One of those tunes you've heard your entire life and finally you go "hang on! wait a a fucking minute, this is fantastic!"
The state of the art sound of the 70s with all of the gorgeous hooks effortlessly in the right place.
Like a really excellent multilayered cake. Each element is a delicious harmonious hook: the piano, those tom toms, the slide-y Harrison-esque guitar, the immaculate multi-tracked backing vocals, the bass, the myriad of minuscule percussion flourishes, the entire delectable melody ripped straight from Carol King etc.
Evocative of first love, carefree summers and lost innocence I Saw The Light kinda now makes you wonder "Where did my life go?"
I can't remember when the last essential American 60s garage rock compilation was issued... sometime in the early 00s with the ace Teenage Shutdown cd series and those seven volumes of Fuzz, Flaykes & Shakes. This month however an excellent cd has been released Teen Beat Mayhem: Slipped Thru The Cracks.
So these never previously compiled tunes come from the secret stash of Mike Markesich's record collection. Markesich is of course known to garage fans as the author of 2012's TeenBeat Mayhem, the most exhaustive and authoritative reference guide to 60s garage rock, teenbeat & garage psych 45s.
Below are the only four tunes from this cd I can find on youtube at the moment and they were only just recently uploaded by the legendary channel Bolt24 Hot Sounds. Discogs info on almost all of these groups has only been added in the last couple of days. So this is rare stuff indeed but I wouldn't be talking about if it wasn't such good stuff so as Molly used to say "do yourself a favour"
Rogues 5 - Oh So Right [1965]
Outa Lorain Ohio comes the restrained menacing fuzzed twangery of Oh So Right from one and done group Rogues 5. All shadowy and threatening but uptight and controlled creating a simmering sinister tone.
Incredible stuff.
Egyptians - Walkin' Shoes [196?]
Mesmerising moody and brooding teen garage. A dreamy lo-fi sound not dissimilar to the Velvets in mellow mode. A pulsating, haunting and ultimately addictive tune.
Downbeat baby!
Soul Survivors - Need You Love [1967]
Scuzzy party time. Get the dance floor sizzling at your next shindig with this groovin' organ driven garage banger.
Resurrection - Like The Way [1967/1968?]
Catchy girl/boy lusty obsessions lyrically captured in a tune with great organ riff, jangly guitar, hypnotic organ and a groovy beat.
All done in a nonchalant rudimentary manner.
The coolest.
Outa sight!
*That's just the tip of the iceberg there's another twenty four crude unknown regional gems waiting for you to discover. I gotta say I'm pretty fucking surprised at the strike rate of the tunes on this cd. Who would have thought that we'd still be finding toppermost primitive 60s garage, homespun jangle-y pop and lo-fi moody teenbeat tunes in 2026.
Roll up roll up for some teenbeat moody and broody garage from Holland Michigan group The New Era.
This killer sunshine pop smash has got all the irresistible rolling jangly guitars and hook laden sweetness you could want from an ace 60s pop song yet it's still barely even a cult record.
Classic supremely melodic moody and broody garage from one and done group The Wonders outa Omaha Nebraska. Soaring haunting harmonies in cool disorientating guitar pop gem.
Funky psychedelic bubblegum glam in an atmospheric horror pop style.
The sort of novelty hallucinogenic glam you'd imagine was a seminal influence on the hypnagogic pop underground... er... maybe I'm just imagining Ariel Pink doing a cover of this brilliant tune for a limited edition Halloween release.
Charming and tuneful pop perfection from 1979 baby!
If your idea of a heavenly pop hit is soft rock somewhere between Drivers Seat and Baker Street hold on.
Everything here is in exactly the right place: That lovely 12 string, prominent melodic bass, cascading somewhat eerie piano, a masterclass in understated or perhaps perfectly stated hook laden harmonies & backing vocals, great sounding drums and to top it all off a reigned in clear saxophone played by the guy who funnily enough played on Baker Street. Cozy, slightly melancholy and ultimately romantic, Hold On's still highly resonant today. Timeless baby. FM AM... it belongs everywhere forever on your radio dial...
Surprisingly #18 Billboard chartbuster Hold On wasn't a top 40 hit here or even in Canadia...
A lo-fi slacker rock jam that's probably mostly forgotten these days.
In 1993 before burning cds from your mates became a thing I had One Sock Missing on a TDK D90 blank cassette with Archers Of Loaf's Icky Mettle on the other side. A couple of years later I saw The Grifters support Jeff Buckley at The Palais in St Kilda which I guess is a notable gig because soon Jeff was dead and he became a superstar in the rock history while this excellent tune has just 3436 views on youtube.
Ramshackle Rolling Stones damaged rawk. A messy drunken singalong where the raw lo-fi noise becomes cosmically unhinged.
