The Key Boys were a very successful Korean rock group that got their start by playing to American GIs stationed in Korea. Often called the Korean Yardbirds, their music ranged from tepid covers of American songs to fuzzy psych freakouts. Note, this isn’t the same group as the Key Brothers, however some of the members […]
The Huntington Beach, California-based Outstanding Records label may be better known to Waxidermists for releasing the “It’s Broken” LP by Bob Chance, but they’ve been responsible for numerous other interesting releases since 1968, including this little gem of a single. Both sides feature a keyboard-dominated soft folk pop sound, with a bit of a jazzy […]
Here’s a fun artifact from the glory days of the exploitation LP. It’s another of the uncountable number of Batman-related releases from the mid-60’s, this one on the Movietone Records subsidiary of ABC Records. With songs written by Billy Page and arranged by Gene Page (father/son team perhaps?), they’ve managed to tap into the offbeat, […]
The Dove Project No. 9 compilation is one of the most obscure artifacts of Canadian psychedelia. The main individual responsible for this excursion into the remote recesses of rock’s underground was a young and aspiring musical businessman named Doug Wong. In 1969 Doug was a leading member of the student newspaper published at his high-school. Unlike […]
This 45 from 1969 really makes me wish I knew of more records that were released with the combined purposes of boosting potato chip sales (Smiths Crisps) and kick starting new dance crazes (The Crunch). The Crunch as a dance craze never caught on and how to do The Crunch is definitely lost to the […]
Jack Hennig was one of the more prominent country singers living in Edmonton, Alberta in the 70s. However, unknown to almost everyone, he cut two singles with The Breaking Point Group sometime in the mid-to-late 60s. The Busy People b/w Maybe Tomorrow single is the second and last recording he did with the Breaking Point […]
Apart from everything else, the great state of Texas produced a number of cool club band LPs in the 1960s. Kenny & The Kasuals’ “Impact” is familiar to many, and the Jades from Dallas cut two enjoyable albums in a similar style. The Moods, from Luling, didn’t release this until 1969, but for all practical […]
This is a monster of a slice of mid-60s Australian garage rock. I haven’t researched that much about this 45, but I do know that it will melt your speakers! (check out when the pummelling guitar riff comes in about 3/4 of the way through) The flip is their version of “I’m A Man” that […]
Ray Columbus & The Invaders were the most commercially successful of New Zealand’s R&B based beat bands. Formed around 1960 in Christchurch, they went through a number of lineup changes before disbanding in 1965. 1962-63 saw them move north to be based in Auckland before leaving for Sydney, Australia for 1964 onwards. Their early 1964 […]
There has to be heaps of them, the budget “cash-in” labels, every country has them, every record collector knows them. There are labels dedicated to “cash-in” LPs only, 45s only also. The “Hit” label is one of the 45 ones, a reasonably prolific one at that. According to the label discography ( http://www.globaldogproductions.info/h/hit.html ) there […]
Quite possibly the finest & most fully realised R&B band to emerge from a sixties New Zealand scene that had a number of fine bands. The Breakaways were the first to get a taste of national success, inspired by bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Kinks & the Pretty Things. “I Can’t Explain” was […]
Australian band The Whispers were probably the best & most successful blue eyed soul group in Australia during their original run of success from 1964-66. The band really loved the burgeoning soul scene coming out of the US at the time & laced their live sets with choice covers. They also had the fortune to […]
Obscure acid rock stomper from Grand Rapids Michigan: fuzzy dual guitar shredding and psychedelic Leslie speaker vocals are backed by clattering drums & shaker action. An imaginative friend of mine once wrote that this group was likely “aiming for Cream, but ended up with something hipper, a band likely to appear on a 1968 bill […]
Without a doubt the greatest & most successful surf band to come out of Australia ever. Formed in 1961 “Bombora” was the group’s second 45 & was released in 1963. Produced by Sven Libaek, it was the band’s biggest hit & was one of only two 45s by the band to get released in the […]
I picked this up on the cheap for “I’ll Come Running”, which was recently comped on the Rhino “Girl Groups” boxset. Why it was included I have no idea, as it’s not a “girl group” at all, but I digress. It turns out the real keeper here is Lulu’s completely unhinged, Wanda-Jackson-on-speed-and-3-lines-of-coke / Johnny Rotten-10-years-earlier […]
For the last 15 years I have been trying to find out what Los Strwck translates to in English to no avail. I suspect it loosely means “Mariachi Fuzz Box”. I found this LP in East L.A. in the early 90’s and it’s dropped many a jaw over the last 15 years. The tunes start […]
There is something that keeps me needle dropping sixties “youth-dancesploitation” LPs. Many of them look pretty tame but often end up hiding some really knock out tracks (many of them also do not, but let’s focus on the positives). Take this example from 1964, intended as a stereo demonstration LP of sorts it has a […]
Frozen tundra garage 45 that is totally inept and wonderful. I should really post all the songs, but I only have “Mr. Twist” digitized. Anybody know of any other releases from the “Kajak” label? The vocals are out of control, and I think in English ? maybe ? “Ah Meester Tweeest Ya Tweeeeest!!!!” Wish they […]
The sheer amount of non-(North) American records located in the greater Los Angeles area is mind boggling to say the least. One week I’ll come across a grip of Eastern European prog/folk records, the next week some Calypso 78s…just this past week I found a handful of Aboriginal field recordings and a stack of 20 […]
Teen/Frat-Rock lp from the south that is at least semi-known. Lots of pretty unmemorable stuff on here, like the usual ill-chosen Beatles covers, etc… but a couple tracks are full-on rad. There’s a great cover of Sly’s “Thank You” with wah-guitar, cheesy organ, and squeaky-clean harmonies. Also a killer fuzzed-out version of “Comin’ Home Baby” […]
The Bag were a late sixties blue-eyed soul band from the New York area that made one full length LP for Decca that incorporates enough touches of psych to get mildly sweated by people who collect that stuff. Needless to say the LP sank without a trace upon release. This song is the B-side of […]
It took me a while before I noticed the pink female torso holding a gun underneith Sean Connery’s posterized face. The lack of priorities and absence of focus on this cover is somehow exemplary for the record itself. Some cool and some uncool tunes have been treated by the strange combo of drums, flute, oboe, […]
The Avengers were a local New Zealand pop band of the late 60s. This was their first LP & was released in 1967. They came from Wellington & had the good fortune to hook up with US hippie hitch-hiker Chris Malcolm who went on to write over half of the songs on this record, playing […]
The University of Alberta is known for it’s rambunctious Medical students. Up until it was banned recently, the Med students put on an annual show of absurdy and offense known as “The Med Show”. This usually consisted of offensive drama acts, hilarious live music, and pranks. It is rumoured that one year they stole a […]
The title of this record immediately reveals a certain insecurity on the part of the producers as to what exactly they were marketing here. You wonder why Los is cursive, why “TEEN-AGERS” is between quotation marks, and why there’s a dash between TEEN and AGERS. These kids sure look like teenagers. They even live up […]