Neo-Psychotic Reactions: 60's Garage Revivalists

Justin Champlin AKA Nobunny, a cross between Iggy and a muppet

In early spring 1988 my on again, off again college girlfriend Stephanie broke up with me for the (mostly) last time.  Like most dumpees, I was devastated, and spent a good part of that quarter as one of the walking wounded.  This was made even worse by the fact that she and I had a class together and saw each other a couple of times a week.  Anyway, on the day she broke up with me, my best friend John drove up from UC Irvine to console me and we ended up driving into Hollywood, eventually stopping at the Tower Records on Sunset Blvd.  On a whim I bought the classic 60’s garage rock compilation Nuggets.  Originally released in 1972 and compiled by legendary Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kay, Nuggets (re-) introduced subsequent generations to the amazing music being made by American kids in the 60’s as a sort of counter-response to the British Invasion.  This collection also gained notoriety and fame for being the first use of the term “punk rock”, which was indeed appropriate; the crude but enthusiastic low-fi sound, the DIY/independent label distribution, and the young snotty attitude were hallmarks of the 60’s garage rock generation as much as they were their 70’s (and 80’s and beyond) counterparts.  I fell in love with these songs; my favorites were “Psychotic Reaction” by the Count Five; “Dirty Water” by the Standells; “Hey Joe” by the Leaves; “Pushin’ Too Hard” by the Seeds; “96 Tears” by ? and the Mysterians; The Electric Prunes’ “I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night”; “Journey to the Center of the Mind” by the Amboy Dukes (Ted Nugent’s first band); “Nobody But Me” by the Human Beinz; “Gloria” by Shadows of Knight; “We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet” by the Blue Magoos; the Music Machine’s “Talk Talk”; “Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl” by the Barbarians (the lyrics to this song are extremely reactionary but I love how the intro and rhythm were cribbed from “Ticket To Ride” by the Beatles). 

  In a recent post I wrote about the Lords of Altamont, whose frantic, supercharged update of 60’s garage rock is almost as cool as their monicker (almost).  There are several other bands mining a similar high energy, low-fi, wall of sound style.  One of my current favorites is Tennessee’s own Cheap Time, who have released three albums that highlight this melding of 60’s garage punk and 70’s/80’s punk.  Their sound seems to fall somewhere between the Sonics and Redd Kross, containing some of the snotty teenage sounding vocals reminiscent of Teen Babes From Monsanto with a massive wall of drums and guitar.  “Tight Fit” off their 2008 self-titled debut album is a great example of this.  “Glitter & Gold” sounds more like the bluesy doo-wop components of Johnny Thunders’ solo work but also sounds like punk revivalists the Soda Pop Kids.

Nobunny is the bizarre alter ego of Justin Champlin, who often performs in a weird bunny mask and nothing else and assaults audiences with loud, low-fi guitar riffs melding onto catchy pop hooks and a drum machine keeping time.  I particularly like “Tina Goes to Work” off Love Visions from 2008.

At the other end of the spectrum is Japan’s Guitar Wolf, who come on like a cross between the distortion-heavy horrorpunkobilly of the Misfits and the 60’s garage grooviness of the Count Five with every single amp turned to 12 and produced by Phil Spector.  “Fujiyama Attack” in particular comes across like “Where Eagles Dare” crossed with “Psychotic Reaction”.   “Cosmic Space Girl”, also off Jet Generation, is so loud and distorted guitar-wise that it will destroy your hearing even with the volume turned down; the basic tempo and sound reminds me of “Garbage Man” by the Cramps if they’d recorded it in a bathroom stall with the mikes INSIDE the amps. 

Ty Segall comes across like a melding of Nobunny and Guitar Wolf, leaning somewhat closer to the 60’s garage rock side of the equation.  Segall was a member of the Southern California rock revivalist group the Episolons before heading out on his own in 2008.   I love “Go Home” and “Pretty Baby (You’re So Ugly)”, off his self-titled debut album.  The latter in particular has the loud, insanely distorted guitar sound Guitar Wolf also favor but its surf music crunch keeps the toes tapping.   I also like the lurching chug of “In Your Car” off 2009’s Lemons.  I have only just started scratching the surface of Segall’s work—he’s been quite prolific, with 4 albums in as many years—but I know I’ll be back for more.

Another garage band that drew as much on the Standells and Them as on the Germs was the Reatards.  The Reatard’s music is also wildly lo-fi, sloppy and intense, particularly on songs like “Stacye”, “I’m So Gone”, and “I Gotta Rock and Roll” off the spectacular and comprehensive double album Teenage Hate/Fuck Elvis Here’s the Reatards from 2011. 

Front man Jay Reatard went solo in 2006ess overtly garage-y than the other artists here, but he often uses swirling organs and catchy 60’s garage pop lyrics to excellent effect.  He released two albums, 2006’s Blood Visions and 2009’s Watch Me Fall, before dying of a drug overdose in 2010.  His music was less distorted and sloppy than the Reatards but still had a manic energy to it that reminds me of the Soda Pop Kids or Biters, two contemporary bands who hearken back to 70’s punk and powerpop.  “Death is Forming” and “It’s So Easy” are cleaned up but still have that frantic 60’s frug to them.  “Ain’t Gonna Save Me” from Watch Me Fall rides along on a catchy pop groove, with Reatard’s shrill Johnny Rotten on helium vocals propelling it forward.  “Rotten Mind” sounds like early Oi!, Sham 69 say, poppified and low-fi’ed.  “My Reality” totally cribs the basic sonic template of Samhain’s “Archangel” and gives it a jangly psychedelic gloss.  Sadly, Jay died of a drug overdose in 2010 and so we’ll never see where he would have taken this music next.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts how huge the Paisley Underground scene was in Los Angeles in the early 80’s; these bands, the Three O’Clock, the Bangles, Green on Red, the Pandoras, the Dream Syndicate and others, incorporated 60’s garage and psychedelic rock sounds into their music.  Other bands like the Fuzztones and Thee Headcoats were more purely influenced by the Nuggets bands.  It’s nice to see more bands starting to appreciate the wild abandon of these bands.