Battle of the Garage Bands: The 13th Floor Elevators v. The Bad Roads

Day two of the bracket system witnessed The Misunderstood of the Southern California region getting past the midwest region winner, The Litter. Our congratulations go out to The Misunderstood who, we have on good authority, are huddled at a restaurant in Las Vegas watching the returns with baited breath. Stand by boys, we are about to move on. 

Today we move to a bracket with two very strong region representatives: The 13th Floor Elevators representing Texas and The Bad Roads from nearby Louisiana representing The South region. Our celebrity judges will now weigh-in with eloquent words located in the comment section below and let you know who comes out ahead today. So, without further ado, let's get ready to rumble!

See the original post on the Elevators here. 

See the original post on The Bad Roads here. 

 And here is a look at how The 13th Floor Elevators and The Bad Roads came to win their respective regions.

The South Spotlight: Dr. Spec's Optical Illusion - Tryin' To Mess My Mind/She's The One

The final day of our regional Battle of the Garage Bands for the South Region. Today we are in New Orleans, Louisiana where we get the unique-named band, Dr. Spec's Optical Illusion. This very rare record was released on the not infamous Flambeau Records in the Summer of 1967. The band had gone by the name of the Illusions but when it came time to make a record the label owner's wife and business partner changed the name on the pressing to make it sound more psychedelic. The singer, Kris Sherman, his brother, drummer Scott Sherman, guitarist Marshall Clyburn, bassist Bryce "pinky" Hatchett and organ player Rick Stelma had no idea this name change had gone down. And, apparently, their parents weren't too hip on how things went down and didn't trust the manager, James Miglaccio. Being that not all in the band were old enough to sign, some parents refused to sign the contract. That means the record never got a release beyond it's initial pressing from the plant and never made it's way into stores. Very few of these records are thought to exist today. 

Both songs, Tryin' To Mess My Mind and She's The One, were written by the Kris and Scott Sherman as well as Marshall Clyburn. Somehow they spelled Clyburn's name two different ways on either side of the record. 

Both sides are ravers in the first order. The A-side, Tryin' To Mess My Mind, is ultimately a soul number hidden under a Psych-Rock coat. I dig Pinky's bass work on this number. She's The One starts with a nice bass line and warbly guitar that hint at a slightly earlier era in garage rock. The reverb drenched organ and Kris Sherman's raging vocals put the number right back in 1967.

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

The South Spotlight: The Barracudas - Baby Get Lost

Day seven of our Battle of the Garage Bands from The South has us spinning a rare little gem from some little kids in the heart of nowhere, Bunkie, Louisiana. Not too much known about The Barracudas other than they are in a hurry to tell that little middle school girl to get lost. They only gave her 1:43 to listen to their high pitched ultimatum:

Well why should I be a raving fool
I'm the boss so I make the rules
Well do me a favor
Well, baby get lost (get lost! get lost!)
I don't care, I don't care
Well, baby get lost (get lost! get lost!)

And then they fit in a drum solo! Awesome. The pre-teens released this on Zundak Records in April of 1965.

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

The South Spotlight: The Bad Roads - Blue Girl/Too Bad

We're deep into our regional Battle of the Garage Bands series now with three US regions down (New England, New York, Mid-Atlantic). Today we start our 10-day run way down in the deep South. 

Some of the best garage records from the 60s came out of the middle of nowhere. Or maybe just to the left of center of nowhere. That's the case with today's wonderful double sided gem.

The band known as The Bad Roads hailed from Lake Charles, Louisiana. The band members were Buz Clark on vocals/harmonica, Terry Green on lead guitar, Briant Smith on guitar, Mike Hicks on bass and Danny Kimball on drums. Sometime around the Summer of 1966, five hipsters in white pants drove to Ville Platte, Louisiana to record two original compositions at Floyd Solieu's Jin Records studio. The label had released a ton of Cajun music, but The Bad Roads were going to come out of that little studio with two snot-nosed rockers to unleash on South-Western Louisiana. 

The A-Side is the band composed, Blue Girl, a two minute scorcher about a "groovy chick with a way out style". Buz gives us the requisite sneer and Terry Green adds some particularly good guitar work with enough fuzz to make a peach smile. 

For my money, it's the Flip-Side that really steals the show. The band composed Too Bad tells the story of a not so groovy chick who didn't know a good thing when it was staring her right in the face. A great recurring riff, great drum work and a really unique set of middle sections that have Buz talking his way through his plea with this girl. Not to mention some great lyrics. 

The Bad Roads are still playing and have a website set-up with some great photos. Check it out here.

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

Hope Waits - Get Behind The Mule

We're going to stay in Louisiana for our third straight day. In fact, it's our 5th Louisiana artist in the last two weeks alone. All hail the Pelican state!

Hope Waits hails from Monroe, Louisiana, a town on the highway between Shreveport and Jackson, Mississippi and dead center of nowhere good. And like the subject of yesterday's post, this Louisiana native traveled west to record in Los Angeles. Working with producer Peter Malick, Hope Waits kicked out one nice, jazzy album for Radarproof Records back in 2007. Our song today, Get Behind The Mule, written by our smooth throated chanteuse, explores a lovely, sparse country-blues style. It's wonderfully produced with lots of open spaces in the song. A great example of how less is more. Or, to put it another way, it's sometimes what you don't play that matters more than what you do play. The result here is that the open spaces allow for Waits' vocals to float effortlessly as she stirs her brandy with a nail.

You can stream her entire album, Introducing Hope Waits, over at her site located here. Below we're giving you a bonus video of Waits doing I'll Be Satisfied.

Have a good weekend. Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

James Burton and Ralph Mooney - Corn Picken'

It's Corn Pickin' time! We return today to Shreveport, Louisiana and to James Burton. We mentioned in yesterday's post that a young James Burton was on guitar for yesterday's Dale Hawkins tune, La-Do-Dada. Today we feature that guitarist front and center.

James Burton was raised in Minden, Louisiana, just an opossums throw away from Shreveport. He cut his chops early as a self-taught guitarist and became the spokes-picker for a distinct style of guitar playing called chicken picken'. That flat pick/finger pick/under-string-pluck/note bending combo thing he does so well is on full display here on his own composition, Corn Picken'. Burton's second, and final, solo single was released on Capitol Records in March of 1968. It's one minute and 47 seconds of pure geetar pickin' goodness.

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

Dale Hawkins - La-Do-Dada

Dale Hawkins hailed from the swamps near Shreveport, Louisiana. The skinny, pimply faced white kid had a penchant for employing great guitarists like Roy Buchanan and James Burton. James Burton, who would go on to play with Ricky Nelson, Elvis Presley and Gram Parsons, plays on this Hawkins original, La-Do-Dada. This A-Side, Hawkins' 5th single, was released on the legendary Chicago blues label, Checker (a subsidiary of Chess Records) in July of 1958. He may be the only white guy on that label. Anyone?

Dale Hawkins got into the production business and worked with The Uniques, who we just featured a few days ago, Mike Nesmith of The Monkees, The Five Americans and The Blue Things. The Blue Things, incidentally, covered La-Do-Dada in 1965 for their major label debut.

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

The Uniques - Tell Me What To Do

Back in May of 2013 we featured a record by an Arkansas group called The 5x5 (aka The Five by Five) and their excellent recording of Tell Me What To Do for Paula Records. We've re-posted that so it now appears directly under this post. Today we turn to The Uniques doing Tell Me What To Do. 

The Uniques, based out of Shreveport, Louisiana, were led by Joe Stampley. The young Stampley, in addition to his job as leader of The Uniques, worked as a house producer for Paula Records. Not only did he produce The 5x5 version of Tell Me What To Do, but he also wrote it. The Uniques released the Stampley composition in April of 1966, almost a full year before The 5x5 put their stamp on it. It was the Flip-Side of their 5th single. This version features far more guitar work than does The 5x5 version. 

You can now listen to both back to back and let us know which you like better.

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

Songs The Yardbirds Taught Us (#1): Enrie K-Doe - A Certain Girl

We're going to spend the week going under the covers by looking at the original versions of songs that were covered by The Yardbirds. In many cases we learned of the artist or the particular song FROM The Yardbirds. In most cases, actually. 

We'll start today with Ernie K-Doe (born as Ernest Kador) of New Orleans, Louisiana. Ernest struck it big in early 1961 with the Allen Toussaint composition/production of Mother-In-Law. In October of that same year Ernie K-Doe reached his bucket into the deep, rich music well that was Allen Toussaint one more time. Toussaint produced and wrote A Certain Girl under the name of Naomi Neville and it was released by Ernest K-Doe on the great local New Orleans label, Minit Records.

The song became a staple of early Yardbirds sets and was dedicated to wax with Eric Clapton laying down a fiery lead guitar part as the Flip-Side of their amazing debut single in May of 1964. It turns out we wrote about The Yardbirds' version in 2012. You can hear their version right here. 

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