Great Lakes Spotlight: The Unrelated Segments - Where You Gonna Go?/It's Gonna Rain

After a little holiday merriment we return today to start our next regional Battle of the Garage Bands. We just crowned The Bad Roads as the winner of the hotly contested South Region. The Enfields took a close battle in The Mid-Atlantic Region, The Blues Magoos took New York and The Squires took New England. Now we turn to The Great Lakes, a real hot-bed of Garage rock in the 60s, so we expect the next 10 days to be chock-full-O-crispy good rock.

The Unrelated Segments - Where You Gonna Go? by On The Flip-Side on Mixcloud

The Unrelated Segments - It's Gonna Rain by On The Flip-Side on Mixcloud

We start the two-week run at the Great Lakes with Michigan's The Unreleated Segments!

The Unrelated Segments made three singles and they all kick some serious booty. They sound a little different than the work of other garage bands of their day, a little more ambitious, a little more polished, a little more accomplished, a little more serious.

The band was formed in Taylor, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, in late 1966. The band was Ron Stults on vocals, Rory Mack on lead guitar, Barry Van Engelen on bass, John Torok on rhythm guitar and Andy Angellotti on drums. Before they had even a single concert, only two weeks after their first jam session, the High School boys went into the studio to record their first record in early 1967, Story Of My Life/It's Not Fair, released on Hannah-Barbera Records. Both numbers written by Rory Mack and Ron Stults. 

Today, we're going to listen to their second single, Where You Gonna Go?/It's Gonna Rain as released on Liberty Records in September of 1967. Both numbers, again, written by Mack and Stults.

Where You Gonna Go? opens with a crazy cool guitar riff that sounds like it might be run through a Leslie speaker. Van Engelen then joins the fray with some brilliant bass work before the creaking sound of a flexi mic stand gives way to Stults who sings of the bleak reality of working all day for another man, smoking cigarettes just for something to do and falling further and further behind the American Dream. The ever so brief bridge at 1:30 is an unexpected gem that really lifts the song at just the right time. The relentless guitar riff now gives way to a swinging romp:

And you know you're selling out
And as anybody knows
They'll know it by your face
And know it by your clothes

It's Gonna Rain is even more bleak. A slow, somber number that, again, features a nice chord progression and stellar bass work. Without question, the pairing of the upbeat A-Side and the somber Flip-Side make this one top notch garage record. 

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

Hanna-Barbera Records Spotlight: Tidal Waves - I Don't Need Love

As we drink our Flip-Side coffee and thumb through the massive volumes of records in our highly secure Flip-Side record vault 13 stories below ground, we keep finding more 45s from the HBR label that we want to share with you. But I have to admit, I present today's song to you with a noticeable amount of hesitation. Not because it's not a great song (because it is), but because it is not an obvious attention grabber. We usually try to spin a certain type of song that will grab people's attention from the first beat. Cool groove, nice riff, compelling vocals and high energy. I think this song is great, but I do have concerns that the melancholy presentation of the song doesn't fit the standard. I hope you'll stick around the song long enough to fully appreciate what we have here. 

The Tidal Waves were a bunch of Middle Schoolers (seriously!) and High Schoolers who hailed from Roseville, Michigan, a northern suburb of Detroit along Lake St. Clair. The band consisted of Roseville High Schoolers Mark Karpinski and Tom Wearing and Burton Junior High alums, Bob Slap, Bill Long and John Wearing. In the Spring of 1966 the quintet of pubescent punks released a cover of Farmer John on the local SVR label. The upbeat dance number went to number 1 on the local charts and HBR did what they did, they swooped in and bought the record contract of the teens and released Farmer John nationally. Bob Slap left the band and Dennis Mills stepped in as a replacement. He brought with him a moody number he had written called I Don't Need Love. HBR put some money behind the band and the kids recorded the minor key original with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in the Summer of '66. Pretty cool. The number did well locally but flopped nationally, which is not surprising since the song is a bit of a downer (in a good way). I Don't Need Love tells the tale of a tearful young man who gets burned by a girl and decides his days of  being in love are over...at the tender age of 14. This teen troubadour doesn't need a girl. No way! Too much trouble. All this kid needs to survive in life is a paper route, a tutor in algebra and for his dad to leave him alone on Wednesday and Thursday nights just long enough for him to watch Batman on ABC. Macaroni and Cheese for dinner wouldn't be too bad either, mom. 

Tidal Waves recorded one more record for HBR, the upbeat Action (Speaks Louder Than Words), but HBR was shuttering their doors and the record was barely even distributed let alone promoted. All three of the bands' records are worth seeking out. Action gets all the love from collectors, but I Don't Need Love isn't so bad either. Don't yo agree?

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

Hanna-Barbera Records Spotlight: The Unrelated Segments -- Story Of My Life/It's Not Fair

Story Of My Life

It's Not Fair

Day four of the Hanna-Barbera Records spotlight takes us to suburban Detroit, Michigan. It's February of 1967 and five geek-chic kids with some pretty serious musical chops just found out that the first record they ever recorded for the local SVR label is being picked up for national distribution by Hanna-Barbera Records out of LA. The five kids -- Ron Stults on vocals, Rory Mack on lead guitar, Barry Van Engelen on bass, John Torok on rhythm guitar and Andy Angellotti on drums -- call themselves the Unrelated Segments. They've recorded two songs written by Mack and Stults: Story Of My Life and It's Not Fair.

This double sided gem is flat-out a nasty-ass garage classic (as are all three singles the band put out). Story Of My Life is an upbeat number preaching the warning of money grubbing girls trying to exchange love for monetary rewards like jewelry. The song is highlighted by the brilliant bass work by Barry Van Engelen. Van Engelen's closing bass work at 1:57 is a thing of bizarre beauty far beyond what most of his contemporaries could produce. And again at 2:26. WTF?!?!?!?!

It's Not Fair is more than a solid Flip-Side. The slow number clearly owes much to the Zombies' She's Not There, but it stands on it's own legs in the end. The jazzy guitar work by Rory Mack is worth the price of admission alone. Reminds me a lot of the guitar work done by Minnesota garage band, The Gestures. 

Not more than a month ago we did a more extensive feature on The Unrelated Segments and their second single, Where You Gonna Go?/It's Gonna Rain. Check that out here to learn more about the band.

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

Song of the Week: The Unrelated Segments - Where You Gonna Go?/It's Gonna Rain

Where You Gonna Go?

It's Gonna Rain

The Unrelated Segments made three singles and they all kick some serious booty. They sound a little different than the work of other garage bands of their day, a little more ambitious, a little more polished, a little more accomplished, a little more serious.

The band was formed in Taylor, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, in late 1966. The band was Ron Stults on vocals, Rory Mack on lead guitar, Barry Van Engelen on bass, John Torok on rhythm guitar and Andy Angellotti on drums. Before they had even a single concert, only two weeks after their first jam session, the High School boys went into the studio to record their first record in early 1967, Story Of My Life/It's Not Fair, released on Hannah-Barbera Records. Both numbers written by Rory Mack and Ron Stults. 

Today, we're going to listen to their second single, Where You Gonna Go?/It's Gonna Rain as released on Liberty Records in September of 1967. Both numbers, again, written by Mack and Stults.

Where You Gonna Go? opens with a crazy cool guitar riff that sounds like it might be run through a Leslie speaker. Van Engelen then joins the fray with some brilliant bass work before the creaking sound of a flexi mic stand gives way to Stults who sings of the bleak reality of working all day for another man, smoking cigarettes just for something to do and falling further and further behind the American Dream. The ever so brief bridge at 1:30 is an unexpected gem that really lifts the song at just the right time. The relentless guitar riff now gives way to a swinging romp:

And you know you're selling out
And as anybody knows
They'll know it by your face
And know it by your clothes

It's Gonna Rain is even more bleak. A slow, somber number that, again, features a nice chord progression and stellar bass work from Van Engelen. It's a hell of a song to be featured on a Flip-Side. 

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