I probably have 100 compilation albums of rare garage, freakbeat, psych, etc. on the shelf. And I almost never listen to any of them.
You know what I’m talking about. Back From the Grave. Teenage Shutdown. Digging For Gold. Rubble. Ugly Things. Pebbles. And so very many others.
When I was but a wee lad in my sponge phase, I was smitten with the excitement and energy of these albums. The problem is, paradoxically, the more of them you hear, the more mediocre each individual volume becomes, as the bulk of the tracks begin to sound alike and only the cream is worth skimming off.
Let’s face it: These things were made for the iPod, or in an earlier time, a mix tape.
I have decided to very seriously think about possibly, at some point next year, perhaps during the summer when I am off work and could use the money to go on a nice vacation, selling them off, unless some other financial windfall of I-can’t-imagine-what nature shows up.
It’s hard to let them go. They look cool on my shelf. All of the back from the Graves and Teenage Shutdowns with their nearly-identical spines sitting together. The 20 volumes of Rubble and their beautiful jackets.
Still, life grows shorter every day, and I am losing my desire to keep bowling trophies around the house. Hence, I have decided to listen to each of these over the rest of the school year, make a decision about whether or not I will likely ever want to play them again, and let the chips fall via Discogs.
This whole thing started when I was goofing around on the G45 website, where the most knowledgeable garage collectors in the world hang out, including Mark Markesich, whose book Teenbeat Mayhem was the subject of an earlier post. Markesich and another contributor both mentioned that “Short Time” by the Noblemen was very high up on their list of the all-time best of the genre. I had no idea which compilation it was on, but I figured I had it somewhere, and I was right. Here it is on BFTG Vol. 7.
Sexist and occasionally homophobic artwork aside, there is a lot to like about the Back From the Grave albums. It’s definitely the most crude, ugly, dirty series out there, and inclusion of a 45 on one of the volumes automatically makes it legendary among the weirdoes who throw down big dollars for this stuff. Also, they allow folks like myself to hear literally thousands of dollars worth of rare singles for pennies on the C-note. (The aforementioned Noblemen single rang up $4K on eBay last year.)
A listen today to all four sides (34 tracks) of this double-LP drove the paradox home. There were already a handful of tracks from the album on iPod; I added a few more for a total of 11. Thing is, the worst track here isn’t that much worse than the best track here. If you’re into this sound, the quality of the material is very impressive. If you’re not, there is absolutely nothing to break up the monotony.
Some folks have claimed that BFTG is nothing but inept frat-rock played by teenagers whose very competence is dubious. I don’t think this is true. Most of it is crudely recorded, and most of the playing is single-minded, but a lot of this stuff is powerful, if basic, rock and roll played with confidence and authority, and a pissed-off joy akin to what you’ll find on “We Got the Neutron Bomb” or “Neat Neat Neat.”
These were selected:
- The Egyptian Thing – The Syndicate (This one was on a major label, Dot)
- Another Day – The Moguls
- Now You Say We’re Through – The Puddin’ heads
- Elizabeth – Jim Whelan and the Beatnicks
- I Love You – the Worlocks
- Slide – The Bugs
- Short Time – The Noblemen
- Don’t Want Your Lovin – It’s Us
- Don’t Blow Your Mind – The Spiders (early Alice Cooper!)
- No Price Tag – The Spiders
- Black Mona Lisa – The Retreds (Amazing teen-Dylan lyrics)
As you might expect, the “garage” singles I love most are from the poppier end of the spectrum, but I admit I quite enjoyed sitting through all four sides of this. I guess I have a while to think about it.
|classicipodclassic| 