Nuggets Vol. 12 : Punk Part 3

RNLP/RNC 70036

Nuggets, Vol. 12:

Punk, Part 3

Various Artists [1986]


Decent offering of strong cuts by some of the most esteemed regional garage bands of the '60s. The hits by The Hombres, the Syndicate of Sound, and Paul Revere are actually outdone by the tracks from Mouse & the Traps, the Remains, the Unrelated Segments, Kenny & the Kasuals, and the Lollipop Shoppe. Includes the hit "Shape of Things To Come," performed by Max Frost & the Troopers in the psychedelic exploitation film Wild In The Streets.

Label : Rhino Rec.
Catalog#: RNLP 70036
Format: Vinyl, 12",
Country: USA
Released: 1986
Genre: Rock
Style: Garage , Psychedelic , Punk , 60's
Mp3@320 & Covers

Take me Here

Tracks
Side A'
Little Girl - The Syndicate Of Sound
Steppin' Out - Paul Revere & Raiders
Journey To Tyme - Kenny And The Kasuals
Mr. Pharmacist - The Other Half
She Done Moved - The Spats
Don't Look Back - The Remains
Shape Of Things To Come - Max Frost And The Troopers
Side B'
Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out) - The Hombres
Who Do You Love - The Woolies
Maid Of Sugar, Maid Of Spice - Mouse And The Traps
I Think I'm Down - The Harbinger Complex
You Must Be A Witch - The Lollipop Shoppe
You Ain't Tuff - The Uniques
The Story Of My Life - The Unrelated Segments

 Behind the door of the crumbling Hollywood apartment sits a ι velvet-covered table strewn with rose petals A pair of half-filled champagne glasses flank plates brimming with cheeses, crackers and exotic fruits. Two black candles flicker. A string of multi-colored lights flash. A huge white rabbit wanders underfoot. Strange sounds wash over the room. The air smells thick and sweet Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin...
 Propelled by an indelible bell-like guitar figure redolent-like most of this album-of the Rolling Stones and the Byrds. "Little Girl" by the San Jose-based Syndicate Of Sound is one disc that more than deserves its all-time punkadelic classic status, thanks in no small part to that definite sneering vocal complete with ("ha-ha") false chuckle and some Mi-T concussive percussion breaks. Hard to believe that the leathercoated mynds responsible for this two minutes-and-twenty-five seconds of pure rock vision were mostly a buncha Beatlecutted beaners who dressed all in black and-on the basis of their lone album cover photo-apparently spent as much time practicing their collective scowl as their instruments.
 With their gimmicky. Revolutionary War costumes. Paul Revere & The Raiders made even less sartorial sense. "Steppiri Out," written by leader, organist and former mens hairstylist Raul Revere (his real name) and ponytailed (!) prettyboy vocalist Mark Lindsay, captures the one-time pride of Portland, Oregon as they made the transistion from a rowdy fratrock combo given to goof-squat choreography and endless workouts on, oh. "Ooh Poo Pah Doo," "Linda Lu" and their own pre-Kingsmen recording of "Louie, Louie" to an ultra-commercial, would-be Rolling Stones outfit given to goof-squat choreography and a string of slick, psuedo-punk smashes, produced-fittingly enough—by Doris Day's son and Manson Family associate, Terry Melcher. A featured good-rockin role on Dick Clark's daily "Where The Action Is" television show helped, but also led to their being stereotyped as a teeny-bopper's band, which—coupled with the autocratic Reveres anti-potsmoking bias-caused guitarist Drake Levin, bassist Phil "Fang" Yolk and drummer Mike Smith to form a splinter group, the historically appropriate Drake & the Golden Hind; and the Raiders were never quite so good again. Special Punk-Rock Hall of Fame Award to Mark Lindsay for his final, outrageous ad-lib: "I ain't seen a woman in 69 years!"
 Even without that semi-legendary (read: very rare) live-at-some-Texas- teenspot album on which they threw down on most every song in the Kinks katolog, Kenny & The Kasuals would've made their well-deserved reputation solely on the industrial-grade strength of "Journey To Tyme," a fuzztone freakout replete with the requisite manic laughter and indecipherable mutterings that let you know the storyline behind this particular Kinks kop is about something more than an innocent trip to Limeyland.
  Produced by former Challengers surfband stickman Richard Delvy, The Other Half s "Mr. Pharmacist" exhibits a similar missionary zeal, melding Yardbirdsian blooze-crunge with wink-wink, nudge-nudge lyrics that don't even remotely seem real-to-reel. Or maybe not After all Other Half guitarist Randy Holden, a veteran of the Fender Four-who, incidently, did their part to keep up with the times that were a-changin by becoming the Sons Of Adam-later went on to replace Leigh Stephens in proto-metal morlocks in Blue Cheer.
 Hailing from SoCal suburb of Garbage, er. Garden Grove, The Spats were yet-another fratrock outfit whose main claim to fame came with their minor hit "Gator T&ls And Monkey Ribs," a Still-smokin' Tower of Babble that's easily the All-Time Greatest Food Record "She Done Moved." however, is somethingless, proving that fuzztone or no, you can take the players out of the bar-band, but you can't take the bar-band out of the players. Warning: Repeated exposure to the lyrical contents of this tune-and I use that word loosely—will cause your I.Q. to drop taster than Tex Watson's.
 The way those who were there tell it even The Remains' best studio efforts were nothing more than a pale shadow of the band's incandescent live shows (Yeah. well, you should've seen the surf here yesterday.) Take it from no less an authority than Motown founder Berry Gordy. "It's what's in the grooves that counts." And on such tightly-arranged rockers as "Don't Look Back." these Bosstown fave ravers were about as groovy as it gets. Certainly the talent was there: archeologists will note that guitarist Barry Tashiar. and drummer N.D. Smart II went on to future employment with Gram Parsons. Emmylou Harris and blah blah blah...
  Troops! Does it matter that the starry-eyed anthem of a bold N*E*W generation. "Shape Of Things To Come," was in reality written by Brill Building veterans Barry Mann & Cynthia Weill, whose credits include"Uptown." "Walking In The Rain." "We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place." "Kicks" and 'leventy-seven similar mindbusts? And that Max Frost & The Troopers were in reality Christopher Jones, star of the Wild In The Streets teen-exploitation film from which this song-of-songs comes, backed by the usual gang of triple-scale El Lay studio cats? Sure. On one finger, it proves how even the most outrageous aspects of adolescent revolt can be mimicked, manipulated and marketed. (According to the label copy, the disc was produced by the former Lt. Governor of California, conservative Republican Mike Curb.) On the other, the tune wasn't that big of a hit, even if it was a damn good record—rockin enough to withstand a bludgeoning cover version from the heavy hands of Slade.
Meanwhile, back at the raunch, folks here tell that the atmosphere of 1960s Texas was so repressive that anyone who even entertained the notion of rebellion had to be willing to, in the words and music of The Hombres. "Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)." We'll probably never know how many of those little worms you find soaking at the bottom of an empty bottle of mescal you lovdied to produce this loopy slice of life-and-life-only, and it's a sure thing producer Huey Meaux don't remember neither. Gulp.
  The Woolies came to L.A. from East Lansing, Michigan, where they'd won a statewide battle-of-the-bands whose first prize was a recording contract This decidedly non-purist rendition of the olde Bo Diddley barn-burner "Who Do You Love" was the result. Between the sheet saber-toothed energy and the truly bee-zaro vocals of lead singer Stormy Rice, it leaves at least 5.283 of its competing cover versions sucking thick, black exhaust .When the disc only-grazed the charts, the rest of the band (minus Rice) headed back to Michigan, where they spent the 70s putting out their own retro-rock albums and backing up  Chuck Berry whenever he blew through the area. Beats building Thunderbirds.
 The indescribably malicious "A Public Execution" notwithstanding, the lashing, slashing "Maid Of Sugar. Maid Of Spice" just might be Texas madmen Mouse & The Traps shining moment going Elvis Costellos This Year's Model one better a good 10 years earlier. While this disc might sound like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Revisited, a closer inspection proves Mouse (Ronnie Weiss) to be truly a Romantic at heart, as evidenced by his description of the song's subject as looking "just like a model from a Cavalier magazine." Some kinds of love...
 Speaking of idle worship, 'Ί Think I'm Down" by the inscrutably-named Harbinger Complex can be heard as a splendid evocation of all that was well and good and true about the Between The Buttons-era Rolling Stones, seeing as how this single would fetch S15 on the collector's market for the fuzztone alone Suffice to say that no one ever accused these San Jose suburbums of having a surfeit of imagination.
 With the possible exception of their manager. English expatriate DJ-entrepreneur Lord Tim Hudson (the title was honorary), nobody ever thought L.A.'s very own Lollipop Shoppe were anything resembling R'O'C'K G'O'D'S either, and with the notable exception of "You Must Be A Witch."
99.9% of the recorded evidence proves those people right Piling layer upon layer of distortion around a completely over-the-top, whisper-to-a-soeam vocal."You Must Be A Witch" is quite possibly the widest most kinetic most aggressive example of punk-rock, garage-rock. punkadelica-call-it-what-you-want-you-cannot-enslave-a-fool—known to man, beast or feisty rock critic
   Led by current country star Joe Stampley, The Uniques came out or some two-bit sawmill town in .Alabama, which might explain the schizoid vocal quality-spotlighted on the menacing. "Gloria'-derived readymade, "You Ain't Tuff." (Stampley starts the verses in a de rigueur sneer, allofassudden lapsing into an oh, so sincere, sub-Elvis croon on the chorus!) We'll forgive him, though— for the wailing, sucking harp work and the following Inspirational Verse: "You don't impress me, baby, with your mother's charge account!" That's what punk rock is all about.
 That's also "The Story Of My Life," and-not so coincidentally—The Unrelated Segments' as well. While this Detroit-based group featured quite possibly the most dubiously talented lead singer in recent memory-and the instrumentalists were no great shakes, either—the manic-panic with which these flatheads put this harrowing tale of an emotional wipe-out across is what gives the performance the sense of madness that makes it, really makes it'all the way.
Am I right? Am I right?

 -Don Waller
 
 



Nuggets is a series of releases dedicated to preserving the hits
and undiscovered gems of the first psychedelic era...
Vol. 01 Vol. 02 Vol. 03 Vol. 04
Vol. 05 Vol. 06 Vol. 07 Vol. 08
Vol. 09 Vol. 10 Vol. 11