Another charming slice of pre-Velvets moody & broody teen beat garage that really sounds like it coulda been an 80s or 90s Velvets-damaged lo-fi indie tune. If you told me Lou or Sterling or Dean had played on this I wouldn't have battered an eye.
The Innsmen were a bunch of teenagers from Edsel Ford High. They were another Michigan group who did just the one 7" single in 1966 and that was their recording career done but...
Then there's the other side of garage rock, quite often literally the flipside. These groups would put a garage rocker on one side and a slow sad tune on the other. One Teenage Shutdown compilation's sub heading summed it up nicely calling it "Moody and Brooding Teen Misery Garage Rock". A lot of this stuff is pre-Velvets proto-indie slow-fi.
This tune Girl by Keggs is a fine example of what we're talking about. A wide eyed and innocent break up song with an atmospheric tone set by the minimalist low key instrumentation that really is a blueprint for the twee-core of Jonathan Richman.
For creating such a seminal tune Keggs really get fuck all recognition. Anyway it's a crackin' tune whether it's part of the narrative or not innit.
Then sometimes a song just insidiously inserts itself into your life. This was on a 60s garage mixtape youtube video along with like 35 other tunes. It was a very lo-fi, almost unlistenable version but I got drawn back to it time and time again. Then I had to find a better version and after several fidelity upgrades I think this one on @musicmastersdrumtracks2428 channel is the best. I'm For The Things You Do hasn't got the most monstrous fuzz or the most insane neanderthal snarls or a gimmick to sell you. No it's just sweet, subtle and sneaks into your consciousness. All of a sudden it's one of your favourite tunes from the 60s.
You'll Never Come Back To Stay - The Mondels (1967)
So if you love some 60s garage rock and freakbeat but haven't been paying attention for a while you might find that there are a bunch of tunes out there that weren't there before. I'm always amazed that the crate diggers keep finding more old stuff. Like I've also just realised there was an essential book on 60s garage published in 2012 called Teenbeat Mayhem which I disappointingly missed. Now it's sold out and going for absurd prices. Anyway the last ten 60s tunes I've posted were originally compiled in the late 70s and early 80s. Then they got further compilation appearances in the subsequent decades.
You'll Never Come BackTo Stay by The Mondels made its first compilation appearance in 2000 on Teenage Shutdown: I'm Gonna Stay (Target: Fuzz!). So this one and done 1967 seven inch single from The Mondels was waiting in the wings for thirty three years before being rediscovered.
So here's a terrific little teen fuzz and scuzz number that's done and dusted in under two minutes. They really nailed the devastating "my girlfriend left me and I'm gonna die if I don't get her back" tone here.
We interrupt this virtual 1966 with something from 1971 because, bless his soul, Tony McPhee singer and guitarist of the perpetually underrated Groundhogs has passed away.
Speaking of The Quest's high pitched vocals in a psych setting (see previous post) here's a similar aesthetic five years later. It's heavy psych avant-blues guitar pyrotechnics with an array of classic vocal tones including that infectiously insane high wailing falsetto. A metallic pop epic that never gets old. Somehow it always remains fresh, exciting and a blast every time. My favourite tune of my year of birth.
Another storming slice of unorthodox Michigan garage. The Quest's hailed from Grand Rapids MI. They released three singles on the legendary Fenton label. While we get some supreme fuzz and manic surf drummage, it's the high pitched hook laden vocals that set this tune apart. Good fun spooky stuff. Is it spooky? Maybe it's an ode to paranoia? I dunno, I've never been able to comprehend exactly what he's on about.....
I'd never heard this until today. Make Her Cry is the a-side of which the previous post's I Never Forgot Her was the b-side. This tune wasn't on any of the Pebbles or Teenage Shutdown compilations. It did however appear on a volume of the Garage Punk Unknowns compilation series but I missed those so...
To say the sonic contours and musical aesthetics of this song were unexpected is probably an understatement. Initial impression is: This sounds like TheBeach Boys doing a glam rock stomper five years early. It's the kinda music indie/psych/hypnagogic artists were aiming for twenty years ago. You could imagine a cover of this turning up on a James Ferraro recording circa On Air.
Anyhow Make Her Cry woulda been a barnstormer at the local Michigan teen beat sock hop back in the day!
Ok now lets get to the weirder side of the unknown teen beat garage scene from Michigan. The Undecided ? were from Dearborn MI and released just the one single. This is the flipside. I Never Forget Her was firstly compiled in 1983 on Pebbles: Highs In The Mid Sixties Volume 5: Michigan.
Sometimes the acolytes of The Yardbirds, The Beach Boys et al. match or even outdo their heroes. If you've never heard this before give it a chance, the uncommon charms of The Undecided ? might just cast a spell on you. I Never Forgot Her is unexpected and curious. Apart from the monstrous reverb there's something going on here that's sonically quite disconcerting which makes it totally irresistible. These guitar sequences are left intentionally unresolved leaving a slightly disorientating undercurrent: A ghost in the air of what you thought should have been.
If Blue Oyster Cult's 1976 hit Don't Fear The Reaper has always been a favourite of yours and you've not heard this you might be in for a surprise. Found Love was on a Pebbles: Highs In The Mid Sixties comp. This is another 7" single flipside that has outlasted its totally forgotten and forgettable A-side.
This toe-tapper flows along in an incredibly pleasing manner. It's an anthem. The organ sets the driving tone and the guitar gets on board along with that killer bass doing its own thing. There's even a break! What's not to like.
Another hook laden slice of perfect driving psych-rock that didn't become a top ten smash. How can this be? It's undoubtably one of the great singles of the 60s.
Was the subject matter too disturbing. I mean:
"So now they put him away, they say he's not a normal man You never can tell, but well they say he may do it again"
Whatever he did it can't have been good. But Johnny was a good boy wasn't he?
"Animals all loved him And he had a way with kids"
It's all terribly upsetting and mysterious. I'm gonna go with, not a crime against a person, but maybe he set the local sports stadium on fire because he didn't like footy. I can't help but think it was something much much worse though, like the most most transgressive abhorrent crime possible. Oh dear Johnny what did you do?
*Imagine if all the San Fran psych/Matrix groups were this good?
Anyway they became just another one and done group which has probably made them way more legendary than if they had released a full LP or three or perhaps they missed out on being more influential than The Velvets.
