By 1965, the new sound, led by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, had taken hold of the rock n roll landscape and bands were cropping up like an infestation of bed bugs. Few would make it and some really great music was being missed out. Still, a few bands did break through. The best of them seemed to incorporate the organ driven frat rock into the popular British sounds of the day. Case in point, the Castaways out of Minneapolis. Minneapolis had one of the best garage scenes out there. The Trashmen had also hailed from there. As for the Castaways, they scored a top twenty hit with Liar Liar. They later lip synced the song in the movie, It’s a Bikini World.
Towards the end of 1965, the Knickerbockers, out of suburban New Jersey, scored a top twenty hit with Lies. See if you can hear the resemblance to a certain song from 1964.
The Northwest wasn’t without its heavy hitters. While the Kingsmen were fading a bit, Paul Revere and the Raiders were churning out hits like it was butter while becoming pets of Dick Clark, They scored a permanent god on his Where the Action Is in the Mid Sixties. The newest band though was miles ahead of the pop oriented Raiders. The Sonics hailed out of Tacoma, Washington and while most of the bands were incorporating the sounds of British and Folk rock, the Sonics stayed true to their Northwest roots and churned out some of the raunchiest songs of the era. I think many of you here remember this track.
1966 will be remembered as the ground zero year for garage rock. So many bands recorded at least one single. So few scored on the charts. Those that did would leave their mark. Each of these bands had their moment in the sun. We start with the Shadows of Knight out of Chicago. Chicago even had its own label, Dunwich, and quite a few bands wild record on that label. Ironically, one band that didn’t were the New Colony Six who recorded on Centaur or Sentar and later on Mercury. Anyway, the Shadows of Knight scored big with a cover of Them’s Gloria. I think their second album is better though so I’ll play a track from that instead. It's a cover of a recording by the Wheels.
The Remains hailed out of Boston. One of their claims to fame was being the opening act for the Beatles on their final tour. Their songs tended to be highlighted by the electric piano. They never charted on Billboard, but they certainly should have.
The Syndicate of Sound, from San Jose, did chart, twice in fact. Their big hit, Little Girl was a top ten hit and nearly became something of a garage punk anthem. It was typical teenage angst as lead singer Don Baskin sneers
By 1966, folk rock had been incorporated into the garage rock sound. One notable band would be the Knaves out of Chicago. One of the more successful bands, though, would be Los Angeles’ Leaves who scored a hit with a speeded up version of Tim Hardin’s Hey Joe, a whole year before Jimi Hendrix would take it into the stratosphere.
We finish off with a band that wasn’t even heard of in the United States, maybe because they were from Canada, who knows. They weren’t especially all that successful in Canada, scoring a few minor hits there. Yet, they were one of the punkiest bands out there. Their best song is straight out of the Rolling Stones. See if you agree.
There are hundreds if not thousands of bands they are relegated to the vast number of garage rock compilations out there. Stay tuned, though, I’ll eventually spotlight some of these bands. Next up though, we’re going deep in the heart of Texas. I think it has a clogged artery or something.
