Perhaps I'm biased because I was in this band, but we ROCKED!!!! LOL!

DA Straitjackets y Mummies

 

 

Poisoned Electrick Head.

Yes, that was KOGAR's band. 

The CONNECTION said:

A few years back there was a band from my town ( Portsmouth NH ) called THEE MONKEY BUTLERS. They played great garage RnR. The only link that I can find that still works is the myspace address. Check them out!! http://www.myspace.com/theemonkeybutlers

 

 

Los Tiki Phantoms.

I beg to disagree. Good guitar playing is part and parcel of wild primitive rock'n'roll just as much as minimalist guitar playing! Paul Burlinson and Cliff Gallup were excellent guitar players. Some of the finest garage songs displayed great expertise in terms of guitar work: The Recalls' Reesie and Nobody's Guy are killers, so is Project Blue by the Banshees. Or what about In the Past by We the People? I hear it's very hard to play (by the way check out the excellent French version La fermeture éclair by Belgian yéyé girl Delphine)!

 

So garage addicts should reclaim good guitar playing. Let's not leave it to bores like Mark Knopfler or Clapton!

Patrick said:

I think songs like "Wild Man" and "Born Loser" have a haunting minimalisitc quality of the primitive garage style.  Garage Punk in my opinion, was never a genre to display techincal mastery, that was left to the Progressive Rock (Led Zeppelin, Rush, Black Sabbath, Cream, Hendrix). To me, it's about a primitive inarticulate emotion.  A form of musical expression unrefined, experimental, raw, channeled within the confines of it's own limitations.  I do agree reluctantly, that the guitar was a little bit thin.  It could have been produced and engineered better (maybe some backround rhythm gtr).  I think though, if you put those early songs within the context of their times they were revolutionary as far as the dark theatrical "psychotic" impression they produced.  I guess I would just hate to see some bands butcher great songs by running them through a Grunge processor.

excellent. my band actually covers that tommy blake song. i've heard it called "all night long."

Zorch Radio said:

Here's some stompin' singles that deserve a mention:

 

"Miss Pearl" - Jimmy Wages

"Hang Up" -  Fabulous Wailers

"Lordy Hoody" - Tommy Blake

those are great songs by awesome artists. thanks.

Mitchhz said:

Hi, I'm a fan of wild rock'n'roll too. Here's my top ten of the wildest songs ever:

 

10. Tony Conn - Like Wow

Hard to choose really. There are myriads of wild rockabilly songs. This one has interesting orchestration, like Tyrone Schmidling.

9. Jesse James - South's Gonna Rise Again

Love the voice.

8. Project Blue - The Banshees

Timeless classic.

7. The Ranger Sounds - Ricordami

Incredible Italian band!

6. The Pinetoppers - Shout Bamalama

Otis Redding when he he tried to sound like Little Richard.

5. The Valiants - Good Golly Miss Molly

This one was released before Little Richard's and is much faster and wilder!

4. Adrian Lloyd - Lorna

Real punk gem.

3. The Phantom - Love Me

Opening scream is unbeatable.

2. Bunker Hill - The Girl Can't Dance

Link Wray played on that one.

1. Ralph Nielsen & the Chancellors - Scream

I don't know if this is surf, rockabilly or 60s punk but it is truly the wildest!

 

Hope you like it.

Here's some stompin' singles that deserve a mention:

 

"Miss Pearl" - Jimmy Wages

"Hang Up" -  Fabulous Wailers

"Lordy Hoody" - Tommy Blake

Great songs. I'm diggin' this group.

Zorch Radio said:

nice list!

Mitchhz said:

Hi, I'm a fan of wild rock'n'roll too. Here's my top ten of the wildest songs ever:

 

10. Tony Conn - Like Wow

Hard to choose really. There are myriads of wild rockabilly songs. This one has interesting orchestration, like Tyrone Schmidling.

9. Jesse James - South's Gonna Rise Again

Love the voice.

8. Project Blue - The Banshees

Timeless classic.

7. The Ranger Sounds - Ricordami

Incredible Italian band!

6. The Pinetoppers - Shout Bamalama

Otis Redding when he he tried to sound like Little Richard.

5. The Valiants - Good Golly Miss Molly

This one was released before Little Richard's and is much faster and wilder!

4. Adrian Lloyd - Lorna

Real punk gem.

3. The Phantom - Love Me

Opening scream is unbeatable.

2. Bunker Hill - The Girl Can't Dance

Link Wray played on that one.

1. Ralph Nielsen & the Chancellors - Scream

I don't know if this is surf, rockabilly or 60s punk but it is truly the wildest!

 

Hope you like it.

WOOOOOOOW !!! GREAAAAAAT list ! This top list is pretty unbeatable !

Right now, I'm also thinking of (in no particular order):

"Alright" by the GROOP,

"Psycho" by THE SWAMP RATS",

"She said" by HASIL ADKINS,

"You're gone I'm left" by TYRONE SCHMIDLING, 

"Jailhouse Rock" by DEAN CARTER 

and "Can't tame me" by THE BENDERS of course.

Mitchhz said:

Hi, I'm a fan of wild rock'n'roll too. Here's my top ten of the wildest songs ever:

 

10. Tony Conn - Like Wow

Hard to choose really. There are myriads of wild rockabilly songs. This one has interesting orchestration, like Tyrone Schmidling.

9. Jesse James - South's Gonna Rise Again

Love the voice.

8. Project Blue - The Banshees

Timeless classic.

7. The Ranger Sounds - Ricordami

Incredible Italian band!

6. The Pinetoppers - Shout Bamalama

Otis Redding when he he tried to sound like Little Richard.

5. The Valiants - Good Golly Miss Molly

This one was released before Little Richard's and is much faster and wilder!

4. Adrian Lloyd - Lorna

Real punk gem.

3. The Phantom - Love Me

Opening scream is unbeatable.

2. Bunker Hill - The Girl Can't Dance

Link Wray played on that one.

1. Ralph Nielsen & the Chancellors - Scream

I don't know if this is surf, rockabilly or 60s punk but it is truly the wildest!

 

Hope you like it.

Right on. Thanks for the info. Awesome show, by the way.

The band name is actually Shepherd’s Heard and that song is on The World Ain’t Round, It’s Square! (Teenage Shutdown comp released by Crypt Records).

I spun it on this old episode of my radio show:

http://www.garagepunk.com/waybackmachine/2004/01/05/episode-422/

I'm glad I could fulfill your last dying wish!

Love that track. It was on Teenage Shutdown #10. I can't blame you for wanting to know so badly what it was.

Kevan... you have helped me solve a problem that has riddled me for years. I've talked to experts all over the world and no one has been able to tell me until now. Thanks so much. I can die in peace, now!

@ Johnny, we have two Farfisa mini compact's & they are great, but they do spend a lot of time in the shop. We've been using a Nord lately & it rocks. Check out the songs we have up on our page, that's the Nord.

Wow !!!

Jenni, I'd love to hear any sort of podcast that you'd like to do. Since you're not a current resident of the region, why not just start a more general podcast? If you can handle doing a new episode every two months or so (at least), then you can just do your own show and then have a special episode where you play all Aussie stuff. Or two episodes like that, or whatever. Let me know what you think.

We do have someone else here who has stepped forward to do an Aussie/NZ show and it will be debuting soon, but it's not like there's room for only one, so Johnny, if you're still interested, too, let me know.

Cheers.

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 1, 2011

Peter Greenberg with Barrence Whitfield in Santa Fe last year

After a quarter decade, East Coast R & B and soul shouter Barrence Whitfield has reunited with the core of his original band, The Savages, and recorded a mighty new album. It’s called Savage Kings. It’s available in Europe and is scheduled for American release next week on Shake It Records, a Cincinnati label.
Although Whitfield is from Boston and the record was recorded in Cincinnati, there’s a strong New Mexico connection here. Original Savages guitarist Peter Greenberg moved to Taos a couple of years ago.

Greenberg, who once played with Boston garage warriors Lyres (and now plays with Taos band Manby’s Head), instigated the reunion with Whitfield and original bassist Phil Lenker. In fact, their first live gigs together in 25 years or so were last year in Taos, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque.

This is the European cover of Savage Kings

A history of the Savages, in a nutshell (as related to me in an interview with Whitfield last year): Whitfield was formerly a drummer in a funk band. While working in a record store and studying journalism at Boston University in the early ’80s, he hooked up with Greenberg, who was fresh out of Lyres and looking to start a more R & B oriented band. They recorded a couple of albums together before the original Savages, including Greenberg, began drifting away.

Whitfield pressed on, forming another Savages band and making more albums, including a couple of country-flavored efforts with Tom Russell in the mid-’90s. A confessed vinyl addict, he still works in a record store.

Savage Kings kicks off with “(Your Love Is Like a) Ramblin’ Rose.” No, it’s not the Nat King Cole song or the Grateful Dead’s “Ramble on Rose.” This is an MC5 classic. And Whitfield uses his best falsetto scream to deliver it. It’s followed by a punchy rocker called “Just Moved In” that features a honking sax solo by new Savage Tom Quartulli.

One of the coolest songs here was written by Greenberg and fellow Manby’s Header Mike Mooney. It’s called “Willie Meehan,” and it’s about an old boxer in the early part of the 20th century who actually beat Jack Dempsey a couple of times. Battling Willie, according to the song: “Never did no training / He ate his way to heavyweight.” The opening riffs remind me of The Sonics’ “Strychnine,” which Whitfield also covered a few years ago. Like Meehan himself, this tune is a chunky slugger.

“Shot Down” basically hits that murky borderline between R & B and ’60s garage music. Meanwhile, “Who’s Gonna Rock My Baby,” an obscure old rockabilly tune by Jerry Woodard, sounds as if it were written especially for Whitfield. “Well, I got my call from my draft board today,” the song begins. “Two years might not be that long, but I got to leave my baby at home.”

Whitfield and the band mix things up a bit. The minor-key “You Told a Lie” is basically contemporary blues. You can almost imagine Albert Collins or Robert Cray or maybe even Buddy Guy doing this one. “Bad Girl” is a good old-fashioned riveting soul meltdown; it starts out with a spoken-word introduction and ends with falsetto pleas for mercy.

Since I first listened to this album, my favorite song has been an old Lightnin’ Slim dirty blues classic called “It’s Mighty Crazy.” Captain Beefheart covered this also, at least in his live shows, although he called it “Keep on Rubbing.” (I’ve got it on a live bootleg Beefheart album called Crazy Little Things.) Whitfield’s version is closer to Lightnin’ Slim’s, except he’s got a sax instead of a harmonica.

Whitfield and the boys are touring Europe this fall. I hope the tour is a big success and inspires the Savages to record more.

Also recommended:
* Barrence Whitfield & The Savages. In anticipation of Savage Kings, Whitfield re-released his self-titled long out-of-print first CD, from the early ’80s, complete with a bunch of bonus tracks — outtakes, live recordings, etc. — from that era.

It starts out with “Bip Bop Bip,” a rocker written by soulman Don Covay. It’s got Whitfield’s original version of “Mama Get the Hammer” (the hammer is needed because there’s flies on the baby’s head.”). The song came from a ’50s R & B band, the Bobby Peterson Quintet. But it has become something of a signature tune for Whitfield.

Other must-hears are “Georgia Slop,” a Big Al Dowling tune (written by Jimmy McCracklin), which was later covered by Los Lobos, and “Whistle Bait,” which is a Collins Kids song, originally sung by the pre-teen Larry Collins. Whitfield sings it like an adult — a lust-crazed adult. Greenberg’s big moment here is the breakneck romper “Whiskey Wagon,” a fiery rockabilly slammer.


Among the bonus tracks is a nice slow soulful “Pain in My Heart,” a Naomi Neville tune that is best known for the version by Otis Redding. Whitfield fakes crying at the end of the song. Maybe some real tears were shed in that audience.

This CD has only been released in Great Britain by Ace Records. The good news is you can pick it up for a reasonable price at Amazon and other outlets. It’s worth having the CD because of the fine booklet with extensive liner notes by John Swenson and photos. It’s a savage treat.

Thanks KK for the link. I will check it out.

 

John, good to know I can ask when necessary. I already post now and then my questions on the AX84 forum. My new build is taken from that site, the simple pre-amp and the 50w pp from the 'Building Blocks' section. Most question I have so far are about the differences in the schematics/layout and what I read in books.  And I plan on doing some mods to the AX84 circuits so there will be questions about that, too.

Do you have any details  on this booklet? I would like to check it out.

The Fnords said:

There's a wee Mullard booklet which has valve amp circuits. I started one; haven't finished yet as it needs a chassis building and I haven't got round to that yet. I've done some modifying, but mostly to the boxes containing everything!

D.

You've got a fellow amp builder here. Looks like there are others too.

 

If/when you have questions, just ask. I've found that one of the best resources is the AX84 forum. There are some very experienced/knowledgeable folks there that are happy to help and share their knowledge. It's a very good group, everyone is welcome and treated with respect.

If you check out my profile you can see some of my efforts.

 

John