{"id":362,"date":"2016-02-01T04:07:27","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T04:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnpecorelli.com\/?p=362"},"modified":"2016-02-01T06:49:29","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T06:49:29","slug":"10-essential-garage-rock-albums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnpecorelli.com\/?p=362","title":{"rendered":"10 Essential Garage Rock Albums"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Originally published in\u00a0<\/span>Alternative Press\u00a0<\/i>magazine<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/header>\n
\n

Sure, you know all about the Strokes, the Hives, and the White Stripes. And maybe you even dig the snotty posturing, the carefully crafted trashiness, and the rudimentary guitar styles that form the crux of these bands\u2019 sounds. Well, those are also the hallmarks of the great age of \u201860s garage punk\u2014and of the \u201crevivalists\u201d who\u2019ve kept it in the garage throughout the \u201870s, \u201880s, \u201890s, and now. Here, then, are just 10 of the garage records you should get tight with immediately.<\/p>\n

The Sonics:\u00a0<\/b>Here Are the Sonics!!! (Norton Records,\u00a0<\/i>1965)
\nAlthough most \u201860s garage bands may have been good for one brilliant single (like, say, the Del-Vetts\u2019 \u201cLast Time Around\u201d) and precious little else, the Sonics packed their entire first album with greatness. Performances are over the top\u2014everything is way too fast and way too loud, and Gerry Roslie\u2019s guttural screaming still sounds alarming today, especially when you decipher what he\u2019s screaming about.<\/p>\n

New Bomb Turks:\u00a0<\/b>Information Highway Revisited (Crypt Records,\u00a0<\/i>1994)
\nThis Columbus quartet infused the roots sounds of fellow Ohioans the Pagans with heavy-rock muscle and tempos that\u2019d put most hardcore bands to shame. University grads without proper jobs, the Turks concocted a fine blend of old-school punk negativism with lyrics that were surprisingly literate given the aggression levels. Best of all, a shocking sense of melody occasionally surfaced in the melee\u2014but believe me, pop-punk this ain\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The Kinks:\u00a0<\/b>Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (Rhino Records,\u00a0<\/i>reissued 1989)
\nBefore they became boring concept rockers (see also: The Who), the Kinks were a gloriously gruff pub band with more snot than brains in their heads. This compilation includes a few dull ballads, but overall it\u2019s more consistent than the average early \u201860s Kinks affair. Plus it\u2019s got all the band\u2019s raunchiest three-chord brawlers\u2014rightfully\u00a0still\u00a0<\/i>the template for all things garage.<\/p>\n

Blacktop:\u00a0<\/b>I\u2019ve Got a Baaad Feelin\u2019 About This\u00a0I(n the Red Records,\u00a0<\/i>1995)
\nHistory may best remember Mick Collins (Dirtbombs) for his role in the seminal Detroit lo-fi combo the Gories, but this album from the tragically short-lived Blacktop is still the best work of his career to date. Noise-damaged garage blues is the name of the game here\u2014and with punchy production values, stellar songwriting, and the sonic onslaught of Darin Lin Wood\u2019s brilliant, aneurysm-inducing guitar work, no band ever did it better.<\/p>\n

Lyres:\u00a0<\/b>AHS 1005 (Ace of Hearts Records,\u00a0<\/i>1981)
\nJeff \u201cMonoman\u201d Conolly was doing garage punk with his band the DMZ when practically no one else was: in 1978. Three years later, Conolly clipped the punk, sharpened the pop, and brought his Ace Continental organ to the front, paying homage to \u201860s one-hit wonders like the Standells, the Chocolate Watchband, and ? & the Mysterions, injecting the whole mess with Boston power-pop zeal.<\/p>\n

The Makers:\u00a0<\/b>The Makers (Estrus Records<\/i>, 1996)
\nCommonly called the \u201cfuck you\u201d album (and not just because of the cover art), this is the Makers\u2019 most extreme recording, sizzling with fuzz-guitar hate-rockers. Distortion-heavy \u201860s R&B riffs alternate with scorching blasts of treble guitar, while Mike Maker\u2014at this stage the snottiest vocalist since Johnny Rotten circa 1976\u2014spits one lyrical contusion after another. It\u2019s all powered by a reckless rhythm section that barely keeps this runaway train on the tracks.<\/p>\n

The Miracle Workers:\u00a0<\/b>Inside Out (Bomp! Records,\u00a0<\/i>1985)
\nAdding a blast of \u201860s-punk vitriol to the relatively fey Paisley Revival scene of the \u201880s, these Portland, Oregon, garage hipsters created the definitive genre album. Searing, id-saturated blowouts alternate with organ-driven proto-psychedelia, giving the record a bit of range. And Gerry Mohr\u2019s got the perfect voice for the style\u2014bombastic, self-pitying, accusatory, and snot-nosed as hell\u2014and it\u2019s a stellar complement to the treble-icious guitar and swirling organ runs.<\/p>\n

Oblivians:\u00a0<\/b>Sympathy Sessions\u00a0(Sympathy for the Record Industry<\/i>, 1996)
\nMemphis trio Oblivians squeezed traditional blues and gospel through a garbage disposal of garage punk and triple-time psychobilly\u2014and nearly came to personify the lo-fi \u201cmovement\u201d in the process. The songwriting here is simplistic enough to border on witless, but it allows the brothers Oblivian to loose some ferociously emotional performances about never getting laid, never getting paid, and\u2014correspondingly\u2014having a plate implanted in one\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

Supercharger<\/b>: Supercharger (Estrus Records,\u00a0<\/i>1991)
\nCalling themselves Supercharger was a stretch\u2014this California trio could barely muster the chops necessary for slow-tempo punk. Who cares? Their combination of Sex Pistols\u2013style Chuck Berry riffs and British Invasion\u2013era pop backup vocals, along with their deadpan, almost bashful delivery of sicko lyrical themes, makes for a true DIY gem. Bonus cool points for the fugly cover of \u201cAre You a Boy or are You a Girl?\u201d\u2014originally penned in the mid-\u201860s by some knuckle-dragging Beatles haters called the Barbarians.<\/p>\n

Thee Headcoats:\u00a0<\/b>The Messerschmitt Pilot\u2019s Severed Hand (Damaged Goods,\u00a0<\/i>1998)
\nBilly Childish\u2019s career in garage punk is long, storied, and pretty darn uneven. But here, the ale-addled Englishman\u2019s band hit everything they\u2019re capable of, song after song: gallon-drunk R&B howled through Childish\u2019s so-called \u201cMockney\u201d accent, sick punk ragers like \u201cI Wouldn\u2019t Want to Be You,\u201d and an unhealthy dose of black humor. Even though they\u2019re goofing around most of the time, this is still as earnest and inspired as English garage gets. Pretty bloody fair for a disc that was recorded in one afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u2014John Pecorelli<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published in\u00a0Alternative Press\u00a0magazine Sure, you know all about the Strokes, the Hives, and the White Stripes. And maybe you even dig the snotty posturing, the carefully crafted trashiness, and the rudimentary guitar styles that form the crux of these bands\u2019 sounds. Well, those are also the hallmarks of the great age of \u201860s garage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpecorelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpecorelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpecorelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpecorelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpecorelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/johnpecorelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363,"href":"https:\/\/johnpecorelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions\/363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpecorelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpecorelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpecorelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}