The Kinks 45s #4 (UK, 1964)

All Day And All Of The Night/I Gotta Move (Pye 7N 15714)

The 45 follow-up, All Day And All Of The Night, was very much in the You Really Got Me mould, but it ensured another massive hit (No 2 UK, No 7 US).

#4

Sky Saxon R.I.P

June 25, 2009

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Sky Saxon (Richard Marsh), lead singer and founder of the 1960s band the "Seeds," who had a Top 40 hit in 1967 with "Pushin' Too Hard," has died after a brief illness.

Publicist Jen Marchand says Saxon died Thursday but did not have other details. He was in his 60s.

The Seeds sprang up in California, and their garage-band sound with Saxon's distinctive vocals became a favorite of the flower power generation.

Other Seeds singles included "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" and "Mr. Farmer."

Saxon (born Richard Marsh) had recently moved to Austin, where he played with his new band, Shapes Have Fangs.

He had been planning to perform this summer with the California '66 Revue, a tour featuring a lineup of California bands from the 1960s.

4 PK - Down & out (HOL, 1966)

"Down and out"by Eindhoven's 4PK is simply stunning, fuzz-driven stomping freakbeat that will now be on many people's wants list.

..."Sun is shining but not like yesterday"...
Me like it a looot. Clockwork orange beat song, pure meat here.

Down & out/so there

4 PK - It´s my day today (HOL, 1966)

They were from Eindhoven, Holland

One of their 45s here.

Its my day today/I laugh at you

The Kinks 45s #3 (UK, 1964)

1st of all: Happy Father's Day

You Really Got Me/It's All Right (Pye 7N 15673)

Tras un par de fracasos comerciales, llega la bomba, el single "You Really Got Me", en Agosto de 1964, supone una autentica revolución en la música de entonces, sobre todo por ese espectacular riff de guitarra del señor Ray Davies (por cierto, descubierto de casualidad, mientras manipulaba su amplificador con una aguja)

#3

The Rationals: Unreleased Tracks + Singles (US, 60s)

Welly well, heres the deal, dig it!
aka The Rat`s

• SCOTT MORGAN - Lead Vocals, Guitar, Flute, Harmonica
• STEVE CORRELL - Vocals, Lead Guitar
• TERRY TRABANDT - Bass, Backing Vocals
• BILL FIGG - Drums, Backing Vocals
  
  

INTRO

Whether you're a garage fanatic, an R&B lunatic, or a Motor City maniac (I claim all of the above), Scott Morgan's got the goods to satisfy your particular jones.

When you think about sixties veterans with great R&B-inflected rock voices, the one that stands the tallest, in terms of uncompromising integrity and overall quality of recorded work, has to be the estimable Mr. Morgan. Just look at the competition. Of his Detroit/Ann Arbor contemporaries, Mitch Ryder hasn't had it (IT being the confluence of talent, material, and band) since 1971's Detroit. Bob Seger started out like he might be the best of all (those songwriting chops!), but wound up spinning his pickup truck wheels in the morass of AOR pablum. Steve Marriott (RIP)? Paul Rodgers? Rod Stewart? All of 'em had the pipes, the tunes, the bands; all of 'em enjoyed more commercial success, but somewhere along the line, all of 'em lost the essential spark that made them great to begin with. (continue here)


Scott is the noble exception. He's been kicking out the righteous jams since 1962, starting out as a junior high school kid in Ann Arbor, Michigan, fronting soulful garage kings the Rationals; moving on in the seventies to hard-rocking Detroit "supergroup" Sonic's Rendezvous Band (with Fred "Sonic" Smith from the MC5, Scott "Rock Action" Asheton from the Stooges, and Gary Rasmussen from the Up); soldiering on into the eighties and nineties, well below the radar of public consciousness, with his own vehicles the Scott Morgan Band and Scots Pirates (often in tandem with the unbeatable rhythm team of Asheton and Rasmussen). And he's still sho 'nuff doin' it (but more about that later).

As garage bands go, the Rationals were almost too good to be true.
More info HERE!
Classic bands web.

In one of Nardwuar's oddball interviews from several years ago, Iggy Pop remembered his days as drummer for Ann Arbor's fabled Iguanas:

"Recently some Iguanas stuff has been re-released. Are you aware of that?"

Iggy: "Vaguely."

"Have you got one?"

Iggy: "I've ordered it."

"Who were the Iguanas' main rivals at that time? Who were you fighting against?"

Iggy: "The Rationals were our main rivals."

SCOTT MORGAN INTERVIEW
(complete and very interesting!!!)
part 1 - part 2
More stuff from the Rats here.

Of all the Michigan talent that flirted with stardom but never got invited to the party, there is probably no other band of the era so beloved and still so mourned as Ann Arbor's The Rationals. Certainly, here was a group that deserved fame and fortune but, incredibly, failed to get the notice and air-play that should have landed them among the best recording acts of all time. They were that good.
(Michigan 60s bands & more)

BOOM!

Los Hooligans : El Gato Loco (MEX, 1965)

La carrera de Los Hooligans inicia en Noviembre de 1960 cuando ganan un concurso organizado por Radio Éxitos y Discos Columbia. Del mismo concurso, surgieron también otros grandes grupos del rock'n roll sesentero: Los Loud Jets, Los Spitfires, Los Sparks y Los Blue Caps.

A partir de 1963 el grupo entra en su segunda etapa y firma contrato con Discos Orfeón, ingresa también Micky Salas en la batería y nuevamente se colocan en los primeros lugares con Johnny Ortega como vocalista. Despeinada, Bat Masterson y Para cuando Joven son sus primeros hits de este periodo; les siguieron El Secreto (1964), El Gato Loco (1965), Juanita Banana (1966) y Judy con Disfraz (1968). Los Hooligans participaron en varias películas como La Edad de la Violencia y algunas otras, así como en innumerables programas de televisión destacando el legendario Discoteque Orfeón a Go Go. Mas info.


CRAZY CAT

The Kinks Eps #1 (UK, 1964)

Kinksize Session (Pye NEP 24200)

Predictably it flopped as did the follow-up, You Still Want Me, a Ray Davies original from the same session. By this time, though, they'd been the subject of much music press hype and had an appearance on 'Ready Steady Go' under their belt. The big breakthrough came with their third single, the Louie Louie influenced You Really Got Me. It's insistent riff powered what was a classic single to No. 1 in the UK in the Summer of 1964 and it also got to No. 7 in the US. Its style very much set the tone for all their singles in this early period.

#1

The Kinks 45s #1 (UK, 1964)

Tall Sally/I took my baby home 1964 (Pye 7N 15611)

En 1964, el productor Shel Talmy les ficha (el mismo Talmy sería el que dos años mas tarde, también consiguiera producir a otro grupazo de los 60's, los australianos Easybeats). El batería Mick Avory sustituye a Mickey Willet, graban el clásico "Long Tall Sally" de Little Richard, en Febrero de 1964 (es en este año cuando cambian su nombre, y pasan a llamarse The Kinks).

#1

The Seeds: Flower Punk - 3 cd set (US)

The Seeds did write two garage rock classics with "Pushin' Too Hard" and "Can't Seem to Make You Mine," but that didn't mean their remaining records were as interesting as that pair of raw, vital rockers. Flower Punk acts otherwise, compiling all of the group's albums onto a triple-disc, book-bound collection. It's a beautifully packaged set and no song is overlooked, yet Flower Punk is only for serious garage rock and Seeds fetishists, since the band rarely ever hit the heights of "Pushin' Too Hard" and "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" again. Indeed, for many listeners, a simple greatest hits collection can sound samey, but over the course of three CDs, it becomes apparent that the Seeds and Sky Saxon were only capable of a few sounds, and you already have to be indoctrinated to find more than a handful of cuts on Flower Punk interesting.

PUSHIN´
TOO
HARD

The Pretty Things: Acid Burns! Live (UK, 1964/69)

Their early material consisted of hard-edged blues-rock influenced by Bo Diddley (they took their name from Diddley's 1955 song "Pretty Thing") and Jimmy Reed. They were known for wild stage behaviour and edgy lyrical content; their song "Midnight to Six Man" defined the mod lifestyle. Around this time, the first of what would be many personnel changes over the years also began, with Prince the first to go late in 1965. He was replaced by Skip Alan (born 11 June 1948 in London). Brian Pendleton left late in 1966, and was not initially replaced. Stax quit early in 1967. Jon Povey and Wally Waller joined to make the band a five piece once again.

'Beat Room', BBC Television, December 24, 1964:

01. Don't Bring Me Down (2'20)
02. Mama, Keep Your Big Mouth Shut (3'16)
03. Johnny B. Goode (1'50)

Live on Danish Radio, Denmark, 1965:

04. Road Runner (2'14)
05. Big City (1'43)
06. Sittin' All Alone (2'57)
07. Buzz The Jerk (1'29)
08. Rainin' In My Heart

'Blokker', Dutch TV, April 16, 1965:

09. Introduction (1'02)
10. Honey, I Need (2'40)
11. Big Boss Man (1'52)
12. Midnight To Six Man (2'13)

Palais des Sports, Paris, France, June 1, 1967:

13. Children (3'04)
14. Road Runner (3'23)
15. Reincarnation (3'53)

Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands, March 29, 1969:

16. Renaissance Fair (2'41)
17. S.F. Sorrow Is Born (3'30)

Acid Buuurnsss...

Jay Jays (HOL, 1966)

Only hardcore collectors of 1960s rock, and of 1960s Eurobeat, specifically, are even aware of the Dutch group the Jay-Jays, who released one LP and seven singles on Philips in Holland between 1966 and 1968. Starting off as an extremely Kinks-influenced band -- three of the four tracks on their first two singles were based on early Kinks' recordings -- they also tried their hand at soul, soul-pop, folky pop/rock, and bashing pseudo-garage-punk. Like a lot of the second-level bands from the Continent, though, they never really came to grips with any one style; they didn't write compelling material; they weren't brilliant singers or instrumentalists, sometimes even sounding clumsy in their approximation of Anglo-mod stylings, though they were reasonably competent and at times fiery. All of their tracks were compiled for the 1995 CD compilation The Complete Story on Mercury in Holland.
*
The Jay-Jays' only album basically combined their four first singles with five other tracks, though it somehow missed one side of one of the 45's, "Waauw!" It's uneven, heavily British Invasion-influenced rock, divided between originals and covers. The early Kinks in particular come in for heavy tribute; the group trying their hand at the early Kinks' numbers "Bald Headed Woman" and "So Mystifying," as well as basing their arrangement of Slim Harpo's "Got Love if You Want It" on the Kinks' cover. The Kinks' tunes are done rather lamely, and the group did better with some originals in a more confident, slightly garage-ish, sub-Anglo style, like "I Keep Tryin'," and the bound-to-be-misinterpreted "To-day I'm Gay." The highlight might be "Cruncher," an uncharacteristically wild instrumental whose distorted guitar and maniacal drums seem clearly influenced by the early Who. Some other tracks are more disappointing, sounding like timid pop-folk tunes or forced soul-rock.

BALD HEADED WOMAN