In Dan’s Garage…#92

Hi Y’all!!! I wanted to get this one out last weekend, but I ran into some detours and had to put it off until this weekend. It still amazes me that I’ve gotten as far as #92 in this whole deal, and since I started we’ve grown into  a nice little community of 208 friends and followers, and this thing has taken well over 300,000 hits since I put the little counter up there about three years ago. Thanks again for all your kind comments and suggestions. Please keep ‘em coming and yes do send me pictures and such if you were in or knew anybody from one of these acts. I love to hear stories and if you’d like to relate something in detail, perhaps we can do a feature. I’d still like to get my good collector friend Chuck Ciriello to do a guest post one of these days. He has an awesome collection that’s real heavy on local stuff. Chuck if you’re out there let me know, we can do it anytime! Once again I’ve gathered another pile of 45s and recorded them for your (and my) enjoyment, so sit back and dig on NUMBER 92!!!!!!!

The Mighty Hannibal – Jerkin’ The Dog (1965) This is definitely NOT a garage or even psyche 45, but what a lot of people consider “Northern Soul”, a genre that’s getting a lot of attention these days from collectors, and one that is fetching huge bucks for what are considered “rare” records. Personally, I don’t get it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of soul music and R&B, although I don’t collect those types of records, but many of these pieces are commanding prices way in excess of $1000, well above and beyond their garage “counterparts”.   I love this 45 though because it not only has tremendous soul mojo, but also evokes somewhat of a garage feel as well, with it’s very sparse instrumentation (no horns), and the general groove of the song. If there ever was a “crossover” record, this would be it.

Roy Head & The Traits – Apple Of My Eye / I Pass The Day (1965) Meanwhile, back in San Antonio, TX, white guys like Roy Head were singing “blue eyed soul” songs like this ace 45, his follow up to “Treat Her Right”

Captain Zoom – Long Tall Texan / I Really Want You (1965) From what I gather, these guys were not from Texas, although they do an excellent mimicking of The Sir Douglas Quintet, but were from Richmond, CA, the Bay Area, and had at least two other 45s on A&M. Ironically, KBOP is a radio station from the Dallas, TX area.

Gants – Road Runner / My Baby Don’t Care (1965) The Gants were from Greenwood, Mississippi and unlike other groups from the deep south, they emulated the British Invasion as well as anyone in the USA. They especially had a great knack for doing excellent cover songs as well as a few superb originals like “My Baby Don’t Care”, the flip of this classic two sider.

Teddy & The Pandas – Bye Bye, Out The Window / Once Upon A Time (1966) A very popular group from Boston that had several 45s and an LP on Tower records.

Wild Ones – Come On Back (1966) These are the guys who did the original version of “Wild Thing”, in a style reminiscent of Bob Dylan as opposed to the hard rockin’ version made famous by The Troggs. This was their second to last 45 which was oddly released on the Sears label (as in Sears-Roebuck) and was most likely some kind of promotional item sold through the department store.

Court Jesters – It’s All Right / Dance For Me (1967) Danny Jordan and Tommy Wynn were both members of The Detergents whose “Leader Of The Laundromat” was a hit in 1964. They went on to do other projects but in between they recorded two 45s as The Court Jesters for Roulette. This is one of them. Not bad really, but definitely more pop than garage.

Hysterics – Won’t Get Far / That’s All She Wrote / Why Should You Treat Me This Way / Everything’s There (1966) I generally don’t post reissues on my blog, mainly because I prefer to show off my “original” pieces, but sometimes (only twice) I cheat and replace the vinyl tracks with digital copies, mainly because the original has so much surface noise that it totally distracts from the song, or in this case, a reissue that is actually quite rare and includes an entire body of work by one of history’s best garage bands. I remember the first time I heard “Won’t Get Far” (on Boulders Vol. 1) and thinking that the singer had a real problem with his girlfriend, and was definitely letting his aggression loose in the studio. Real genius stuff here. The Hysterics were from Southern California, and released two gems, both included on this reissue EP which apparently is pretty hard to get these days.

Kinetic Energy – Suzie Q / Margaret Ann (1969) These guys were from Houghton located on the upper peninsula of Michigan very close to Wisconsin and Canada. They released one 45 on the Minneapolis based label Studio City as simply “The Kinetics”. They later augmented their name and released this real heavy take on the Dale Hawkins classic with a flip side that reminds me of Procol Harum.

Los Rockin’ Devils – Mi Carcachita / Azucar, Azucar (1970) Los Rockin’ Devils were a band from Tijuana, Mexico that had an extremely prolific career recording records for a Mexican audience hungry for American Rock & Roll. They specialized in covering the hits of the day and singing them in Spanish, and had an exceptionally raw delivery as evidenced on these two covers. One a Stones hit and the other a rather amusing rendition of the Archies’ biggest hit!

North Atlantic Invasion Force – Black On White / The Orange Patch (1968) An excellent group from Connecticut that had several other 45s.

Challengers – Hear My Message / I Wanna Hold You (1970) A decent group from Milwaukee, WI that also released the legendary “Take A Ride On The Jefferson Airplane” 45 on Night Owl records.

Rush Hour -  Before I Die / Set Me Free (1969) A Chicago group that takes the Vanilla Fudge formula and applies it to an outstanding flanged out original, and a cover of The Kinks’ “Set Me Free”

Syndicate Of Sound – Brown Paper Bag / Reverb Beat (1970) Best known for their huge 1966 hit and garage anthem “Little Girl”, The Syndicate Of Sound had several somewhat unsuccessful follow-ups including this one released early in 1970. This is actually a pretty good record, and some have said that they were trying to catch the same feel as fellow Bay Area legends CCR.

get it here