff back in place. I found this one at this particular shop, and at the time, I thought it was a dud. In 1986, I was strictly looking for KILLER 45's, so this was a huge disappointment, I mean, a band called the Loved Ones had to be good right? Well... after a while, this 45 grew on me. The Loved Ones were an Australian group from Melbourne, and were sort of different from the other beat groups of their era. The singer sounds a lot (to me) like Chris Youlden from Savoy Brown, except he does this bizarre low to high thing with his voice, and they feature an electric piano as the feature instrument. All in all though, this is an intense bluesy tune that I'm sure will grow on you too.

Exotics - Morning Sun / Fire Engine Red

From Dallas, TX comes the Exotics, whose "Come With Me" was covered by The Chesterfield Kings on their awesome first LP. This one is a perfect example of Texas psychedelia, at it's best.

Paper Cup - She Needs Love / Watch Him Sometime

I'm not sure where this obscure group are from, but they featured a female vocalist who sang some rather male chauvinistic lyrics.

Buccaneers - Killin' Floor

Killer heavy psyche version of Howlin' Wolf's classic blues tune. I really don't know where these guys are from, but somewhere on the east coast is probably a good guess.

Children - What Of I / Evil Woman

Actually known as "Yesterdays" Children, this Connecticut band released a cool garage 45 on Parrot in 1966, then transformed themselves into heavy psyche monsters with an album on Map City released in 1969. This single is from their album, and both sides are incredibly heavy for their time.

Get it HERE