Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Too wild for the grave

60's garage punk, man!!!

I bought these two fine platters ("Back From the Grave, volume one" & "Teenage Shutdown: GET A MOVE ON") a couple weeks back and they've been spinning almost every day since then! This is just awesome trashy and wild punk from the 1960's (altho of course it wasn't actually called "punk" back then). Both records were released by the good, good people at Crypt Records in Hamburg (which is basically American Tim Warren who's been running the label for many yrs now, and Dirk running the Crypt store).

I already had a few volumes (both on cd and vinyl) of the "Teenage Shutdown" series so I knew the new ("new" to me anyway) volume would be ace - and it most definitely is! But holy fucken mackerel why didn't I start buying the "Back From the Grave" series sooner!!?? @_@ Me so stoopid! This is just one awesome track after the other!

In Denmark, when people say they listen to "60's music" it usually makes me feel like gagging violently cos what they really mean is they listen to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Simon and Garfunkle, and maybe The Mamas and Papas. And that's usually IT! It's like saying you love music from the 50s but only listen to Elvis and Buddy Holly! There was so much more!

I think the problem is many people often reckon that because something wasn't as *popular* it probably means it wasn't as *good*. Well, being a fan of psychotronic cinema you bloody well know those two don't always go hand in hand. Actually, I'd say more often that not they don't! The bands that got famous were often the ones that were "out there", sure - but maybe not AS "out there" as they COULD have been! There were about 3 billion tons of bands that were much wilder and crazy than the bands I just mentioned. But then again maybe that's one of the reasons why they didn't make it; They were TOO BLOODY wild for ordinary consumption (at least in their day)!! Bands who wanted to be the new The Kings and had the wildness but maybe not the luck or money (or even skills) to quite make it.

Like the many Elvis-wannabees in the 50's who wanted to be the next "Elvis" and recorded their take on rockabilly but did it wilder, crazier, louder; But like I said it was often to a world that wasn't ready for it and thus didn't embrace them as much as they could have. Or at all. Most of those bands & artists only cut the one 7 inch single - but whatta a single!! Or maybe they actually managed to put out two, and at the utmost THREE singles before they disappeared into the abyss never to be heard from again. Well, until Crypt Records dug them out of their grave! LOL.

I'm certainly gonna try and get hold of all these records, preferably both on CD and LP. I believe all the "Back From the Grave" volumes are still available from Crypt both on vinyl and cd. The "Teenage Shutdown" series is a different story, unfortunately. Most of the vinyls are gone and some of the cd volumes are OOP too. Maybe they became more popular because Tim Warren spent so much more money on them. Apparently, a lot of the other compilation records are crappy sounding shit dupes directly off scratched singles or even off badly sounding cassette tapes.

The "Shutdown" records were made using a very expensive professional record player with a needle that cost something like 6 billion dollars! The sound is perfect!

However, I wrote to Dirk at the Crypt store when I ordered the two CDs and he said they're gonna reprint ALL the vinyl volumes of "Teenage Shutdown" this year! Totally awesome news indeed! The CDs may take longer (still according to Dirk).

Anyhoo, I found two of my fave tracks from the "Back From the Grave" vol. 1 record on YouTube. Check them out (and play 'em loud!).



10 comments:

  1. i,ve got all those back from the grave lps except for the last one which i think was a double lp. gave up collecting all these garage punk lps in the early 90s but i,ve kept all those records. when they came out on cd i lost interest in buying them again. do you remember the creeps from sweden i was a big fan of their early stuff before they went mainstream ?

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  2. Hey Joe,
    You got them all (except #8), cool! And yes the last one is a double LP. Yeah, I remember The Creeps but I don't think I've heard any of their pre-mainstream stuff. The CD all have more than one vinyl volume on them. The one I've got; CD vol. 1, has LP vol. 1 + 2 and half of #3 on it.

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  3. the reason i mentioned the creeps is because they covered a few of the tunes off those grave lps. also dug theır pre creeps stuff when they were called the backdoormen i,ve got one 45 and a cd of theırs. how about the stomach mouths do you remember them too?

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  4. this the only one i have on the creeps before they sold out :-

    http://thewickedthing.blogspot.com/2006/10/creeps-enjoy-creeps-tracks-on-wax-1986.html

    joe

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  5. Jack:

    Thanks for posting these cool videos. I had no idea who these guys were, until now.

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  6. Hi Charlie G,

    You're welcome! :D

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  7. Joe,
    Thanks for the info on The Creeps! I've never heard any of their covers (of the Grave LP tracks).

    No, I'm afraid I've never heard of Stomach Mouths. Were they from Sweden too?

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  8. yep the stomach mouths were from sweden too. i,ve got an lp and a few 45s of theirs. i missed out on quıte a few of theır releases after i lost interest in collecting vinyl in about 91. if you dig the gravedigger five (usa) and the tell-tale hearts(usa) you will also dig the stomach mouths.here,s a brief review of their debut lp from 1986 :-
    The Stomach Mouths debut LP 'Something Weird' really stands the test of time and it's easily one of the best garage punk revival records recorded during the halcyon days of the mid 80s.

    'R & B No. 65' from this album is a furious garage punk rave up and coming in at just over two minutes is a necessary listening experience. The 14 track long player contains 12 originals and cover versions of 'Born Loser' and 'The Cat Came Back'....

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  9. ...correction regarding the creeps lp. they only recorded one back from the grave cover namely `the city of people` track.from memory their debut lp was released with different coloured vinyl and lp artwork versions. there was a cd reissue of their record in the late 90s or maybe early 2000,s from canada i think, which pops up now and then on ebay.

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