V.A.: For A Few Fuzz Guitars More

For a Few Fuzz Guitars More is the sequel to A Fistful of Fuzz and like the first volume, features plenty of fuzz guitar. The feel of this collection is garagier (if that's a word) than A Fistful of Fuzz, but both volumes draw primarily from the late 1960s. The sound quality of For a Few Fuzz Guitars More is not as good as the first volume, as surface noise is more apparent on these recordings, but the tracks themselves are rawer late-1960s garage-psychedelia and the tone of much of the material on this CD is darker than on the first volume in the series. The opening tracks, "Doomsday" by the Purple Sun and "Last Day on Earth" by the Velvet Haze, set an apocalyptic tone for For a Few Fuzz Guitars More. This collection also contains a number of anti-war records—"Lottery" by Rochelle Rosenthal & the Kickball Queen and "Where Are We Now" by the Dystraction. For a Few Guitars More has its share of hippie drug songs—"Walls of My Mind" by the Ritual and "Ma-mari-huana" by the Sub. One disappointing thing about For a Few Fuzz Guitars More is the lack of liner notes. Where A Fistful of Fuzz had notes about every track, the only information given about the recordings included here are pictures of the labels of the original 45s. Despite the lack of liner notes and the less-than-perfect audio quality, this is a good collection and most of the tracks that are unique to this compilation.


can u say: FUZZZZZZZZZZZ....

Dara Puspita (IND, 60s comp)

Dara Puspita (Flower Girls) was Indonesia’s most successful girl band of the 1960s. While there were many popular female vocalists in Indonesia at that time, they nearly all relied on the services of a backing band. Dara Puspita was one of the few girl groups who actually played all their own music as well. (GARAGE HANGOVER) more info here.
A go go 1967 lp by my old friend Maxi.
Some selection, from vinyl/cd, well...coming soon.
Someone said:
"heaven for me: 4 girls playing fuzzed garage, I dont care their ages or anything, just rocking.."
Totally agree, yeap.

FLOWER GIRLS

The Bluestars (NZ, 1964/67)

Not to be confused with the guys from Birmingham, these are the newzealanders (?, recently invented). Here´s a comp about´em. Enjoy.

The Bluestars-Obviously influenced by English RnB bands this Auckland band recorded one of the all time great garage/freakbeat singles not just from downunder, but anywhere in the world. Social End Product is a must hear. They actually sent a tape to Decca in England which was surprisingly accepted. In fact their first single, Please Be A Little Kind/I Can Take It was released in England before it came out in their homeland.

Formed in the wake of the British beat boom, this Auckland outfit wrote and recorded their own material and sent a tape to Decca, London in 1965, which much to their surprise was accepted. They became the first New Zealand band to record on Decca and I Can Take It has subsequently resurfaced on the U.K. CD compilation The Freakbeat Scene (Deram 844 879-2) 1998. They evolved out of an outfit called The Nomads, who included Roger McLay on lead guitar but not John Crowley. Their debut 45 was released in Europe and Japan before its release in New Zealand in March 1966.
Their finest moment came in September 1966 with Social End Product, one of the country's early garage punkers it had snarling vocals, fuzzy guitar, hysterical screams and a cough right in the middle of the song. You can also check it out on Wild Things, Vol. 1, Transworld Punk, Vol. 2 and Ugly Things, Vol. 3. The following month they opened their own nightclub, which they named 'The Gallows' in the plush suburb of Remuera. The club was later closed down due to noise problems.They finally split after a further 45 in February 1967.In the nineties, Crowley plays drums in various Aussie bands, Harris works in T.V., Savidan is a commercial photographer and Van Bokhoven is in advertising.

ESTRELLAS AZULES

The Mojo Men:Sit Down...It's the Mojo Men (US, 1966/67)

An 18-song compilation of material from their 1966-68 hitch with Reprise, combining several singles with five tracks from an unreleased album. This fully documents the second phase of the band, when they added drummer Jan Errico and changed from a second rate garage band into a better (but not fully first-rate) pop/folk-rock group. This isn't half bad for the genre, but you can see why they never really distinguished themselves from the San Francisco crowd. It's way too pop to be associated with the Haight-Ashbury scene, a little too weird to be compared to, say, the Association (with the occasional sudden blasts of psychedelic fuzz guitar and baroque production), not as accomplished as the Mamas & the Papas, and gussied up with too many conventional pop string arrangements. Van Dyke Parks arranged a few of the singles, including their lone hit, "Sit Down, I Think I Love You" (which is here). Most of the material was written by Errico and bassist Jim Alaimo.

SIT DOWN PLEASE...

The Mojo Men: Whys Ain't Supposed to Be (US, 1965/66)

This 21-track disc covers the Mojo Men's first incarnation, when they were a pop-garage group, not the pop-folk-rock act they would evolve into when Jan Errico joined. "She's My Baby" and "Dance With Me" made some noise regionally, "Dance With Me" making the middle of the national charts, but Autumn Records folded before the group got the chance to do any albums. Assembled from a handful of Autumn 45s and many previously unissued recordings, this could be considered the Mojo Men's lost album. But it's really not worth getting excited about, even if you're a garage fan (*). The thumping, monotonous drums and rinky-dink organ patterns can grate, and worse, the material is often so thin as to be puerile. Juvenile lyrics are a mainstay of many garage recordings, but the Mojo Men's compositions could be downright annoying. Their emulations of the Rolling Stones, Kinks, and Animals were pale, though some promise could be heard in a few moodier, folk-rock influenced cuts.

By request, some time ago, another hangover from yesterday, a "jevy" night.
Enjoy yourselfs with some info in the mint-time.
What about the WCPAEB? like em dontch you? coming soon all their lps, ripped in mono/stereo.
(*) Agree with this ? no....mmm

AUTUMN SESSIONS

Butch Engle & The Styx: No Matter What You Say (US, 1964/67)

Banda californiana de folk-rock y garaje, vinculada a los Beau Brummels debido a que la mayoría de sus temas estaban producidos y escritos por Ron Elliot, guitarra y compositor de la precursora formación de San Francisco.

Conocidos en principio como The Showmen, el grupo estaba formado por el cantante Butch Engle, el guitarra líder Bob Zamnora, el bajista Harry “Happiness” Smith, el batería Rich Morrison y el teclista Mark Pardee. En agosto de 1964 publicaron su primer sencillo, “You know what I want”.

Cuando conocieron a Elliot, cambiaron su nombre al definitivo de Butch Engle & The Styx y tras actuar en vivo por la zona de San Francisco, grabaron en 1966 y 1967 dos singles escritos por el miembro de los Beau Brummels, “I like her” y “Hey, I’m lost”, en los que se apreciaba la conocida aptitud para la escritura melódica de Ron Elliot y el trabajo en las armonías de los componentes de la banda en temas de hálito garajero.
En el año 2000, el sello Sundazed editaba un recopilatorio del grupo titulado “No matter what you say”.

Band info, here and this album review, there.
And some info about the Styx only.

BUTCH ENGLE

The Electric Prunes Live/Rare Bootleg (US, 60´s)

Live psychedelic garage boot - exclusive, course here
(click to enlarge the pictures)

The Electric Prunes originated from the San Fernando Valley, a suburb of Los Angeles, although many bio's mistakenly claim that they came from Seattle, since I Had Too Much Too Dream (Last Night) first broke in Seattle and then Boston. In fact their very first live concert to promote the record was in Seattle, and according to their drummer Preston Ritter, a DJ there started the mis-information, by claiming that the band were from that area.

More commercially successful and classier than the average punk bands, they experimented with different types of music. Their first single Ain't It Hard was a brash punk number written by Roger and Terrye Tillson, members of folk-rock duo, Gypsy Trips. It was not a hit and was not issued in the U.K. but, along with the flip side, Little Olive and both sides of their next single (I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night/Luvin), it appeared on a French EP (Reprise RVEP 60098) which is the rarest 'Prunes item.

Their debut album provided two U.S. hit singles: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) and Get Me To The World On Time. Both also attracted airplay in the U.K. reaching Nos 49 and 42 respectively. The former, starts with a freaky fuzz- box intro - the brain child of their producer, Dave Hassinger. The lyrics and their sound were tailor-made for the druggy days of 1967. Get Me To The World On Time was a driving, urgent rocker, superimposed on top of a culminating whistle sound.

Also on the album and the B side to their second single, was Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoying It Less) which used echo-drumming techniques to good effect. Some of the other numbers like Onie and Train For Tomorrow, were a little more laid back, but still featured acid guitar work. The album peaked at No 113 in the charts.

Setlist...
mmm, perhaps not, better->

the recordings were taken from:
LA, Calif 67
San Fernando Valley 66/67

-AIN´T IT HARD- TO LEAVE COMMENTS
IN ALL THE POSTS THAT YOU DOWNLOAD AH?
here you have, dig thissssahhhoouu yeah.

The Electric Prunes: Too Much to Dream - Original Group Recordings (US, 1966/67)

For a band that scored two major hit singles in their first year as recording artists, the Electric Prunes were given precious little respect by their record label, Reprise Records; the group was allowed to perform a mere two original tunes on their debut album I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night), and when their second, Underground, didn't sell, they became glorified session men under composer and arranger David Axelrod on Mass in F Minor. When the Prunes couldn't play Axelrod's charts to his satisfaction, they were replaced by session men, and the original bandmembers weren't even invited to participate on two "Electric Prunes" albums later released by Reprise, Release of an Oath and Just Good Old Rock and Roll. Despite it all, the Electric Prunes' best work is still the stuff of legend among garage rock enthusiasts, and with good reason -- the freaked-out, fuzz-enhanced guitar lineup of Ken Williams, Jim Lowe and Weasel Spagnola created a wild and distinctive sound most of their peers would envy, and they fused the energy of the garage generation and the sonic experimentation of the burgeoning psychedelic scene with a skill few have matched before or since. Reprise finally gives the genuine Electric Prunes the tribute they deserve with Too Much to Dream -- Original Group Recordings: Reprise 1966-1967, a two-disc set that features the albums I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) and Underground in their entirety, as well as handful of non-LP singles, unreleased tracks and monophonic mixes. Disc one, featuring the debut album, is more enjoyable, featuring the group's biggest hits and most memorable tunes, but Underground suggests the real tragedy that the Prunes were not allowed to follow their own muse in the studio again -- the group sounds tighter, more creatively unified and more mature on Underground, and it's not hard to imagine they could have had several more fine albums in them if they'd had the chance to chart their own path. As it is, this set collects some superb and atypical '60s garage stuff, the bonus material is solid and intriguing if not always revelatory, Jim Lowe and Mark Tulin tell the band's story in the thick liner booklet, and the Prunes' famous radio ad for Vox wah-wah pedals even makes the cut. This is a first-rate anthology from a wildly underrated band, and folks with a jones for mid-'60s rock will want to find room for this in their collections.

Special thanks to all those visitors, but most to my friend Roadrunner, and those 300.000 (in the garage) and 700.000 (in mza-acid) that make 1.000.000 visitors, damn!.
Well, this is a must, ripped at 320, to all those who like good b-rates, ok thats it, I have a terrible hangover that is killing me, need to eat some.

I HAD TOO MUCH TO DRINK LAST NIGHT...

The Pretty Things: The Ep Collection (UK, 1965/67)

Their first two albums were basically R&B but Emotions was an unconvincing attempt to come to terms with the heady days of 1967. The album contained all original compositions, mainly credited to Taylor and May. Children is arguably the strongest track on the album, others like Tripping and Growing In My Mind were lyrically an attempt to come to terms with the changing times, although musically they lacked the imagination and creativity that characterised the better bands of this era. The band later claimed that they knew they had to complete the album to leave the label but had no control over the end product, which the producers laced with strings and brass. Stax and Pendleton quit the band soon after the album's release. Stax emigrated to Australia and Pendleton simply vanished. Taylor and May made drastic changes bringing in Wally Allen and John Povey from Bern Elliott and The Fenmen and drummer TwinkThe Fairies. This new line-up recorded S.F. Sorrow which was based on a short story by Phil May and is generally acknowledged to be the first rock opera giving Pete Townshend the inspiration to write Tommy. S. F. Sorrow was certainly one of the best things The Pretties did - an innovative and imaginative account of the life of an imaginary character - 'S. F. Sorrow'. Musically it represented a significant advance for The Pretties. It also may have influenced other artists of that era - for example, one of its tracks Private Sorrow sounded similar to subsequent Jethro Tull compositions on Aqualung. Despite its influence, it was largely unheralded at the time and did not sell well.

Around the time of S.F. Sorrow, the band recorded an album in France. The Philippe De Barge

The result was only transferred to one acetate and never pressed because he died shortly after. The album has subsequently been pirated on CDR, with some of the songs being different versions of titles which they also recorded as Electric Banana. (alias John Alder) from album, as it has become known, came into being when French millionaire Philippe De Barge wanted to finance something to do with swinging sixties London and he persuaded the Pretties to come over to his Chateau to record an LP.

something lovely, take a look.

BUZZ THE JERK

V.A.: Garage Beat `66 Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

by popular demand...(reup)

old links...here

new link for VOLUMES 1, 2 & 5:
HERE
&
volume 3-4
HERE