Molecules

Various Artists - Pebbles Vol. 2 (1979)
Download (donations to the usual address)

It's almost summer and the freakbeat is coming out to play...
There are already two reviews of Lenny Kaye's much-revered Nuggets compilation on MB, so if you can't guess where this is heading you probably haven't been paying much attention to the threads in question!

As with Nuggets, the Pebbles volumes are compilations of recovered mid-to-late sixties obscurities of the US proto-punk and garage-psychedelia variety - except the Pebbles bands were obscure even in their time...
The original line of LPs began in the late 70's and ran to 28 volumes, these were later repackaged as 11 CDs (accompanied by many a complaint about the lacklustre 'remastering').

It's true that the recordings vary in quality from the slightly hissy to the downright awful. But screw that, I'm offering a rip of the original 17-track vinyl; and anybody's who's familiar with the delightful, energetic spontaneity of these one-off teen groups of yesteryear will know that this doesn't matter a jot.

Of the Pebbles I have heard volume two is almost certainly my favourite, with almost every track having something to recommend it - you have speed-blues stompers, shot-away desert rock, piles of buzzsaw distortion and 60's effects and even a bit of Brit-style whimsy; but for the most part this is 60's garage-punk of the highest order.
It even has comedy value with a turn by the only well-known band featured here, the Electric Prunes, in a wah-wah pedal advert which really hammers home how long ago all this music was made.

Here's the near-flawless volume that started it all too, at some point you may hear another track bleeding into the mix, that's just how ramshackle this stuff is. But it's f*cking brilliant.

Fun fax:
- Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top was a member of the Moving Sidewalks
- Arthur Lee (he of Love fame) wrote 'Feathered Fish' for the Sons of Adam, as such it's probably the best track on here

4.4/5

Tracklisting:

1. The Satans - Makin' Deals
2. The Moving Sidewalks - 99th Floor
3. The Sons of Adam - Feathered Fish*
4. The Electric Prunes - Vox Wah-Wah Pedal Commercial*
5. The Road - You Rub Me the Wrong Way
6. The Lyrics - So What!
7. The Buddhas - Lost Innocence
8. The Zakary Thaks - Bad Girl*
9. Randy Alvey and Green Fuz - Green Fuzz
10. The Squires - Go Ahead
12. The Little Boy Blues - I Can Only Give You Everything
13. The Dovers - She's Gone*
14. Phil & the Frantics - I Must Run*
15. The Dovers - What Am I Going to Do
16. The Choir - It's Cold Outside*
17. Bobby Fuller - Wine Wine Wine#
18. The Litter - I'm a Man

* = essential tuneage
# = 'meh'

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