In Dan’s Garage…#68

WOWIE ZOWIE!!!! Hello friends and followers! I hope everyone out there has had a wonderful holiday and I hope the New Year is going well for for all…so far. I had a very nice nice one myself and although the snow is surprisingly scarce up here in Western NY this year, I welcome the unusually balmy weather with open arms. My New Years was a gas as usual as we did it in style with our good friends Roxanne & Tim. Tim is an avid record collector himself and is fond of those late 50’s and early 60’s “teen” rockers, so we spent part of the night spinning some vinyl and afterwards, feasted on lobsters and steaks. Definitely yummy.       One of our New Years Eve rituals is to watch poor old Dick Clark muddle through the dropping of the ball at Times Square on TV. I really respect the guy for still hanging in there, even though he dished out a lot of crappy music over the years, but he did feature the 13th Floor Elevators on “Where The Action Is” back in the day, but even though he’s “half the man” that he used to be, I’ll cut him some slack. I almost threw up my surf & turf when I had to sit through Lady Gaga and her puke inducing routine just before midnight. Oh God, is there anyone out there that’s worse????? If there is let me know. Did anyone see her afterward??? She was wearing this gigantic mask that must've weight about 15 pounds, and you could see her poor head trembling from the weight of it. I think I saw Justin Bieber too. He looked real pretty as usual, and hey..check out Carlos Santana! Talk about a total ass kissing sell out. He knows he can’t make any real dough playing one note for an hour, so he pals around with the likes of “Pitbull”, a real “artist”. Jenny McCarthy looked like total shit too, but my sister and brother-in-law thought she was looking great. Oh well….what the hell do I know?    So the ball drops and we drink champagne and watch everyone slobber over themselves on TV, and I kiss my lovely wife who’s just about had it for the evening, and then we sit through another half hour of puke inducing acts on TV, just so we can make fun of them. Where the hell is Guy Lombardo when you need him????????   But seriously folks, I love the holidays. I just wish they would start pushing them on you a little later, and let the festivities hang around a little longer. I swear, they start pushing shit right after Labor Day (that’s the first week in September for anyone who is not familiar), and shove it down your throat right up till Christmas Eve. By the time New Years Day rolls around, you’ve had it. They literally shut it down the day afterward. For me it’s not the glitz and bullshit that gets me, but the festive atmosphere, and the longer we can let it linger, the happier we all will be.    So here we are in 2012. Posts have been a bit scarce this past year, mainly because of busy schedules, family tragedies, a bit of vacation/holiday, and home improvement projects. Oh yes, the NFL football season has kept me occupied most Sundays this fall/winter season as I vowed to watch every single game my beloved New York Giants were playing in this year. So far they’re still in the running for the Super Bowl. GO GIANTS!!!!! But in between I’ve managed to get some music in too, and I’ve finally got #68 under my belt. I can't believe I’ve done so many of these!!!! At the onset of this blog I thought I’d get at the most 50 posts, but about two years later, I’ve managed to go well beyond that. We also have had over 200,000 hits on this blog , and if anyone has scoped out the little Feedjit app on the right of this blog, you’ll see they’re coming in from all over the world! Thanks to all of You!!!!! Last but not least, PLEASE, I BEG OF YOU, I IMPLORE YOU, CHECK OUT MY BLOG ARCHIVE!!!!! What you’ll discover are some of the coolest sounds and the most interesting reading on this wonderful planet of ours. Really! I mean it! They are totally cool!    So here is the latest, and the first edition for 2012….”In Dan’s Garage…#68”. You know what they say….”better late than never”…..

Deacons – The Baldie Stomp / The Baldie Beat (1964) Superb frat from Minneapolis. I guess these guys weren't “bald”, but were singing about a local gang from their hometown.

Blue Echoes – How Do I Tell Her / Rosanna (1964) An obscure group from Worchester, MA who had a regional hit with the instrumental two sider “Blue Bell Bounce/Tiger Talk” which would later be released on Swan records the day that JFK was assassinated. No rock & roll was played for weeks afterward so the 45 pretty much went nowhere and so did the Blue Echoes. Very unfortunate……

John Fred (With The Playboys) – How Can I Prove / Wrong To Me (1965) Ya know something???? John Fred ain’t half bad when he’s pretending to be like a British Invasion band or something, as we see on this really cool 45 from 1965.

Rick & The Legends – I Wonder Why / Love Me Like You Know I Care (1965) Teen / Garage sounds from Ohio. Pretty good too……..

Windsors – Fingers & Thumbs / Keep Away (1965) I can’t find a damn thing about this group, but what little I have come up with tells me they’re either British or Canadian…….

Boogers – Nitetime People / Should You Be Surprised (1967) Let me tell you all that I really get a kick out of bands with weird names, and in the 60s, there were tons of ‘em. You know…the typical Jefferson Airplane clones like “Hamilton Streetcar” and the food names like Chocolate Watchband, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Butterscotch Caboose, Peppermint Trolley Co…..well you get the picture. Then you got real whacked out ones like “The Cruds”, and one of the all time greats “The Electric Toilet”. But I was unprepared for this one when I saw it on Ebay. “THE BOOGERS”!!!!!!! HOLY CRAP! You truly have to have a major pair of balls to go out there with a name like that and expect to get gigs in the pre-punk rock era. So I bid on this without even trying to find out what it sounded like (although I already had it on an obscure comp buried somewhere on my hard drive) and was pleasantly surprised when I got it in the mail. Good mid-tempo garage with a nice Wurlitzer Electric Piano ringing throughout.

Stacy’s 5th – My Lovin’ Baby / This Thing (1966) Wild and crude pounder from Massachusetts. One of my all time favorites!

“Yes It Is” – Walkin’ The Dog / Little Boy (1966) A group from Duluth , MN who had at least one other 45. Great version of “Walkin’ The Dog” backed by a really cool moody folk rocker.

Slade Brothers – What A Crazy Life / For A Rainy Day (1966) Let’s switch gears and take a right hand turn with this real nice slice of 60’s pop done by an obscure and lesser known British duo.

Clockwork Orange – Help Me / Sweet Little Innocent Lorraine (1967) Way cool two sider that features this NYC group going in two very different directions. “Help Me” is a fuzzy psych number while “Lorraine” is a great psych/pop tune. One of at least three “Clockwork Orange” named bands paying homage to Anthony Burgess’ novel a good three years before the film came out.

Dalton, James, & Sutton – One Time Around / Run Baby (1967) Oh so fantastic Byrds/Gene Clark cloning here, I really can’t describe it in words, you just have to hear it. This song is the best example of “country/folk/rock” I’ve ever heard and the B side is pretty good too! I’m not certain of the date, but I’ve seen 1967 and I’ve also seen it listed as late as1970.

Easybeats – Do You Have A Soul / Who’ll Be The One (1967) ”Friday On My Mind” was probably their biggest hit ever, and it’s no coincidence that genius Shel Talmy produced this brilliant two sider along with “Sorry”, “Remember Sam” and several other greats from 1966/67..

Godz – Wiffenpoof Song / Travel’n Salesman (1967) Yeah! Here we have for your listening pleasure, The Godz from New York City, and let me just say that along with their label mates “The Fugs”, were definitely one of the kookiest bands ever to come out of that great city as we hear on this strange, inept offering from 1967.

Crystal mansion – I Got Something For You (1969) OK, let’s get back to earth with some fuzzy blue eyed soul that has a rather commercial twist to it……

Owl – Aunt Cate Is Dead / As The World Keeps Turning (1970) Terrific pop/psyche by a band from Massachusetts who were once known as “Lazy Smoke”.

GET IT HERE