The Topsy Turbys Ep (US, 1965)

Starting out as a jazz-pop combo The Charles Johnston Quartet, this group of Arizona State U. students were approached by entrepreneur Charles H. Anderson. He suggested they adopt Sam The Sham's Middle-Eastern turban-and-robe couture as an alternative to the prevalent mop-top and Beatle-boot fashion. Renamed The Topsy Turbys they released two cool swingin' garagey-beat 45s, and a very rare EP whose details are lost in time.

In 2001 Lee Joseph's Bacchus Archives released an EP coupling their two 45s and telling their story. It reports that Noble teaches in Mesa, AZ, Smith teaches guitar in Mesa, Forman is a studio musican in L.A., and Johnston is President/CEO of Select Atrists Associates who book and promote major shows across the US.

The Topsy Turbys released two excellent 45's on Liberty Bell Records, as well as an impossibly rare EP with the two singles combined. Today, the group is best remembered for the snarling "Hey Tiger" and "Topsy Turby" which both appeared on garage compilations and was covered by San Diego's Tell-Tale Hearts back in the 1980s. The other two tracks have been unavailable since their local Phoenix release in 1965. Sleeve graphic design by Shag with liner notes penned by Topsy Turby member, Charles Johnson.
Date printed on label 9-16-65
(garage/frat/early psych)

vinyl rip
*Note: this one does not have the last song "Bart`s tune",

EP

MC5: Live At Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois (US, 18/07/1970)

18 Saturday / Chicago, Illinois Speed Press, Illusion, It Doesn't Matter, Happy Day, Pig Iron, Stooges, MC5, Leon Russell, Dreams, Funkadelic, Joe Kelley (Former Shadows Of Knight Original Member), Mason Proffit, Bloomsbury People "WCFL'S BIG 10 Summer Music Festival", *Soldier Field*, Chicago, Illinois.

Rare boot, rather raw/wild/savage.
Medium quality. For collectors/fans only.

MC5

MC5: Purity Accuracy Box (US, 1965/70 -2003-)

• Purity Accuracy is the first “Band Authorised” project since 1971
• Across the six discs the boxed set contains a wealth of previously unreleased material
• The booklet contains many previously unpublished photos supplied by the band
• Includes two replica archive MC5 Stickers
• The box includes band performing new live versions of classic songs with Lemmy from Motorhead, Nicke from the Hellacopters and Dave Vanian from the Damned on vocals

Rehearsals (74 mins)

1. Skunk
2. Poison
3. Gotta keep movin
4. Baby wont ya
(Fred Smith guide vocals), 1970, Unreleased version
5. Sister Ann
6. Future now
7. Over & over
( Fred Acoustic inst 1970)
8. Train Music
(summer 71, London, Unreleased track and special edit, Intended for use in the film 'Gold', Kramer bass+piano)
9. The Pledge song
(early version of Sister Anne no vox. Head Sounds Ypsilanti oct/nov 70- )
10. Power trip
(early version of Skunk no vox. Head Sounds Ypsilanti oct/nov 70)
11. Tutti-Frutti
12. Tonight
13. Teenage lust inst
14. Looking at you 2nd Version
15. High school inst
16. Call me animal inst
17. The American ruse
18. Shaking street
(Acoustic version summer ’69 with Fred on Vocals)
19. Human being lanwmower
20. Back in the usa
21. Looking at you inst
22. What is Zenta?
23. Kick out the jams

1965-68 (71 mins)

24. Looking at you (United Sound Studios January 1968)
25. Borderline (United Sound Studios January 1968)
26. Looking at you Instrumental (United Sound Studios January 1968)
27. I can only give you everything (United Sound Studios January 1966)
28. I just don’t know (United Sound Studios January 1966)
29. One of the guys (Terra Sherma Studios Detroit 1966)
30. Little red riding grmph ( Basement rehearsal mrs Kramers)
31. I don’t mind ( Basement rehearsal mrs Kramers)
32. Look what you’ve done done ( Basement rehearsal mrs Kramers)
33. Baby please don’t go ( Basement rehearsal mrs Kramers)
34. Break time (recorded at a polish wedding)
35. I’m a man (Artists workshop)
36. Looking at you ( Cody High School)
37. Black to Comm ( Cody High School)
38. I put a spell on you (live at ‘Dialogue ‘68’ First Unitarian Church Detroit Sept 7th 1968)
39. Born under a bad sign (live at ‘Dialogue ‘68’ First Unitarian Church Detroit Sept 7th 1968)
40. I want you right now (live at ‘Dialogue ‘68’ First Unitarian Church Detroit Sept 8th 1968)
41. I believe to my soul (Sunday sept 8th 1968 live First Unitarian Church Detroit )

Live at the Saginaw Civic Centre 1st jan 1970 (50 mins)

42. Intro Rambling Rose
43. Human being Lawnmower
44. Tonight
45. Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama lama fa fa fa)
46. It’s a man’s world
47. Teenage lust
48. Looking at you
49. Fire of love
50. Shakin street
51. Starship/Kick out the jams/Black to comm /Teenage lust

Live at The Grande Ballroom 1968 (64 mins)

52. Brother J.C intro (27th Oct 1968)
53. Motor city is burning (30/31Oct 1968)
54. I believe to my soul (30/31Oct 1968)
55. Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama la fa fa fa) (31st Oct 1968)
56. I’m mad like Eldridge Cleaver (27th Oct 1968)
57. Ice pick Slim (26th May 1968)
58. Black to comm (unknown recording date)

Live in Michigan (27/05/1968) at the Sturgis Armory on a 7” tape direct from the soundboard (72 min)

59. Kick out the Jams
60. Come together
61. Revolutionary blues
62. Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama lama fa fa fa)
63. James Brown Medley:- Cold Sweat, I can’t stand myself, There was a time
64. Upper Egypt
65. Tutti Frutti
66. Borderline
67. Born under a bad sign
68. I want you
69. Starship
70. Black to Comm

100 club Single (13th March 2003) London 100 club

71. Sister Anne (With Lemmy)
72. Gotta keep movin (with Nicke from the Hellacopters …)
73. Looking at you (with Dave Vanian )
74. Skunk (Sonically Speaking)

The Nashville Teens: Tobacco Road (UK, 1964)

The Nashville Teens were a truly kick-ass rock & roll band from London. Their main claim to fame was providing the kamikaze backup behind Jerry Lee Lewis on his Live at the Star Club LP and recording the massive hit "Tobacco Road." This disc reissues that entire 1964 album and adds another 14 bonus tracks to it, getting us all the way to 1971 in the group's recorded output. Hot versions Of "Mona," "I Like It Like That," "La Bamba," and "Too Much" are the album's high points, and while the later tracks are a nice touch, they don't quite measure to the group's halcyon days.
I know..this is not the comp that you are looking Roadrunner...but still more stuff to the collection ah? Pay attention to this one. (with bonus tracks & all...almost 30 songs!)

BEAT BEAT

V.A.: A Fistful Of Fuzz

Late-1960s garage-psych featuring fuzz guitar

True to its name, A Fistful of Fuzz delivers a lot of fuzz-drenched material. Rather than being garage punk, however, most of the tracks on this compilation are late-1960s heavy psych, with the fuzz being mainly the acid rock variety- The greatest influences on the material presented are the trippier side of the San Francisco sound, especially the Jefferson Airplane and the acid rock of Blue Cheer, as well as the Iron Butterfly along with a little Doors influence thrown in as well. The themes of most of the songs are hippie concerns: drugs ("Travel Agent Man" by the Sound Apparatus, "White Ship" by the Denims and "Speed Freak" by the Ritual"), sex ("She Needs Love" by Tapestry Garden), the generation gap ("She Doesn't Understand" by the Ruins and "Synthetic People" by the Journey Back), spirituality ("That Was Just His Thing" by the In-Keepers and "Bless Me Father" by Loos Foos and the Fiberglass Cornflake), doing your own thing ("Reality" by the Prodigal) and generally freaking out. A Fistful of Fuzz contains heavy cover versions of "Purple Haze," "Season of the Witch," "You Really Got Me," and the album closes with a seven-minute freaked out version of "Tobacco Road" featuring a theremin. The most pop-sounding track on A Fistful of Fuzz, "That Was Just His Thing" by the In-Keepers, is in some ways the strangest track in this collection. The reference in the title is to Jesus, who "lived and died by the hammer and nail. I guess that was just his thing." Deadly serious spoken word interludes proclaim, "go out into all the world and say these things. And everyone that heareth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man." A Fistful of Fuzz is an all-around good compilation—efficient track notes, better-than-expected audio quality, and most of the tracks on A Fistful of Fuzz are unique to this compilation.


UN PUÑADO DE FUZZZ.....

The Newbeats: Golden Classics Edition (US, Comp)

An animal-house special. the Newbeats: Larry Henley and Mark & Don Mathis performed 18 campy songs in frat house style. All tracks feature Henley's exaggerated, sometimes painful falsetto, i.e., "Little Child," "Tough Little Buggy," and "The Bees Are for the Birds." However, the style works on "Bread and Better," "Run Baby Run," "Everything's Alright," and the harmony laden "Break Away (From That Boy)." The singing is OK, but the lyrics sound like the work of third-graders. "Better Watch Your Step," is "Bread and Butter" with new lyrics; most interesting is "Pink Daily Rue," which cops the groove of the Ikettes' "I'm Blue" and their rendition of "I Can't Hear You No More." There are no ballads and only a few mid-tempo tracks including "Patent on Love," the only song written by Henley and the best overall. Henley later wrote "Wind Beneath My Wings," but there's nothing that deep here.

BEATSNUEVOS

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...