Southern California Spotlight: The Lyrics - So What!!/They Can't Hurt Me

Day 2 of the Battle of the Garage Bands for the SoCal region takes us to San Diego, California.

From November of 1965, we present to you The Lyrics. What we have here is the greatest record to ever -- EVER -- come out of that fine, sunny city of San Diego. Both sides of this Era Records single are filled with teen angst, anger and bravado.

The composer of both numbers is Chris Gaylord, the singer and harmonica player. Chris apparently dated a girl who lived in swanky-ass Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego's north county. As you can hear from the lyrics to The Lyrics' songs, she had tons of nice things (yep, an electric typewriter!) for which she was particularly proud. Then the girl turned on poor Chris. (Abstractly speaking, this is always a key thing for any good 1960s garage band song. If the singer hasn't been dumped by a no-good, scheming girl, then we just don't get great songs.) Lucky for us, Chris took his anger out on the girl in a constructive, creative and generally healthy fashion - he wrote two songs about her and published them for the whole world to hear. 

Our A-Side, So What!!, tells the tale of Chris being toured around this little Jezebel's house.

Well, now everything you got is in excess
And it goes without saying, it's got to be the best
From your swimming pool, to your daddy's racing car
To that senseless, useless bomb shelter in your back yard
Well, I guess there ain't too much you haven't got
But all I can say to you about that is So What!!

This is actually the second release of So What! as the number was released months before as the flip-side to Why'd He Go?, written by band leader Craig Carll, on the local, Feather Records label.

The Flip-Side of this Era Records release is the fabulous They Can't Hurt Me. For some bizarre reason, the girl that Chris had been going with started to think that maybe this was not the guy for her. Maybe it was his condescending, judgmental words that he regularly spewed out at her. Apparently she starts talking trash on our poor broken down, stomped upon protagonist. What's an angry young guy to do? Well, he writes a song saying that her venomous words can't hurt him. 

Chris got booted from the band shortly after this record came out and he moved on to other great things.

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

Southern California Spotlight: The Dirty Shames - I Don't Care/Makin' Love

Today we start the next region for our Battle of the Garage Bands. For the first time we are going to cut a state in half. We just have to do it because California was such a power house for garage bands. Texas too, but we couldn't figure out where to cut that state. For our purposes, California will be cut along the parallel the bifurcates the state at San Luis Obispo running East to Bakersfield out above the Mojave National Preserve. Everything below that will be in the Southern California region, everything above it will be in the Northern California region.

So without further ado...

Today's song escaped from Los Angeles in September, 1966. The double sided gem comes from a band called The Dirty Shames who recorded one single for the kick-ass Impression Label run by Al and Sonny Jones. This is the same label that put out records by LA garage legends, The Sloths and The Tangents. In fact, the flip-side of this single, Makin' Love is a song by none other than...the Sloths. That cut was originally released in 1965 on the Impression Label. The Dirty Shames recorded the song at the request of the Jones brothers who had hopes of the song being a regional hit. Hmmm, not sure about a hit, but man-alive, it is a kick ass song. The Dirty Shames version is much more polished and in-sync than is the incredibly crude screamer of an original. The Dirty Shames even managed a guitar solo in their more restrained take on the song.

The A-Side of The Dirty Shames single is an original named I Don't Care penned by band members Marty Wons and Bob Larson. For my money, it is the superior song. The song has a nice two chord main riff that is more than a little reminiscent of The Kinks' instrumental number, Revenge. One thing is certain about this number, The Dirty Shames just don't care.

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

And the Winner of the Rocky Mountain Battle of the Garage Bands Is...

We are ready to crown the Rocky Mountain Region winner of the much ballyhooed Battle of The Garage Bands. And it was unanimous again. 

Phil and the Frantics ran away with the competition with their 1965 double sided onslaught of awesomeness. Quite frankly either Say That You Will or 'Till You Get What You Want were likely good enough to win the competition on their own. But put the two together and it was a slam dunk. The Grodes, also of Arizona, were an unanimous choice in their second place finish. 

Phil Kelsey and his Frantic friends will now go to the Flip-Side lounge where they will spin records, sip on a beer and talk about girls with their fellow regional winners (all shown below with the A-Side of their winning single) and wait for the next region to crown their winner. That region will be Southern California. You know you can't wait for that one!

Rocky Mountains: Phil and the Frantics: Say That You Will/'Till You Get What You Want

Mid-West: The Litter with Action Woman/Legal Matter

Texas: The 13th Floor Elevators with You're Gonna Miss Me/Tried To Hide

New England: The Squires with Going All The Way and Go Ahead

The South: The Bad Roads with Too Bad/Blue Girl

Great Lakes: The Shadows of Knight with Bad Little Woman/Gospel Zone

The Mid-Atlantic: The Enfields with She Already Has Somebody/I'm For Things You Do

New York: The Blues Magoos with We Ain't Got Nothing Yet/Gotta Get Away

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

Rocky Mountain Spotlight: The Trolls - That's The Way My Love Is/Into My Arms

Day 8 of the Rocky Mountain Battle of the Garage Bands takes us back to Colorado. This time to the working class city of Pueblo, Colorado. In that industrial town in the southernish part of Colorado we find five ogres who went by the name of The Trolls. The band was Fred Brescher, Richard Gonzales, Doug Rymerson, Phil Head and Monty Baker. The band put out two singles in their brief existence under a bridge. 

Today we spin their first record, recorded in Amarillo Texas at the Ruff Records studio of Ray Ruff. This is the same studio that recorded The Blue Things and the second version of Them. The Trolls debut single was released in April, 1965.

That's The Way Love Is was composed by organ player, Fred Brescher and presents to us a hard edged, Kinks inspired riff that grooves on and on. Guitarist Doug Rymerson lays down a pretty tasty little guitar break for us. 

The flip-side, also composed by Brescher is the tepid Into My Arms. I don't have it, so here is a YouTube vid for your enjoyment.

The band recorded a second, excellent single later that year and it even came with a killer picture sleeve. But more on that another day. The band disbanded sometime late in 1966. 

The picture below, and a lot of the information contained here was inspired by the blog, Pueblo City Limits. Check it out here for an interview with Troll member, Monty Baker. The music file was digitized and given to us by Matt from the blog, Nitro-Retro. 

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

Rocky Mountain Showdown: Jack Bedient and the Chessmen - Double Whammy/I Want You To Know

Day 7 of our Rocky Mountain Battle of the Garage Bands has us taking a liberty or two. How? Good question dude or dudette. You see, Jack Bedient hailed from Wenatchee, Washington (definitely a Pacific Northwest state) and started playing lounge circuits back in the 50s there in the Apple State. As a hardworking musician from the center of the state, Jack crossed paths with The Wailers and The Kingsmen and other such up-and-coming bands from the PNW. Jack had been doing a little bit more of a loungey act back then. But ever the professional musician, Jack started working rock-n-roll into his act. 

I don't know when, but at some point Jack split Washington for greener lounges. That took him first to South Lake Tahoe then to Reno and, of course, the lounge mecca of them all, Las Vegas. That is how we are counting him as a Rocky Mountain Region contestant. 

Jack Bedient and his Chessmen had a regular gig there and, as all good lounge acts do, they adapted quickly to the swinging sounds of the day. In July of 1965, Jack and his Chessmen headed down to Berkeley, California to record their rockin' original tune, Double Whammy for the Fantasy Label. This is the same label for whom the hometown heroes, CCR would soon record. I've always thought the signature guitar riff was taken from Vince Taylor and the Playboys' Brand New Cadillac, but some cats over at The Garage Hangover rightly note that the riff most likely is lifted from Dorsey Burnette's recording of his brother's composition, Bertha Lou. I've heard other Jack Bedient songs and none have come close to measuring up to Double Whammy. I love the vocal interplay and I love the way the guitar riff changes, particularly at the lead.

The flip-sider is a fine cover of the 1957 release by Fats Domino, I Want You To Know. The band on this recording is believed to have been Jack on guitar, Jerry Bledsoe on drums and Bill Britt on bass.

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