know what I'm gonna do?!

well, I'm going to get all the Garage Greats singles and post what I think is worse to share here! the same guys that once did the Radioactive and Fallout boot labels, just reissued a ton of rare garage-psych single in limited runs some years ago. 2012 they did blow off and sell out their remaining 7" stock. you might say 'baaa, damn bootlegs and I do say that too sometimes if I invest a lot of time in a legit reissue and others come by and bootleg the album... however, the Garage Greats series brought a lot of unknown and really great (!) 60's gems to my (and others') attention. so that seems to be the second side of the coin.

some copies still left in my shop, so you might be interested in brwosing: http://stores.ebay.com/Surreal-Peppermint-Store/_i.html?_nkw=garage+greats+%287%22&submit=Finden&LH_TitleDesc=1&_sid=882387916

meanwhile enjoy a classic track from this series:

[1967] The Quiet Jungle - Everything

listen to the song:

The Quit Jungle's '67 single got bootleged quite often. starting with the countless amount of psych comps and ending with the recent Garage Greats exact repro 45's ... What is known about this band? Let's ask Canuckistan Music: "Toronto's Doug Rankine and the Secrets scored huge in early 1966 with a rather goofy novelty hit, a quintessentially Canadian ode to the burly Toronto Maple Leaf forward Eddie Shack called 'Clear the Track, Here Comes Shack'. This tepid Merseybeat clone rocketed to number one on the CHUM-AM charts in Toronto in February, 1966, ultimately and inexplicably charting for nine weeks. However, by early '67, having by then adopted the hipper-sounding Quiet Jungle, the lads debuted with the first of two seven-inchers for the Yorkville label, later home to fellow garagesters the Ugly Ducklings. 'Ship of Dreams', is stellar psychedelia, opening with an eerie guitar squeal that presages Fever Tree's 'San Francisco Girls', and with delicious organ riffs and mellifluous harmonies that would justifiably see it hit #31 in February of that year. Flip it over and the wax explodes with some gruff and snarly - if not a tad formulaic - garage punk. The Quiet Jungle followed this with the less interesting, though much tougher to find, Too Much in Love / Make Up Your Mind (also on Yorkville), before vanishing from Toronto's Yorkville scene. Unbeknownst to many, though, is that the band found gainful employment as session musicians for the budget label Arc, churning out fodder for hundreds of K-Mart and Kresge bins with an entire set of Monkees hits, as well as a totally lame-o Christmas disc, The Story of Snoopy's Christmas and Other Favourite Children's Songs (Arc)."

A nice interview with Doug Rankine from the band can be read at: The Garage Hangover!

[2008] Otis Optic & The Option People - Traffic Lights

listen to the song:

Otis Optic & The Option People are aband based in Germany. They released their debut on Nasoni Records and mark their discoraphy highlights along with a hand full of other albums. Although it's a mystery to my, why they are that little known. ok, it's the label-politics regarding promotion on one hand, but on the other they are not known to a lot of Garage Punkers. Their songs consist of a strong psychedelic style, and they rather established in the Neo-Psych scene (Vibravoid, Liquid Visions, Siena Root, ...). So let me recommend their album to everyone who is digging the good old Garage-Psych! The band's last activity is dated back to 2008, so just let's hope they have not broke and will delight us with more goodies in future!

[1967] The Baroques - Iowa, A Girl's Name

listen to the song:

"The Baroques had a fuzz-guitar/keyboard-damaged sound that retained much of the garage intensity of ’66 while plunging into the experimentation that marked the latter part of the decade." (~therisingstorm.net)
Starting like a psych-pop ballad, you'll later get overwhelmed with tons of heavy fuzz storming through your mind. Iowa is one of this sort of songs, wich might suprise you of their short runningtime. If you hear the experimental garage-psych-jams you probably would expect an 8-10 minute journey. However, this way it's been a nice flipside for their single "Mary Jane" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqDa5hCSQX0).

[2012] Dean Allen Foyd - The Sounds Can Be So Cruel

Dean Allen Foyd is a brand new band from Sweden, who will release their debut album at the end of march on Chrusher Records (CD & LP). Their sound is oscillating between contemporary famous bands like Baby Woodrose and Vibravoid. There's a lot of garage-psychedelia to discover in their songs as well as heavy psych and classic rock vibrations that remind on Jimi Hendrix, Cream and more... 

Together with a load full of other bands they will perform at the Freak Valley Festival 2012 in Germany very soon (18./19. May). So, if you have the possibility, be shure to get some tickets! more info here: www.freakvalley.de

[2010] Sky Picnic - Abbie's Bike Ride

listen to the song:


I was discovering Sky Picnic at Dr. Schluss' Garage Of Psychedelic Obscurities.Their sound fascinated me the first time I heared it. The melodies and effects remind me very much of the early Pink Folyd recordings. Until Nasoni Records from Berlin re-reased their 2010 debut "Farther In This Fairy Tale" I guess, they were a kind an unknown band. Did already someone suggested them to play at the Austin Psych Fest or at the Burg Herzberg Festival? Would become a great act I think!

[2010] The Skywalkers - Mrs. Ford's Dream Collection

listen to the song:


First you may wonder about the clear sound (no skratches, no pops and clicks, ...), than you may realize, that this is not from the sixties but from nowadays! The Skywalkers are comming from the netherlands and released their first LP on the Grey Past Label. The Album is limited to 300 copies. Soon after release, they are about to be sold out. A mix of Garage-Psych and 60's beat will blow you away! In march the last avaible copies will be in stock at the Surreal Peppermint Store! Have fun!

[2009] Os Haxixins - Viagem às Cavernas

Os Haxixins are a contemporary Garage-Psych band from Brazil. After the great success of their first album, they now released their 2nd one "Under the Stones" - on LP - only on the Portuguese "Groovie Records", wich also will release the upcomming Lana Loveland LP.

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/oshaxixins
http://www.myspace.com/groovierecords
Buy Here

[2010] Lana Loveland - Missing Illusions

listen to the song:


Till now Lana is only know as a member of the Fuzztones and former Bonniwell Music Machine organist. Here we've got their new single from 2010. A bit of punky a load of garage and all of that swimming in an ocean of acid-psych. check it out!

Links:
buy: surreal-peppermintstore.de
myspace: myspace.com/lanaloveland

[1967] The Velvet Illusions - Acid Head

listen to the song:


The Velvet Illusions from Los Angeles released this song on one of their 1967 singles. The B-Side was "She Was The Only Girl". Sadly the band existed only two years (1966-68). Enjoy this Garage-Psych track!

[1966] Outcasts - Hard Lovin' Babe

listen to the song:


I know, it sucks, but the exact record date out there. the band never rleased it on 45, and also they propaply never did an album. 1966 is again just guessed. Ok, and now I will give you some lines I found on yoututbe about the girl, that is singing on this heavy-drum garage-psych track:
Linda Pierre King was a folk-rock singer from Houstan,Texas.Eight of her recordings are featured on The Heartbeats & Added Texas Girls of the 60s/We had the Beat compilation. She moved to New York and frequented the famous beatnik hangout, Beanie Baby's Java Hut. The "king of barbershop" Norm Wooster fell in love with her singing and caused a musical transformation within him. She was also a follower of the individualist philosopher Ayn Rand. The Outcasts, who backed her on this organ-driven track, are not the legendary 1523 Blair band.

[1967] Bill Plummer & Cosmic Brotherhood - Journey to the East

listen to the song:


The cover doesn't look like what is inside! Flying trough the desert, a sitar on your fold, riding in coloured clouds of acid fog. One of the finest Psych Folk I ever heared! you can download the complete album on Dr. Schluss' Garage Of Psychedelic Obscurities. Enjoy! greetings, amadeus :)

[1967] Kim Fowley - Reincarnation

listen to the song:


well, the cover is an imagination of love, peace, incense and pot. The soft psychedelic sound of the album really fits in. this song is the best one from this (his first) LP and a bit different from the rest, lets say, more garage-psych like. the rest of the album has nice playing on the instrument but very poor vocal quality. also the mixing could had done better than it is. Maybe a remastered Re-Issue from the original reels could fix that so I would rate the album with 4/5, not with 3/5 stars.

[2008] The Magnificent Brootherhood - Invisible People

listen to the song:


here they, come, my favorite current 60's-Garage-Psych Band ... they are comming from germany, founded 2003... they started with covering groovy westcoast psych and now this is their 2nd Album, released 2009. On the next Issue of Frenzy & Distortion FanZine you can find a Interview with Kiryk, the lead Singer and guitarist, also designer for acid posters in psychy 60's style. he made the artwork too. Enjoy 4 min of liquid sound with this track!

Buy:
Surreal Peppermint Store

[1968] Listening - Stoned Is

listen to the song:


The Listening were a Boston based band, that only released one album and two singles. Michael 
Tschudin, one of the members, also played in another Boston psych act, called "Cynara". They put
out an alternate version of this track on LP two years later, which sounds like a soft Deep Purple
variant had covered it... (on youtube). It's been some years, since I listened to the whole album, but I
remember, that it wasn't as good as I expected it to be after I was flashed immediately by "Stoned is",
which I heared on some obscure garage-psych compilation (was it the "Marijuana Unknowns"?).
However, the vocals are in this certain higher tone hashbury style, which you can here on several
Jefferson Airplane songs as well. The hammond organ and the soft electric guitar play pay tribute to
the title. It's a relaxed but intoxicating experience!