Last time I was in Austin (I was planning on moving there to resume playing with a good guitarist I had been in a Band with in L.A., who was now in Cornell Hurd's Band, but he was dying of lung cancer by the time I got there) I went to Antone's and Threadgill's, to see where that whole crowd that came out of Austin had appeared live. Tiny stages! Wasn't Janis a waitress at Threadgill's? Had a pretty good steak there. |
I think Lou Ann works well with Jimmie Vaughan on a few cuts on his album "Do you get the blues." I regret not having gone to listen to her in the Triple Threat Revue (SRV & Double Trouble) at Rome Inn way back in time. I have heard her at Antone's (in the 80's). It's a good voice and I don't mean to take anything away from her. But Janis has this amazingly harmonic-rich voice that I find unique. That said, I understand if it's too much for some folks or if "a little goes a long way."
I don't know that Janis actually spent much time in Austin but she certainly made an impression in the time she was here. |
I didn't say she was born there! ;-) |
Good people of Port Arthur gonna be unhappy w/BDP relocating Janis to Austin. |
I've been thinking about the why, Tostadosunidos. Janis strikes me as trying pretty hard to sound "bluesy", to sound Black, ya know? And the fact that it doesn't come naturally seems evident. Her voice sounds a little "pinched" to me, and kinda shrieky. Again, not comparing them (singing is too personal for that to be appropriate), with Lou Ann it just seems to pour out of her effortlessly, as it does from the best. They make it look so easy! |
I do realize my opinion of Janis is a minority one. Same with Hendrix. That's okay, they get a lot of love from others. A singers voice is so personal, so intimate, isn't it? And so revealing of who he or she is, I sometimes feel like a voyeur while listening. By mentioning Lou Ann, I did not intend to compare her to Janis, it's just that they both come from Austin, and till the same soil, so to speak. Lou Ann is just so cool to me, and, for whatever reason, Janis is not. I am sometimes mystified at the popularity of a given singer or musician, just not hearing the why. That is the case with Janis. Taste, too, is very personal. Or maybe I just don't get her. That happens! |
Bdp, I do like Miss Lou Ann but, geez...she's not Janis. |
The undisputed expert on Garage Bands was Greg Shaw (R.I.P.), of Bomp Records and Magazine fame. He was waaay into Garage, and in the 80's started a club (which he named The Garage!) in L.A. to put on shows featuring nothing but. At the time of his death his collection of Garage Band 45 RPM 7" singles numbered over 100,000! |
Growing up in Cupertino (now home to Apple and ebay, in the 60's just a bedroom-community suburb of San Jose), I saw a LOT of Garage Bands. The stars of our scene (The Chocolate Watchband, The Syndicate of Sound, Stained Glass---originally The Trolls) were older college-aged guys who were already playing before The Beatles hit, and had previously been in "Frat" Bands, whose sound was that of The Kingsmen, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Chuck Berry, R&B, Surf guitarists and Combos, etc.
We younger guys started joining or forming Groups (the term "Band" was at that time used for non-R & R music's) after the British Invasion landed, learning not Beatles songs (no one could sing well enough!), but rather Kinks and Animals, then Yardbirds and Who, material. We used the local stars mentioned above as our yardstick for judging each other, not real stars. The drummer of The Chocolate Watchband (Gary Andrijesivich) actually went to my High School (a couple of years ahead of me), quitting the Frat Band he was in (The Squyers, named after leader Lee Squyers) to join The Watchband (as we called them, just as ya'll call Mick & Keith's Band The Stones), and played in both the Cupertino High School Orchestra and Marching Band. I would watch him play at a football game pep-rally on Friday afternoon, then go see him play at The Continental (a huge roller rink repurposed as a music hall) that night! I replaced Gary in The Squyers, The Watchband at the same time stealing the two college guys from my first Group (which had yet to play out), Faux Pas. Small world!
The Continental (and a few other joints in the valley, like The Bold Knight in Sunnyvale) played host to all the touring what-are-now-considered Garage Bands (though if you were touring and had a record out we didn't consider you a Garage Band). The Music Machine were awesome! I saw William Penn & His Pals, whose organist was Greg Rolie (Journey; but The Pals were great!) there, The Watchband, The Syndicate, and Stained Glass many, many times, as well as the hundreds of younger local bands no one will ever hear of, from '65-'67, when it was renamed The Continental Ballroom (well la de freakin' da). After that it was mostly national acts, like Big Brother & The Holding Company, who even we teenage Garage Band musicians knew stunk. Janis was okay, I guess, though I've heard far better (Jimmie Vaughan's pal Lou Ann Barton for one, who was the singer in an Austin Band whose guitarists was the then-unknown Stevie Ray. Her Jerry Wexler produced/Tom Dowd engineered album is a must own).
There is one post-60's dedicated, deliberately "garage-y" Band that everyone who is a fan of the genre should know of---The Lyres. I saw them in the 90's a buncha times, and they were the absolute best at it that I've ever seen/heard. There are a bunch of Lyres albums out there, none of which captured their live sound, unfortunately. The leader/songwriter/singer/organist Monoman(! Real name Jeff Conolly) played his Vox Continental Organ with his right hand, a tambourine with his left (pounding it on his left leg, which must have been very black & Blue), and just tearing it up vocally. The most out-of-my-mind I ever went seeing a Group/Band live was at a Lyres show, and I saw The Who with Keith Moon twice! |
Oh the Leslie rotators.....forgot about them. Alot of churches used the B3. And when the churches moved to solid state a ton of them went on sale. Cheap. That is how the Mod 5 got theirs.
Martykl: the Werps......loved the trumpet version
Newest cool 60s garage band I really like: the Intruders, Temporary Insanity; tremendous guitar licks and the lyrics to die for! Another GB from Texas...what's with Texas?? |
Love the Hammond vs Farfisa discussion - talk about time traveling. Most of the surf bands usually used a Farfisa, iirc, and the soul bands usually used a B3. I'm sure that's not a hard and fast rule, but it seems like it was often the case. I think the Werps may have been in the Farfisa camp, if they're the band I'm thinking of. Maybe a quick visit to Garage hangover or YouTube will settle it.
The other great thing about the B3 was the pairing with the rotating Leslie cabinets. That right there was the sound of the '60s! |
Speaking of Texas, Dallas must have been a fun place to
have rock'd out in the 60s......for me and my Garage Band Pantheon Top 50:
1. Satan's Chyldren
2. The Gentlemen [both versions]
3. The Chessmen [ my newest Top 5 song]
Anyone hail from Dallas in the 1960s? And can give a low down on the cool places to hang out and listen to any of the local bands?
BTW.....Back From the Grave Vol 9-10 is out. And influences are basically Yardbirds, Them and Rolling Stones in that order. If you are a guitarist, the god of guitar was Jeff
Beck in 1965-1966. His riffs were perhaps the most copied in all 10 volumes of BFTG. Interesting about the Vox and Farfisa. Though all the groups in northern Delaware lugged a Hammond B3: the Collectors, the Mod 5 and Mike and Mardells all had at least a Hammond B3, and if the stage was small, then yes they would bring usually a Vox Continental. I think House of the Rising Sun with Alan Price used a Vox Continental. I could be wrong though. Remember the Hammond B3 was tubed based with EL34 tubes! ;-))) |
Good on ya, SM! For an audiophile, you're alright. Speaking of Texas, check out the Moving Sidewalks' version of "I Want To Hold Your Hand". (Yes, the Beatles are my #1 band of all time -- and most of this great American garage stuff you're talking about wouldn't have existed without them invading our shores first.) The organ wasn't usually a Hammond however, but more commonly a cheaper and more portable Farfisa or Vox (the sainted Sonics, with keys-masher Gerry Roslie, being perhaps the most notable exception). |
I have not even touched the surface. They are way too many
bands and songs to listen. Hey the guy that puts all those
bands and songs on the website is a genius and hard worker that is for sure. Right at this minute, I am listen to the Bucaneer's
You're Never Gonna Love Me
With the lines:
You're never gonna love me anymore, anymore,
I know I cheated TWICE before, twice before,
And I cheated AGAIN.......
With lines like that what is not to love???
or songs like Pat Wallace's "Let me fill your hole".
Killer chordal progression and you gotta laugh at the
lines. Let's party all night and get laid lyrics.
Just what every teenager in the 60s wanted, at least
this 60s guy. Self-Idenification. NO aesthetic theory
NO art. Not its function at all.
Where else are you hear a tambourine, tom-tom drums,high-hat harmonica a Hammond organ, and a guitarist using all the strings and all the frets of a Strat?
The Hammond organ on Love's a Fire by the Werps is so maniac with the trumpet as solo. Who would of thought of a trumpet as a solo instrument for a Garage Band?? Voodoo Doll by them is a very very weird song, and I mean weird.
Some unbelieve-able great music and of course some of the lame-est. Some of those groups sounded like they practiced for two minutes, went into a studio and cut a couple of sides. some really horrendous and hideous music.
But
Screw crap like "I want to hold your hand"!
The Aliens version of "Gloria" is now playing. The 13th O'Clock's version of Psychotic Reaction.... a true killer....I could go on and on. |
just saw the website....my picks are too big...my new picks are gary and the hornets, the bare facts. |
src, the leaves, the music explosion, the rationals, frut, the standells, hardwater, stained glass, yada yada.... |
I'll have to take a look at that site. I think my favorite garage band from that era would be "Bubble Puppy", but I haven't listened to them in years.
Seems like the MC5,The Stooges, SRC and Blue Cheer would fit my garage band favorites list as well unless they were too popular. |
