Round 2 of the Battle of the Garage Bands Bracket: The 13th Floor Elevators v. The Sonics

In our first day of Round 2, The Misunderstood of the So Cal Region went through New York champions, The Blues Magoos, like a hot knife through butter. The Misunderstand now move on to the top three and await their next opponent. Misunderstood no more. 

Day 2 of the second round pits two epic records against each other (after 10 months of doing this, they better all be epic at this point!). 

From the highly competitive Texas region we have The 13th Floor Elevators with their debut single, You're Gonna Miss Me c/w Tried To Hide. The single was released, first on the local label, Contact and then on International Artist records in early 1966. 

The Sonics are representing the birthplace of American garage records, The Pacific Northwest. They are putting forth with their 5th single, released in the Fall of 1965 on Etiquette Records. We have the original Cinderella on the a-side and Louie Louie on the flip-side.  

Go forth judges. Look at both sides of the single and make your call. We don't envy your task. 

Here is the original post on The Elevators

Here is the original Post on The Sonics. 

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

Battle of the Garage Bands: The Sonics v Phil and the Frantics

Another round in the books and The 13th Floor Elevators of Texas cruised past a very strong single from The Bad Roads.

Today we move down to the next bracket. The Sonics representing the Pacific Northwest are going head to head with Phil and The Frantics representing The Rocky Mountains. Two very different approaches on American Garage records. The Sonics on Etiquette Records with their power chord heavy original, Cinderella, and a blitzkrieg reimagining of the PNW standard, Louie Louie. And on the other side of the ring we have Phil and The Frantics on Sounds Ltd. Records with two minor key originals that stutter and stop and takes at a more sensitive approach. Perhaps the only similarity between the two is the use of Saxophone in their records.

Here is the original Post on The Sonics. 

Here is the original post for Phil and the Frantics

And here is a list of top singles The Sonics had to best to be crowned the PNW Region champions.

And here is a list of top singles Phil and The Frantics had to best to be crowned the Rocky Mountain Region champions. 

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 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!

Song of the Week: The Sonics - Louie Louie

Day four of our Louie Louie love fest. The Sonics -- Gerry Roslie, Andy Parypa, Larry Parypa, Rob Lind and Bob Bennet -- recorded Louie Louie in 1965 at Wiley/Griffith Studios up in Seattle with producer Kearney Barton manning the controls. The song was recorded live with two tracks. One for the drums and one for the rest of the band. Most notably, the Sonics change the song from it's familiar I-IV-V (A#-D#-E#m) arrangement and instead give it a major chord I-III-IV (A#-C#-D#) arrangement. The change takes the bop out of the song and replaces it with a good old crunch. Gerry Roslie rips the vocals as hard as Larry Parypa rips the unrelenting barre chord progression on guitar. The result is truly a mind melt. Particularly when put into the context of 1965.

The song was released as the Flip-Side to the band's stellar composition, Cinderella, and would prove to be their last for Etiquette Records.

Song of the Week: Rockin Robin Roberts - Louie Louie

What you have here is the missing link. This is the version of Louie Louie that became the benchmark for future versions. It is by Rockin Robin Roberts and the backup band, though not credited on the label, is none other than The Wailers. The Wailers had just produced a #38 charting instrumental for another label and thus could not be credited. In fact, Etiquette Records was The Wailers' own creation to get out from under their old contract with Golden Crest. This recording of Louie Louie, is, as you can see from the scan above, the first record Etiquette ever released.

Rockin Robin Roberts and the Wailers recorded this version of Louie Louie in Tacoma, Washington in 1960 and released the single in early '61. This recording marks the first published rock recording of the song. It also has a few other historically important notables. Roberts and The Wailers move the song from the calypso beat to the now familiar downbeat. They also moved the song from it's original key of G, to Bb. And Roberts introduces the guitar lead, which is clearly the riff that the Kingsmen and other bands replicated, with the all important "Now let's give it to them, right now!"

The Wailers would go on to garage lore with songs like Hang Up and the wicked Out Of Our Tree. Rockin Robin Roberts, unfortunately, died an early death due to an auto accident in 1967.