Wild Mid-60s Garage Punkers!
THE SHAMES-“My World Is Upside Down”
This bone-crunchin’ tale of woe and its anthemic teenage outcast flip-side hails from north-eastern Massachusetts and is by far the best garage record out of the entire New England area.
The Shames got together in ’64 as the Dimensions, then became the Cryin’ Shames (due to some square’s comment about their long hair – “What a cryin’ SHAME!) but when the Chicago group of the same name got big, they dropped the Cryin’ and became the Shames.
They were a very busy group, playing at least 3 nights a week all over the Northeast, including the Inferno in Buffalo, a Sunday morning church service on a mountain, a cow barn in New Hampshire, and for an audience of 10,000 at Crompton Park in Worcester (where they had a police escort to keep ’em from getting mobbed!).
At a show in Vermont a big black guy in the audience kept calling out for “Not Fade Away” (ironic as hell,huh?) and other songs covered by the Stones. After the show the guy introduced himself as Bo Diddley and the group freaked out.
They dressed however they wanted to, but once their manager bought them each two sets of matching Nehru jackets, which they hated and “lost” them in a dumpster in Boston’s Combat Zone. The next time they played Boston, they saw 10 Bums and winos wearing matching Nehru jackets!
Back From The Grave | Volume 6 | (Crypt) 1986
LONG JOHN & THE SILVERMEN-“Heart Filled With Love” Great name, great title, great sang! This Chicago 3-piece started in ’65, playing with surf-combo the Venturas and lots of killer punk bands, Chicago being the PUNK CAPITAL of the world and all . . .
They recorded this cool ditty ’bout searching for love at the MBS Studios in ’66, and followed it up with a weak second 45 recorded at Balkan Studios, releasing both on their own WANTED label.
THE KEGGS- “Girl”
One member of the Keggs stated that he started the band so he could rationalize growing his hair long to his parents, AND so he could talk his dad into buying him a guitar. Damn lucky they gave the thumbs up, cauz the two songs they released on their only 45 (“To Find Out” on GRAVE 5 and “Girl” on GRAVE 6) are the two BEST garage punk songs EVER!!
The group was a four-piece Detroit high school combo who were big fans of the Kinks, so they chose a short, catchy Kinks-ish moniker. But they changed their name after each party they played because people hated them (which made their business-card printer a rich man!).
Their strangest show was at an outdoor tennis court booked for dances every Thursday by the local Jaycees. The idea was for the bands to play and kids would pay to go inside the court and dance. But when the Keggs played NO ONE came onto the court.
Back From The Grave | Volume 6 | (Crypt) 1986
There they were, with 200 kids surrounding the high fence screaming and swearing at them for ruining their evening of fun and games. But the Keggs kept on playing to earn their money (40 dollars for 2 hours!) until someone pulled the power switch.
Well, the kids that didn’t dig ’em back then, and any of you SQUARES who don’t dig ’em today can FUCK OFF! Cauz these guys are the FUCKIN’ BEST!
Local competition was the Redcoats and the Keggs opened a show for Bob Seger’s Last Heard at a club called the Cavern. They recorded their 2 GREAT songs in four hours at a small studio in a bad section of Detroit in July ’67.
Two weeks later they went to pick up their records and the studio was gone! During the famed Detroit race riots the place was burned down, but luckily they found the woman who ran the studio and she had a copy of the tape they made. So they pressed up only 75 copies for their friends and families but never actually released it.
Back From The Grave | Volume 6 | (Crypt) 1986
THE BEAUX JENS- “She Was Mine”
On March 13, 1966 four Lansing, Michigan high-school friends with very little experience but a helluva lotta enthusiasm decided to start a rock ‘n’ roll band. They got their name from a girlfriend’s French textbook cauz they dug this term for “handsome young men”.
A “painted up wild” 1954 Ford with a U-haul trailer to pull their equipment got them to shows at just about every teen club in lower Michigan as well as clubs like Daniel’s Den and The Sceen in Lansing. They even made appearances on the “Swing Lively” and “New Beat” TV shows.
Their wildest gig was on a Grand Rapids TV show with Bozo The Clown and a bunch of young kids, where they had to lip-synch “She Was Mine” without laughing at Bozo and the kids.
This great moody punker was recorded on February 1st 1967 at the famed Fenton/Great Lakes Studio in Sparta and was released on the Sceen Club’s Sound Of The Sceen label.
THE SHAMES-“The Special Ones”
The ultra-great flip to this side’s opening cut, setting down on pulverizing wax what it was all about bein’ a teen outcast in ’66!
Back From The Grave | Volume 6 | (Crypt) 1986
THE SAVOYS- “Can It Be”
Great poundin’ fuzz-punker with a surf-beat from Chicago! These guys got together in 63 after playing in various early-60s style bands, naming themselves after the Plymouth Savoy they used for driving around to gigs.
In 65 they went to a small studio in the south-Chicago suburb of Harvey and cut loose with this wailin’ little ripper. The guy running the studio was used to recording soul groups and had no sympathy for the Savoys’ rockin’ din and let it all get distorted.
THE ASCOTS-“So Good”
Real snappy guitar-wailin’ thunker from southwest Indiana, recorded at the Jan Eden Studios in Indianapolis, where Me & Them Guys of GRAVE 3 fame recorded their 45 one year later in ’66. The Ascots played a lot of teen clubs and Elks lodges in their stomping grounds of Vincennes between 64-66, but packed it in in August 66 when the lead guitarist and drummer went off to college. On the FRAT records label.
THE BARRACUDAS-“Baby Get Lost”
WHOOEE!! These cats make no bones about dispensin’ wit’ that little bitch Mary-Belle! Three words, honey – BABY GET LOST! The Barracudas were top pre-teen rock’n-roll titans in the swamps of Louisiana, playing all-nighters for drunken oil-rigger parties. Midnight to 6 AM they’d be wailin’ away with frantic ravers, and dawn would find ’em soothin’ migraines with sloppy, loose covers of Jimmy Reed songs. (as they put their version of “Honest I Do” on the flip).
Back From The Grave | Volume 6 | (Crypt) 1986
THE GOLDEN CATALINAS-“Varsity Club Song” AWRIGHTYI Jes’ TRY to top the godawfull din of these Wisconsin SLEDGEHAMMER PUNKSTERS! Fuckin’ GRUNGEY kerboon! This rousing anthem to LaCrosse, Wisconsin’s teen hot-spot is guaranteed to make ya slap on yer snowshoes and make the trek there every time!
The Catalinas started in ’61 as a mostly instrumental group, releasing one 45 on the Cuca label, “War Party/Crazy Twistin Baby”. They did another two 45s for various labels, then in 65 they became the Golden Catalinas, bleached their hair, bought gold suits and spray-painted their shoes gold.
In 66 they released this DEADLY mofo on TARGET records, recorded live at the Varsity Club, where they played a lot.
BILLY & THE KIDS-“Say You Love Me”
Real great pre-teen punker from Wenatchee, Washington. This was the first of their two 45s for the small JULIA label, their second not so hot cauz a slight psychedelic touch is creepin in.
Back From The Grave | Volume 6 | (Crypt) 1986
THE SHANDELS- “Caroline”
THE SHANDELS- “Mary Mary”
This Chicago teen combo cut loose with 2 ultra cool rockers about two different girls, no doubt pleasing and pissing off both cicks simultaneously.
THE ABANDONED- “Come On Mary”
Great frat-punker about another Mary, recorded in March 66 at Stereo Sonic Recording Studios on Wabash Avenue. The Abandoned were a four-piece who were all 11 years old when they got together in 64. Their first name was the Satin Flames, a surf name which they dropped after hearing the Stones.
The GREEN GORILLA, the DEEP END, the CELLAR, VFW halls, house parties and school dances provided ’em with plenty of shows, and they became the sorta local Stones, who they paid tribute to on the flipside with a cover of the Stones’ cover of “Around & Around”.
They were driven to shows by an older buddy who had a station wagon, and since he was 6’3″ tall people never refused to contribute when he passed the hat to collect money for the band.
A neighbouring band who played a lot of shows with them was the Dimensions, who recorded the frat-rock classic and fuckin’ expensive “From All Dimensions” LP.
Back From The Grave | Volume 6 | (Crypt) 1986
THE TREYTONES- “Nonymous”
Hold onto them arm-rests folks, lest you be shaken right offa the earth by this Bo Diddlin’ banger! Believe it or not, this crazed wailin’ wonder was unleashed in 1963! Yep, the fab Treytones of Wooster, Ohio cranked it out in 63 at Hilltop Studios in Ashland. Amazing for that year . . .
They were a three-piece vocal group with a three-piece back-up band who formed in 62, played all over the Akron-Canton-Warren area at wild joints like “The Deck” in the basement of the Kent Hotel, with parachutes for ceilings and Kent State line-backers for bartenders.
Bo definitely figured as a big influence in the lyrics and beat for this strange tale of a crazed dancing girl who “looked like she’d been in a hatchet fight”!!
Back From The Grave | Volume 6 | (Crypt) 1986
THE BRYDS- “Your Lies”
This Chicago five-piece let rip with a heavily Kinks/Raiders influenced slapper, which they recorded and released via a Wisconsin studio and label, RAYNARD.
They began in 63 as a frat-rock combo called the Empires, before splitting into two different groups, the Bryds and the Outspoken Blues in 66. The two bands played a lot of shows together and with local combos the X-men and the Syns, and at big shows with the Shadows of Knight and the New Colony Six.
Lead guitarist and singer Bob Stanley was the first guy in his high school to get tossed out for having long hair, and this also got ’em into trouble once at the GREEN GORILLA club in Cicero. A bun-ch of greasers surrounded ’em and started tossing bottles and cans, so the band ran out the back door. They couldn’t split cauz the organ-player was missing, and they figured him for a goner, but all of a sudden he turned up, with his long hair slicked back with water, which fooled the greasers and saved his life.
THE WERPS- “Love’s A Fire”
This is the unreleased, horn-less version of a Somerville, New Jersey band’s 45, recorded at Geno Viscione’s WGW Studios in early ’67. Unfortunately the masters for the FAST & WILD version vanished and we had to settle for this slower version, but the horns really are annoying on the fast 45 version, so you’ll hafta settle for this. Sorry . . .
Back From The Grave | Volume 6 | (Crypt) 1986
THE TROJANS OF EVOL – “Through The Night”
Some real ace band-names here, eh? This one be pretty odd! A QUICK WARNING: Watch out for the lead guit-break here cauz it’ll PLASTER YA TO THE WALL! Which is what happened to the old fart engineering the recording session for this song!
The Trojans travelled to Chicago’s Columbia Studios from their Gary, Indiana home in late 66 to record a Beau Brummels cover and an original, “Why Girl”.
On the drive there, they came up with this original and bailed on recording the cover. The old guy engineering the session had previously only worked for crooners like Peggy Lee and when the fuzz guitar kicked in, he fell over with his headphones on.
He then stormed into the room and said “What the %&§1*+% are you doing?”. The guys looked at him and said “Hey Pops, it’s a distortion box!”. To which the old guy exploded, screaming “I spend half a million bucks to make this place distortion-free and you wanna come in and screw up the sound?!” . . . Anyhow, the guys survived and released it on their own T.O.E. label.
Liner notes taken from Volume 6. Read more Graves here.
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