Mid-Atlantic Spotlight: The Swamp Rats - Louie, Louie/Hey Joe

Mid-Atlantic Battle of the Garage Bands takes us to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Here we find the first release by garage legends, The Swamp Rats. On this first 1966 release, on St. Clair Records, the band was a trio of Dick Newton, Dave Cannon, and Don Schriener. After this first single Bob Hocko would join the band as singer, but here Dick does the heavy lifting.

Obviously both songs are covers of standards of their day. But what covers they are! Louie, Louie is clearly picked up from the version recorded by The Sonics of Tacoma, Washington. It takes The Sonics already rocket-fueled approach and adds a little more kick. Dick Newton strains to keep his voice from cracking and gives us a first class teenage rock-n-roll scream going into the guitar solo.

The Flip-Side of Hey Joe is nearly as insane as the A-Side. Again, Dick Newtown and the band feel like a train that is about to come off the tracks on a curvy descent.

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

Mick & the Shambles - Lonely Nights Again

Following on the heels of yesterday's moody song we have here today more organ-drenched sadness with Mick & The Shambles doing their own Lonely Nights Again. We don't know much about them, but since this song is on a couple Philly comps we'll hazard to say they are from Pennsylvania. This was their only release from March, 1966 and both sides are penned by Michael Joyce (Mick?) and Robert Youngs (the Shambles?). Joyce handles production too. Please chime in if you know any more information on these guys; their bio's all a-shambles.

As always, see you On the Flip-Side

The Swamp Rats - Hey Joe!

More Hey Joe today. This time from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where the meanest, nastiest, dirtiest, loudest garage band to ever walk the Earth released their take on Hey Joe in 1966 on the local label, St. Clair Records.

By the way, the Flip-Side of this single was featured in our Louie Louie love fest back in 2012. Check it out here.