Canada Spotlight: The Free-For-All - Show Me The Way/Blue Monday

Day four of the Canada Battle of the Garage Bands takes us to Nova Scotia, Canada. Seriously. We definitely don't know of any other garage bands from Nova Scotia. 

The band name on the label says The Free-For-All but the band is really the Halifax, Nova Scotia band, The Great Scots. The Great Scots recorded a number of solid records in their native land for London Records and Epic Records before they made their way to LA to try to hit the big time. The band seemed to be on the edge of success when they ran into a brick wall. Maybe it was their silly Kilt outfits and coordinated dances. Or maybe it was their tight cut non-Beatle hair that held them back. Who knows? But in an effort to trick jaundiced radio programmers, the band released Show Me The Way (which is actually the Flip-Side of the record) under the name The Free-For-All. Show Me The Way just soars. Catchy melody and a great guitar riff. How was this not the A-Side?

The A-Side was the more pedestrian blues number, Blue Monday, a rewrite of T-Bone Walker's often covered number, Stormy Monday Blues. 

The single was released on Challenge Records in the Summer of 1966. Ultimately the prestidigitation didn't work and the record went nowhere, despite it's inherent quality. Then the Canucks got a rude awakening. Dave Isnor was conscripted into the US Army and sent off to Vietnam. Yep, when you were here on a working visa, you could be drafted. Whoops. The remaining members, Gerry Archer, Bill Schnare, Rick McNeil. and Wayne Forrest high-tailed it back to Nova Scotia on the first dog sled out and their chance at stardom was lost. Luckily they left us this gem before they got lost in the snow drifts of time.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Canada Spotlight: The Painted Ship - Little White Lies/Frustration

Day three of our Canada spotlight takes us to Vancouver, British Columbia. I believe this is our first stop in that fine, fine town.

The Painted Ship kicked out two records in their brief career. Today we spin their first record, released in December of 1966 on London Records.

Little White Lies gets the A-Side and it is a humdinger of a song. It turns the lying cheating no good lover story around. In this approach our singer, William Hay, admits that he is a lying, cheating, no-good scoundrel. Cool guitar work, hushed whispers of "white lies" makes this a unique song. We love the end of the song as our protagonist seems to really enjoy his rogue role.

The flip-side is Frustration. Another cool number with some squeaky Vox Continental organ backing up Hay's understated approach.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Canada Spotlight: The Haunted - 1-2-5/Eight O'Clock This Morning

Day 2 of our Canada Battle of the Garage Bands has us visiting Montreal, Canada. In this hip town we find a band called The Haunted. The band was formed in 1965 by gutiarist Jurgen Peter and grew to include Bob Burgess on vocals, Al Birmingham on lead, Mason Shea on bass and Dave Wynne on drums. The Haunted immediately became THEE band in Montreal and opened for the Stones, Them and a host of other cool cats.

The band cut their first single for Quality Records in May of 1966. We feature that number today. The released version of 1-2-5 required a recut as the record company deemed the lyrics too risqué for the French-Canadian audience. Ironically, the original version, which is not nearly as good as this recording, saw the light of day in the puritanical US on Amy Records. Now that is a hard record to find! 1-2-5 tells the tale of a boy just strolling down the street with five bucks burning a hole in his pocket. Who does he see but Mary Jane, a local prostitute. Exchange of cash, and then she is pulling down the shades.

The flip-side is Eight O'Clock This Morning. Composed by Burgess and Birmingham, this proves the band knew what they were doing. Great bass, great vocals, great guitar. All great.

1-2-5, replete with snarly vocals, edgy lyrics, a brilliant bass line and a killer guitar lead, broke nationally and made the band a household name across the great white north. But whose name? You'll note from the picture above that the band's name was misprinted on the first pressing of the single as The Hunted. These record companies did this so frickin' often back then it is really hard to imagine who they had editing their work.

The sound sample above apparently comes from the LP, with a different singer, than either of the released single versions, which are linked below.

The USA release.

The first Canadian release

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Canada Spotlight: The Ugly Ducklings - Just In Case You Wonder/That's Just A Thought I Had In My Mind

Our regional Battle of the Garage Bands heads to the great White North. The Ugly Ducklings hailed from the suburbs of Toronto Canada in the town of Yorkville Village. 

The Ugly Ducklings were Dave Byngham on vocals and harmonica, Glynn Bell on rhythm guitar, Roger Mayne on lead, John Read on bass and Robin Boers on drums. The group released six singles in their heyday of '66 and '67 on Yorktown Records and Yorkville Records. Today's double sided feature is their third single: Just In Case You Wonder/That's Just A Thought I Has In My Mind.

Just In Case You Wonder (misprinted on the first releases as Just In Case You're Wondering) is a standout of the entire garage genre and makes a strong argument for the best Canadian garage record of all time. Roger Mayne's fuzzed out guitar work gives the song a strong backbone without getting to the point of ridiculous fuzz (as was sometimes too often the case with garage bands). It's nicely complimented by Bell's distinct jangly rhythm work. The song is written by Byngham and Bell and our singer lays it out clear that he's psychologically damaged by a mean, nasty girl. 

Just in case you wonder
Why I'm feeling blue
There's no need to ponder
It's all because of you 

I'm sitting at home
Sitting alone
I'm waiting for you to come back
Knowing that you won't 

Just in case you wonder
Baby where I'm at
I'm in the basement yonder
counting all the rats!

Yeah baby! One rat, two rat. Then we go into a very impressive extended lead from Roger Mayne. 

That's Just a Thought I Had In My Mind is a solid Flip-Side. Much different from the A-side, more straight out pop, but I think you'll agree, it deserves a little love from us today. The flip was written by Byngham and Mayne. 

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

And The Winner of the Pacific Northwest Battle of the Garage Bands Is...

We have a winner in our Pacific Northwest Battle of the Garage Bands!

I don't think anybody is surprised that The Sonics have unanimously won the coveted Pacific Northwest Battle of the Garage Bands competition. Quite frankly, we could have put up three of their earliest singles and any of them would likely have won the top spot. That's how good they are. A little more surprising is how high The Daily Flash finished. We love the record, but that is quite the honor to get ahead of The Wailers and The Kingsmen, two of the most influential bands in the region.

The Sonics are now the kings of the last United States region. That's 11 regions in all!  But we're not done. We so love our brothers to the north that we are going to include Canada for the next round. A lot of geography for just a few singles, but I think it will be worth it. Plus, it will give us an even number for our bracket system that will soon pit the winner of each region against the winner of another region. We'll battle each band against each other until we can crown one big winner in the coveted Battle of the Garage Bands. Dare we say, crown one single as THEE greatest North American garage single ever!

So, The Sonics take a breather and wait to see what Canada can give us. That will start tomorrow. Until then, enjoy a cut from all eleven winners.

Pacific Northwest: The Sonics - Cinderella/Louie Louie

Northern California: The Chocolate Watchband - Are You Gonna Be There/No Way Out 
Southern California: The Misunderstood - Children Of The Sun/I Unseen

Rocky Mountains: Phil and the Frantics: Say That You Will/'Till You Get What You Want

Mid-West: The Litter with Action Woman/Legal Matter

Texas: The 13th Floor Elevators with You're Gonna Miss Me/Tried To Hide

New England: The Squires with Going All The Way and Go Ahead

The South: The Bad Roads with Too Bad/Blue Girl

Great Lakes: The Shadows of Knight with Bad Little Woman/Gospel Zone

The Mid-Atlantic: The Enfields with She Already Has Somebody/I'm For Things You Do

New York: The Blues Magoos with We Ain't Got Nothing Yet/Gotta Get Away

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Pacific Northwest Spotlight: The Bards - Light of Love/Never Too Much Love

Final day of our Pacific Northwest Battle of the Garage Band singles takes us to the small town of Moses Lake, Washington. There we find four cats calling themselves The Bards. This band espouses love on every side.

The Bards were Mike Blazotti, Bob Galloway, Mardig Sheridan and Chuck Warren. The band's discography is a bit of a mess with a-sides and flip-sides being issued in numerous forms. Regardless, we feature today their third single. Released in September of 1967 for Picadilly Records. As you know we like to do here, we start by flipping sides.

Light Of Love was written by the keyboardist and the guitarist and showcases the band's mousy vocal talent. Great bass work by Chuck Warren abounds. We really love the last :25 of the record as the band does a nice little vocal coda to finish the song off.

We have more love on the other side of the record. The A-side is a cover of the Curtis Mayfield number, Never Too Much Love. This side is a little scratchy, true. It does demonstrate that this band was not your typical garage band. A little jazzy, a little soul, a whole lot of vocal talent. The band would soon get picked up by Capitol Records for national distribution and would soldier on into the 70s. Dig that photo below. Stonecringe.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Pacific Northwest Spotlight: The Bootmen - Ain't It The Truth Babe/Wherever You Hide.

Day 9 of our Pacific Northwest Battle of the Garage Bands has us spinning another 45 from Riverton Records, the Etiquette subsidiary.

The Bootmen hailed from Tacoma, Washington and released three singles in their brief career. The first was a pair of instrumentals on Etiquette Records and then two more singles, with vocals and all, for Riverton. We focus today on their swan song of a single, Ain't It The Truth Babe with Wherever You Hide, released in March of 1966.

The band appeared to change members quickly but it looks like a core of the band was Duane McCaslin on bass, Neil Anderson on guitar, Barry Bellandi on drums and Mike Moore on organ and Ron Gardner on vocals. But we can't swear that is the lineup here.

We don't know too much more about them expect Dickerson, Moore and McCaslin penned the excellent a-side, Ain't It The Truth Babe. Vocals are awash in reverb. Dig that guitar solo.

The flip-side is pretty amazing as well. Wherever You Hide has a nice snappy rhythm to it and, to this listener, sounds like it would fit in with some of the great Aussie singles featured on Ugly Things. Now that I listen closer, it sounds like they may have been listening to Questions I Can't Answer, by Heinz.

Photo below is courtesy of Pacific Northwest Bands website.

 Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Pacific Northwest Spotlight: Paul Bearer and the Hearsemen - I've Been Thinking/Route 66

This is why we love garage music. From the small town of Albany, Oregon, a town not too far from the college town of Corvalis, comes the brilliantly named Paul Bearer and the Hearsemen. Yeah, baby.

Paul Bearer and the Hearsemen released one single in July of 1966. It was released on Riverton Records, a subsidiary of the Seattle based Etiquette Records.

Flipping this record over, as usual, we are going to start with I've Been Thinking. The 2:40 second blitzkrieg was composed by the band's guitarist, Ed Westby. Ed, along with his brother, Jim, who is on vocals here, Marshall Adams on bass, Peter Brown on drums and Gary Snyder on organ, created one of the most manic, aggressive records ever. And it came out in 1966. Holy crap.

The A-side is a brilliant cover of Bobby Troup's standard, Route 66.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Pacific Northwest Spotlight: The Daily Flash - Jack of Diamonds/Queen Jane Approximately

Back to our Pacific Northwest Spotlight as we determine, region by region, the greatest garage single ever.

Today we spin a band out of Seattle, Washington. The Daily Flash started in the folk clubs of the PNW town and eventually would make their way down to the hipster scene of LA and then San Francisco. The band was guitarist and lead singer, Steve Lalor, guitarist Doug Hastings, Don MacAllister on bass and Jon Keliehor on drums. 

The band recorded only two singles in their brief existence. Today we feature their debut single, and, as usual, we flip the record over to start on the superior flip-side. The record was released in July of 1966 on Parrot Records.

The flip-side is the brilliant Jack of Diamonds. It opens with a wall of feedback before it gives way to a rolling bass line and wailing harp. The hard charging arrangement is never better than at the ever so brief, incendiary guitar break led by Doug Hastings. Dig that bass work behind the lead. The song gets writing credit from the band. However, that is a bit suspect. The song dates back to at least 1926 when Blind Lemon Jefferson recorded the number in Texas. The Daily Flash give it a pretty wild reinvention, but let's be honest, they rearranged it, they didn't write it. 

The A-side is a great cover of Bob Dylan's Queen Jane Approximately. It showcases the band's folk roots brilliantly. Truly one of the best Dylan covers from the era. Another great guitar solo and some real fine harmonies. Now if Dylan just hadn't written that number with the awkward sentence that ends improperly in a preposition, I would have nothing about which to complain.

The band released one more single, on Uni Records, in January of 1967 and is well worth seeking out. We wrote about here back in 2013.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Pacific Northewest Spotlight: The Kingsmen - Louie Louie/The Haunted Castle

Day six of our Pacific Northwest Battle of the Garage Bands finds us still kicking it around Portland, Oregon.

I could make a very strong argument that The Kingsmen's Louie Louie was both the most important and influential recording in rock history.

It was in 1963, Portland, Oregon, that the The Kingsmen paid $36 to record this number at a small radio studio with only two mics: One for the drums, one for the rest of the band, including the vocalist. The band banged it out and released it on the Seattle based Jerden Records in the Summer of 1963. From there Wand Records picked it up and released it nationally in October of that year.

The record spread like a wild fire and even launched a Justice Department investigation to determine if the lyrics were obscene (the answer was, "we can't tell") and was banned by one midwestern Governor who thought his state's impressionable teens should not undulate to the suggestive beat.

But the record persevered. This rag-tag stutter rhythm recording would soon be replicated by every garage and frat rock band in America. And when Pye Records released it in the UK in December of 1963, the Brit bands would be jumping on board as well. Bands like The Kinks, The Who, The Eyes and The Troggs would soon be pounding out their own interpretations of this rhythm and selling it back to the Americans who started it.

At the time of recording, the Kingsmen were comprised of Jack Ely on vocals, Lynn Easton on Drums, Mike Mitchell on guitar, Bob Nordby on bass and Don Gallucci on keyboards. Two notable moments to listen for in this recording. At :54, Lynn Easton yells "fuck!" (how the Justice Department missed this is beyond me) after breaking a drum stick. At 1:58, Jack Ely jumps in early and starts the next line before aborting and starting again.

Jack Ely would be forced from the band by Lynn Easton who wanted center stage. His mom trademarked the name and the Easton family began cleaning house.  That's the drummer, Easton, in the 1000 lip-synched versions you've seen on YouTube. Don Gallucci would be the next casualty with him being forced from the band as he was too young to tour.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Pacific Northwest Spotlight: Don and the Goodtimes - Little Sally Tease/Little Green Thing

Day five of our Pacific Northwest spotlight takes us to Portland, Oregon. Here we find a band called Don and the Goodtimes. Lame name. Not lame music.

Don Gallucci had been the organ player for The Kingsmen. That's him that opens the legendary recording of Louie Louie. But after that song hit it big, The Kingsmen went in to upheaval as the drummer and his parents smelled money and began pushing everyone out of the band to assert control. Don was one of those casualties as was singer Jack Ely. Ely apparently served as the earliest singer of Don Gallucci's band, but I am not clear if that is him singing in this record. I assume it is Don Gallucci singing.

Today we spin the a-side of the band's second single, released in 1965 on the Seattle based Jerden Records. Little Sally Tease was written by the band's guitarist, Jim Valley. The number only gained modest local attention, but it was enough to get Dunhill Records to release it nationally in August of 1965. Little Sally Tease tells the tale of a young gal who liked to lead the boys on and had all the skills to get what she wants. The number would later be picked up by The Standells for their 1966 LP, Dirty Water. As fine as that more famous recording is, we prefer this, the original version.

The initial release on Jerden came with a cover of the Rogers and Hammerstein number, You'll Never Walk Alone. I can't seem to find that so I will share a YouTube vid of the flip-side of the Dunhill Release, Little Green Thing.

Members of Don and The Goodtimes would swap spots with members of The Kingsmen and Paul Revere and the Raiders often. The Kingsmen would even go on to record Little Sally Tease with a particularly banal version released on Wand Records in 1966. They also did a rendition of Little Green Thing as the flip-side of their third release of Louie Louie, in 1965. 

The photo above was taken from the website, Pacific Northwest Bands and has a credit of Trisha Nerney. 

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Pacific Northwest Spotlight: The Wailers - Out Of Our Tree/I Got Me

Day four of our PNW region of the Battle of the Garage Bands gives us a record that one Gladys Smith appeared to have owned at one point. Luckily Gladys decided this record was too rockin' for her sensitive ears and it eventually found itself falling into my record collection. Now you get to hear it.

The Wailers hailed from the same blue collar town as yesterday's submission, The Sonics, as well as the hugely influential instrumental band, The Ventures. The Wailers really bridge the gap between those two bands and, thus, between two very important musical contributions from America. Surf music and garage punk. The Wailers released their first single in 1958 and became a powerful presence on the frat party circuit immediately. Then, in 1961, they made an amazingly huge, but largely unknown, contribution to the history of Rock-n-Roll. They teamed with a singer from a rival band and rearranged a calypso/doo wop song called Louie Louie. That song would soon become the signature tune for every band coming out of the PNW. It was billed under the name of Rockin' Robin Roberts as the band was trying to break from a restrictive contract with The Golden Crest Label and form their own label, Etiquette Records.

The band would become a revolving cast of characters anchored by Richard Dangell on guitar, Kent Morrill on organ and vocals and John Ormsby on bass. It is those three who composed today's A-side.

Out Of Our Tree was released on Etiquette Records in October of 1965. It just flat out rocks. Pounding drums, a solid bedrock of organ, roving bass lines, a growl of vocals, fuzzed guitar and a catch phrase of "Out Of Our Tree". It's got it all, baby. It's so, so, so...Pacific Northwest!

The flip-side, I Got Me, was composed by Dangell and Morill. I believe it is Dangell singing on this recording. It's a damn nice tune that fails to get comped properly.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Northwest Spotlight: The Sonics - Cinderella/Louie Louie

We return today with more on our Pacific Northwest Battle of the Garage Bands. Today we travel to Tacoma, Washington where we have the garage legends of all garage legends, The Sonics.

The Sonics were Gerry Roslie, Andy Parypa, Larry Parypa, Rob Lind, Bob Bennett. The five Tacoma boys recorded for Bill Wiley at the Griffith Studios and recorded for Etiquette Records, based on the second floor of a tiny building at 2442 NW Market Street in Seattle.

So much has been written about them, and so much about their songs that I'll just say this. The Sonics were a tour de force. Our songs from them today are their 5th single (actually 4.5 release) and came out in November of 1965.

The A-side, Cinderella, was composed by singer and organ player, Gerry Roslie. The flip-side is a great rewrite of the PNW standard, Louie Louie.

The Sonics are touring North America as I type. Go see them!

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!