Mid-West Spotlight: The Gestures - Run, Run, Run/It Seems To Me

Mid-West Battle of the Garage Bands rolls on. Today we welcome you to Mankato, Minnesota! 

Mankato is a small farming town about 90 minutes south of Minneapolis and about 90 minutes north of the Iowa border. Of the 24,000 residents living in Mankato in 1964, we're going to focus today on four of them: Gus Dewey, Tom Klugherz, Bruce Waterston and Dale Menten. Together the Mankato-four were known as The Gestures. They started off in high school playing surf music but quickly transitioned to vocal rock. In October of 1964 the band released their first single for the regional label Soma Records. That song, written by Menten, was the excellent Run, Run, Run. Believe it or not they had a real hit on their hands. The song went to number 44 nationally, number 1 in Minneapolis, number 1 in New York City and number 3 in Los Angeles. The small town band and the small local label couldn't keep up with production and the song began to fall from the charts as there literally weren't enough records to ship to the stores. At least Soma Records had the good idea to print a limited edition of the records in blue vinyl! How cool!

Now we get to flip that record over and dig on the brilliant It Seems To Me, also written by Dale Menten. It Seems To Me is a jazzy little number that really shows the maturity of Menten's songwriting. 

Sadly, after just two releases the band dispersed.

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

Minnesota Garage Spotlight: The Castaways - Liar, Liar

Minnesota Garage Spotlight: The Deacons - Empty Heart

Minnesota garage mayhem continues into week two with a small band out of Johnson High School in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Deacons were, at the time of this recording, Earl Pritchard on vocals, Gary Starzecki on bass, Richard Weeks, Rick Youngberg on lead guitar and one other cat named, Chico. Don't know his last name. The high school mates had released two singles with a different singer named Jim Reiff in 1964 for Re-Car Records. Those singles fall in the Frat Rock/Party Rock category. They're fine, but don't hold up as well as our feature song, their third and last single, released in 1966 on local stalwart label, Soma Records.

The song was funded by one Dino Barilla, a bit of a lounge singer in Minnesota with some money connections. Fuh' get about it. Mr. Barilla needed a backup band and called on The Deacons for help. The Deacons cut Dino's song, the dreadfully bad Problems About Baby, with Dino crooning away at Kay Bank Studio in Minneapolis. Then they cut a cover of The Rolling Stones' Empty Heart with Earl Pritchard on vocals. And wow, what a difference. The two sides of this single share few similarities. Rick Youngberg lifts the four chord Empty Heart to incredible new heights. Their rendition starts out much like the Stones', albeit faster, but then the band adds a particularly killer Yardbirds' styles frenzied finish replete with wailing guitar and howling screams. I wish it didn't fade out. Fade outs are for sissies. 

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

Minnesota Garage Spotlight: The Trashmen - Surfin' Bird

We still have soooo much Minnesota garage rock we want to spin that we think we'll go ahead and take it through the weekend and maybe even into the early part of next week. But today is Friday and that means we need a good "party song". They don't get much better than this pre-Beatles raver from Minneapolis. 

The Trashmen were a surf band from Minneapolis who combined two songs from doo-wop group, The Rivingtons, to form one song anew. That Trashmen song would become known as Surfin' Bird. Surfin' Bird was released on the local Garrett Records label (this was only their second release for the short-lived label) and distributed by Minnesota label, Soma Records, in November of 1963. The earliest Garrett Pressings give songwriting credit to drummer and frenzied singer, Steve Wahrer (see the scan of my brutalized copy below), but a legal threat gave the Rivingtons back their due credit and royalties. 

Tony Andreason, Dal Winslow and Bob Reed accompanied Steve Wahrer in their frenetic beat down of this bizarre number. Unlike most songs we spin here, we can firmly say that this song was a certifiable hit. It reached #4 in the US just before Christmas of '63 and has remained a top of mind number all these years, even reaching the top 10 in the UK in both 2009 and 2010!

The timeless greatness of Surfin' Bird can't be denied. To point, as I digitized this one last night, my two kids got up from doing their homework to start dancing around the house and then asked me to play it again...but louder. You can readily hear the influence it had on off-beat bands like The Cramps and The B-52s. The vocals sound so much like those of Fred Schneider. 

I was stunned to find just the other day, the French picture sleeve copy on Columbia Records you see at the top of the post in mint condition in a record store in Denver, Colorado. How did that record get there? We'll never know. But now it has a good home. Happy Friday. 

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

Minnesota Garage Spotlight: The Gestures - Don't Mess Around and Candlelight

Don't Mess Around

Candlelight

Welcome to Mankato, Minnesota! Mankato is a small farming town about 90 minutes south of Minneapolis and about 90 minutes north of the Iowa border. Of the 24,000 residents living in Mankato in 1964, we're going to focus today on four of them: Gus Dewey, Tom Klugherz, Bruce Waterston and Dale Menten. Together the Mankato-four were known as The Gestures. They started off in high school playing surf music but quickly transitioned to vocal rock. In October of 1964 the band released their first single for the regional label Soma Records. That song, written by Menten, was the excellent Run, Run, Run. Believe it or not they had a real hit on their hands. The song went to number 44 nationally, number 1 in Minneapolis, number 1 in New York City and number 3 in Los Angeles. The small town band and the small local label couldn't keep up with production and the song began to fall from the charts faster than Soma could print more copies. (for a real treat, flip that record over and dig on the brilliant It Seems To Me, also written by Dale Menten) The band was brought back into the Minneapolis studios to record their follow-up. That single, released in February of 1965, is our hero single of the day: Don't Mess Around/Candlelight.

Don't Mess Around is an unexpected number. Written by singer and guitarist, Dale Menten, the 2:19 song shows signs of jazz and includes a surprising bluesy time change for the impressive lead guitar work. We're going to also include the Flip-Side for you, the nearly as good Dale Menten song, Candlelight. The single failed to catch on and only made it to number 33 in Minneapolis and failed to chart anywhere else.  

Sadly this would be the last time The Gestures would record. After just two releases the band dispersed. 

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

Minnesota Garage Spotlight: The Castaways - A Man's Gotta Be A Man

We're going to spin some Minnesota garage for you all this week. We'll start with The Castaways who had a regional hit with their 1965 song, Liar, Liar. That number has deservedly had many lives as it still gets some airplay and has been in movies such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. But we're not going to play anything so obvious for you. Nope, we're turning our attention to the much harder to find follow-up single and we're going to focus on the Flip-Side of the said 1965 release on Soma Records. 

The A-side of the single, Goodbye Babe was a fine cut but was clearly trying to capitalize on the group's previous hit. The real gem is the flip, A Man's Gotta Be A Man, a mature number written by band guitarist and lead singer, Robert Folschow. It's a moody garage number with some wonderful ethereal keyboard work and a great harmonica break. Other members of The Castaways included James Donna on keyboards, Roy Hensley on bass and Dennis Craswell on drums and occasionally Dick Roby on 2nd guitar. Check out how young these cats were, particularly Craswell. 

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