Editorial Reviews

The garage band era of the mid-'60s was the modern equivalent of a folk movement, as seemingly every town in America had a half dozen or more energetic, ragged, and often musically challenged young rock combos vying for weekend gigs and small independent record deals. These bands frequently made up for what they lacked in ability and originality by an abundance of verve and self-perceived panache, and if they did manage to make a record, it was usually derivative and crude, but often fascinatingly so, even if few of these releases ever so much as dented a regional playlist. These are the kinds of musical artifacts that Sundazed has collected in its Garage Beat series, of which this is the seventh volume. Subtitled That's How It Will Be!, this installment features a heavy dose of sneering, attitude-laden garage singles (over half of them from Texas bands) recorded in 1966 and 1967, including the Mad Hatters' "La Bamba"-like "I'll Come Running," the Outcasts' "I'm in Pittsburgh and It's Raining," which works off a patented shave-and-a-haircut Bo Diddley rhythm, and Detroit's own the Unrelated Segments with a pair of sneering gems from 1967, "Where You Gonna Go?" and "Cry, Cry, Cry." Nothing here would have toppled the Beatles or the Rolling Stones back in the day, but now, some 40 years on, these tracks still sound wonderfully snotty and free of annoying finesse. What a time it was. Steve Leggett, All Music Guide

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