URBAN ASPIRINES: Various: Garage Beat '66 Volume 1: Like What, Me Worry? (2004) + Garage Beat '66 Volume 2: Chicks Are For Kids! (2004)

Tuesday, July 07, 2020

Various: Garage Beat '66 Volume 1: Like What, Me Worry? (2004) + Garage Beat '66 Volume 2: Chicks Are For Kids! (2004)

GARAGE BEAT '66 VOLUME 1: LIKE WHAT, ME WORRY?

Garage Beat '66 Volume 1: Like What, Me Worry?! is the first installment in the Garage Beat '66 series of garage rock compilations issued by Sundazed Records, which is available exclusively on compact disc. It features well-researched liner notes, written by recognized garage rock authorities, which supply background information about each song and act, often including photographs of the bands. Like all of the entries in the series it is noted for good sound quality, as all of the tracks are mastered from the original studio master sources.

The set opens with "Like What, Me Worry," by 006. Also featured are two cuts by the Sparkles from Levelland, Texas: "No Friend of Mine" and "Hipsville 29 B.C. (I Need Help)." Fellow Lone Star

State residents, Neal Ford and the Fanatics, of Houston perform "Shame on You," replete with its highly idiosyncratic guitar solo. The Fe-Fi-Four Plus 2 provide the bad acid trip-saga, "I Wanna Come Back (From the World of LSD)." Matthew Moore Plus Four cover Buffy Sainte-Marie's oft-covered garage folk anthem "Codyne (She's Real)" and the Words of Luv do a rendition P.F. Sloans "I'd Have to Be Outta My Mind." The set also includes the unlikely presence of John Hammond Jr. covering Billy Boy Arnold's "I Wish You Would," with Bill Wyman on bass and Robbie Robertson on guitar, doing a different take of the number than the one which appears on his So Many Roads album.

[Sundazed's Garage Beat '66 series of mid-'60s garage rock takes much the same approach as hundreds, if not thousands, of such compilations that have been issued since the late '70s.

Each volume has an assortment of tracks from all over North America, many of them rare, none of them national hits, and most of the acts known only within their region, if at all. The emphasis is on raw, fuzzy outrage, often inspired by (but not as polished as) the more R&B-aligned end of the British Invasion. It's better than the average '60s garage rock anthology, though, in part because unlike virtually all other such animals, the tracks are mastered from the original sources, and the liner notes include copious commentary on each selection by garage rock authorities.

So if you're the kind of fan likely to collect such stuff, although you may well already have items like 006's "Like What, Me Worry," the Fe-Fi-Four Plus 2's "I Wanna Come Back (From the World of

LSD)," and the Sparkles' "Hipsville 29 B.C. (I Need Help)" elsewhere, you may well not have them in as good fidelity as they boast here. While the songs do tend toward basic bluesy teen rants, there's room for some eclecticism, particularly in the inclusion of John Hammond's cover of Billy Boy Arnold's "I Wish You Would" from a 1966 single (with Bill Wyman on bass and Robbie Robertson on guitar,

and a different version than the one that appears on his album So Many Roads); Matthew Moore Plus Four's garage-folk-rock cover of Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Codyne (She's Real)"; and Words of Luv's version of an obscure P.F. Sloan folk-rocker, "I'd Have to Be Outta My Mind." The no-holds-barred absurdity of the aforementioned "I Wanna Come Back (From the World of LSD)" and the crunching soul-rock-pop of the Sparkles' "No Friend of Mine" stick out as the highlights, however.
By Richie Unterberger]

Various: Garage Beat '66 Volume 1: Like What, Me Worry?
Label: Sundazed Music ‎– SC 11139
Series: Garage Beat '66 – 1
Format: CD, Compilation, Mono
Country: US
Released: April 27, 2004
Genre: Rock
Style: Garage Rock

TRACKS

01. 006: Like What, Me Worry 2:34

02. The Country Gentlemen: Saturday Night 1:55

03. Fever Tree: I Can Beat Your Drum 2:03

04. The Sparkles: Hipsville 29 B.C. (I Need Help) 2:11

05. The Centuries: Hard Times (Billy Beard) 2:26

06. The Kreeg: Impressin' (Bob Sturtcman) 2:38

07. The "In": Just Give Me Time 2:20

08. The Ban: Bye Bye (Tony McGuire) 2:44

09. Executioners: I Want the Rain 2:43

10. The Odyssey: Little Girl, Little Boy (Jerry Berke) 2:22

11. Matthew Moore Plus Four: Codyne (She's Real) (Buffy Sainte-Marie) 2:51

12. Livet Nord: I'd Have to Be Outta My Mind (P.F. Sloan) 2:49

13. Five Of Us: Hey You 2:14

14. John Hammond, Jr.: I Wish You Would (Billy Boy Arnold) 2:40

15. Just Two Guys: Eyes 2:47

16. Olivers: Beeker Street 2:04

17. Neal Ford and the Fanatics: Shame on You (Bobbye Johnson) 2:13

18. Smokestack Lightnin': Look What You've Done (Ronnie Darling/Ric Eiserling) 2:54

19. The Sparkles: No Friend of Mine (Jay Turnbow) 2:24

20. The Fe-Fi-Four Plus 2: I Wanna Come Back (From the World of LSD) (Danny Houlihan) 2:17

All tracks recorded 1965-1968.

MP3 @ 320 Size: 114 MB
FLAC Size: 185 MB

GARAGE BEAT '66 VOLUME 2: CHICKS ARE FOR KIDS!

Various: Garage Beat '66 Volume 2: Chicks Are For Kids!
Label: Sundazed Music ‎– SC 11140
Series: Garage Beat '66 – 2
Format: CD, Compilation, Mono
Country: US
Released: 2004
Genre: Rock
Style: Garage Rock

Garage Beat '66 Volume 2: Chicks are for Kids! is the second installment in the Garage Beat 66 series of garage rock compilations issued by Sundazed Records, which was released on April 27, 2004 and is available exclusively on compact disc. It features well-researched liner notes, written by Ugly Things publisher Mike Stax, which supply background information about each song and act, usually including photographs of the bands.

Like all of the entries in the series it is noted for good sound quality, as all of the tracks are mastered from the original studio master sources.

The set opens with "Sweetgina," by the Things to Come. Also featured is The Guess Who's 1966 The Remains perform a rough alternate take of "Why Do I Cry." The Barbarians deliver their The Litter, do aversion of the Small Faces' Whacha Gonna do About It? Also on the set is The Five Americans 1964 single, "I'm Feeling O.K." The Spiders (featuring Vincent Furnier, later known as Alice Cooper) play a fuzz-drenched outtake of "Don't Blow Your Mind."

Mersey Beat influenced debut 45, "Hey Little Bird."

single, "Believe Me."

Seattle's the Sonics perform "You've Got Your Head on Backwards." Some of the lesser-known songs

are the Bold's lewd "Gotta Get Some" and the Go-Betweens' "Have You for My Own." The Jynx, whose roster included future Big Star member Chris Bell on lead guitar, do a rendition of Them's "Little Girl." The Ugly Ducklings close out the set with their unreleased version of Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man."

[By Richie Unterberger

The second volume in Sundazed's Garage Beat '66 series follows much the same format as its predecessor: 20 garage rockers from all over America, though generally from the rawer end of the spectrum rather than the poppier side.

There's a slightly higher concentration of names that'll be at least somewhat known to some of the less specialized listeners, though, including the Guess Who (their 1966 single "Believe Me"), the

Remains, the Barbarians (with their crude Merseybeat-influenced debut 45, "Hey Little Bird," which was their best recording), the Litter, the Five Americans (with their 1964 single "I'm Feeling O.K."), We the People, the Spiders (who evolved into Alice Cooper), the Ugly Ducklings (with a previously unreleased version of "I'm a Man"), and the Sonics.
That alone is enough to make it a better than average '60s garage compilation, and the sound quality (mastered, unusually for a garage anthology, from original sources) and detailed track-by-track annotation by Ugly Things publisher Mike Stax are other bonuses.

As for the rarer, less-anthologized items here, some of these tend toward the more run-of-the-mill garage rock of the era, though the Bold's lewd "Gotta Get Some" (which recalls Paul Revere & the

Raiders' toughest moments) and the weird ringing guitar of the Go-Betweens' "Have You for My Own" are ear-catching. The Jynx's 1965 cover of Them's "Little Girl" isn't nearly as exciting as the original, but does possess historical interest for featuring future Big Star member Chris Bell on lead guitar.]

TRAXS