A 60's Garage Primer

[Joe]

     Hey all!  I need some assistance. I have a reasonably good grasp of contemporary garage rock/punk, but my knowledge of original 60's garage is kinda spotty. What are the "must hear/must know" tunes or bands from that era? I'm a little familiar with The Sonics, ? and the Mysterians, The Seeds, Count Five, and a few of the hits (e.g., "Surfin' Bird"), but beyond that I don't know much.

     Also, is the Nuggets boxed set a good place for a beginner to start?

Thanks!

-Joe

[ixnayray]

Buy all the 'Back From The Grave' albums, buy all the 'Teenage Shutdown' albums. All available from Crypt Records. That should do it.

[Leonardo Annulli]

The Nuggets Box Set is a PERFECT place to start! And Back From The Grave series, as ixnayray has pointed out

[kopper]

Don't forget the Pebbles & Garage Punk Unknowns comps, too. Lots of good stuff there as well.

[Joey Fuckup]

Yep, all of the above, plus you'll be doing yourself a HUGE favor if you check out the Arf! Arf! Records website. Lots of great garage comps, bargain priced samplers, and some stuff that's truly off the wall, plus excellent anthologies on bands you can't go wrong with. Check out their online catalogue: www.arfarfrecords.com

[Joey Fuckup]

Another good resource to check out is the website "Garage Hangover", an exhaustive and essential site that's a great resource on obscure garage bands from the '60's. The guy's done his homework over there plus there's free mp3 downloads. It's a must if you really want to research it. If you go (and you should) be prepared to spend a few hours! www.garagehangover.com 

[Gringo Starr]

Wow! You're about to have your life changed Joe. After you have absorbed all of the above mentioned obligatory collections, maybe you will have enough brain cells left to devour one of thee most extraordinary collections of music from the state in the union that seemed to be way ahead of everyone in the mid 60's - Texas!!! Yeah, go figure. Just Google these two words: Acid Visions.

[kopper]

Norton Records (www.nortonrecords.com) has also put out a lot of great comps over the years. I'd highly recommend the Ft. Worth Teen Scene comps as a good starting point (not to mention their Sonics/Wailers reissues). They should also stock all of the Crypt Records comps mentioned above (Teenage Shutdown, Back From the Grave, Garage Punk Unknowns). Crypt doesn't have an online store for U.S. customers anymore, so your best bet in finding that stuff is through Norton, IMHO. The Pebbles comps can be found at www.bomp.com (they're on AIP, a subsidiary of Bomp Records). Sundazed also issued some killer '60s comps in their "Garage Beat '66" series. Here's Vol. 1: http://www.sundazed.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=679

Mike Stax's Ugly Things magazine is an excellent resource, too. His site also has a Garage Compilation Database that can come in handy when trying to track down which comps have certain songs.

http://www.ugly-things.com/

(Just click on "60's Come Database" in the menu on the right-hand side.)

[Dead Boy]

Also, the "Ugly Things" comp. is highly recommend!

[Joe]

Dynamite!  I did snag a copy of Back from the Grave Vol. 1 on vinyl from a friend a few months back, but further volumes have proven difficult to find.  I love Norton's stuff, but up until now I've mostly bought the rockabilly stuff, so I gotta branch out.  I look forward to exploring everyone's suggestions.  Thanks all!

[Axel Björnsson]

The Beautiful Daze - City Jungle

[Sam Sinister]

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Rockabilly-Psychosis-And-The-Garage-...

[Alexander]

Try the "endless yourney"-trilogy,or the "mindrockers" and "bam-caruso" sampler.Or "acid-dreams".That´s nice stuff-but I thing it´s hard to get.