Texas Spotlight: Zakary Thaks - Bad Girl/I Need You

Day four of out Texas Battle of the Garage Bands already? What?

I probably looked like Linda Blair from the Exorcist the first time I heard Bad Girl some 30+ years ago. It is simply an amazing song with a killer Kinks-inspired riff, great guitar lead and perhaps my favorite key change in the history of music. That says a lot. 

The band is Corpus Christi's own Zakary Thaks and the song is their original composition, Bad Girl. Again, even beginner garage record collectors know this song inside and out, but we are here in the region by region Battle of the Garage Bands to spin the best of the genre. The single was originally released on the legendary local label, J-Beck Records, in July of 1966. The song was then picked up for national distribution by Mercury Records and released as a promo only. It never hit the record bins, just the radio stations.  

Zakary Thaks were just pimply faced kids. Singer Chris Gerniottis was only 15 when they recorded this. His voice is powerful and soulful far beyond his years. Rounding out the rest of the band were Pete Stinston on guitar, Rex Gregory on bass, John Lopez kicking out the sharp lead work and Stan Moore pounding out that beat that is so sweet at the key change.

On the flip-side the boys show their roots with a faithful cover of The Kinks' I Need You.  All in all the kids put out eight singles. All worth watching on eBay as they sell for ridiculous dollar amounts. 

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

Album: Here Are The Chesterfield Kings

Sometime in the fall of 1984, while spending a year in England, I was thumbing through a record store in Guilford, south of London, when to my astonishment I came across a copy of Here Are The Chesterfield Kings.  Having just been introduced to this album – and 60’s garage in general – by a friend back in the States, I knew this album was gold.  Isolated from my friend’s and my collection of records back home, I found myself studying this and a few other albums in my lonely little high-schooler bedroom.  The songs Little White Lies, Sixty Second Swinger and Come With Me got special attention.  They gave insight into this other kind of music - unruly, menacing vocals set to a raw pounding beat and inventive instrumentation.  Other songs such as You Better Look Now, Time to Kill or Outside Chance showed the more melodic side to the mid-‘60s music I craved to hear.  As a whole the music on this album was so charged that at times I literally couldn’t believe what I was hearing; and the album was so faithfully presented in the vein of a mid-‘60s era release, from the actual recordings to the picture of the band on the front of album, right down to the images and layout on the back of the album, that I must admit to not knowing for some time in which era this was initially recorded.  This just added to the allure.

The Chesterfield Kings formed in 1979 in Rochester, New York, and were one of the earliest ’60s revival bands as they rode that first crest that included The Lyres out of Boston and The Crawdaddys out of San Diego. In the next few years the Chesterfield Kings – Greg Prevost, Doug Meech, Rick Cona, Andy Babiuk and Orest Guran – released several singles and played locally, and all the while several influential garage-specific compilations – Pebbles and the Pebbles offshoot Highs In the Mid-Sixties - entered the mix. By the time of the Chesterfield King’s 1982 release of “Here Are”, ‘60s garage or otherwise ‘60s-inspired music had a foothold, albeit a distinctly underground foothold, on both coasts and the garage revival was well on its way.  While many of these early acts embraced the ‘60s garage ideal with a zeal, and some frankly nailed it – see The Unclaimed’s Primordial Ooze EP or The Tell-Tale Hearts' eponymous LP – if you wanted the blueprint at a granular level it was Here Are Chesterfield Kings.

Today we look not at Here Are but at the original versions of the songs behind the album.  The album is all covers, something I didn't really get only until recently, such was their ownership of the material. Although the ‘60s garage comps were hitting their stride by 1982, as of the date of release of this album as far as I can tell only one song on it had been comped.  In the pre-internet, pre eBay days, the general awareness and availability of some of these songs, let alone the actual wax, must have been pretty slim indeed, which makes this album all the more stunning.

Today - Side 1.  Stay tuned for Side 2 in the coming days. Enjoy!

The Sonics - The Hustler

The Rogues - You Better Look Now

The Turtles - Outside Chance

Painted Ship - Little White Lies

Zakary Thaks - Won't Come Back

The Choir - I'm Going Home

The Chocolate Watch Band - Expo 2000