The Black Keys – hopefully they make a good rap album in the next few months – don’t really factor into my thinking about garage stuff. Jack White either. That’s not a knock on those folks (ok, maybe it is). But there’s such a huge backlog of garage stuff from the post-Nuggets era, that becoming obsessed with that Akron or Detroit band doesn’t make any bloody sense.
The Morning Shakes
New York’s the Morning Shakes are easily the least known group on this list. It released a number of singles and only two full lengths. After breaking up, a few new groups sprung up, but nothing compared to this line up. Wavering between perversion and songs about cars, there wasn’t anything horrendously unique about these guys, they were just good at garage and revved up ‘60s rock. The fact that they looked like a lounge act probably didn’t make them contenders for wide notoriety, but good music is just good music.
The Cynics
An early ‘80s Pittsburgh band, the Cynics didn’t gain the sort of acclaim that the Gories or the Mummies did. Regardless of that, the fact that the band kept ‘60s sounds alive when it was reasonably unfashionable in the face of new wave is admirable. But beyond even that, the fact that band members maintained – and still do – Get Hip Records is as important as the music the group cranked out.
The Gories
One of the innumerable Detroit bands that factor into punk’s history, the Gories included members that would go on to form not just the Dirtbombs, but the Gore Gore Girls as well. And while only that first band has made waves, the music that the Gories cranked out is probably the most engaging – and most blues inspired – of anyone on this list. The wide swath of sounds that the band included – ‘60s beat stuff, punk, no wave, whatever – served to make its music more intense and enduring. The White Stripes are gonna be remembered in the future – these guys won’t be forgotten either, but without the Gories, there wouldn’t be any Jack White.
The Mummies
As informative to future garage groups – in general aesthetic and sound – the Mummies were a spectacle (and they’re playing at Budget Rock this year). All dressed up and with only SF as a destination, the South Bay band became a part of the growing trend to incorporate surf and ‘60s frat stuffs into its music. There were a few others in the Bay that copped the same attitude, but the Mummies, between its live show and adherence to awful recordings and tape or vinyl-only releases, have left a weird DIY legacy for others to unearth in the future.
The Registrators
The California based Rip-Off records released so many discs, that even knowing what’s out there’s a challenge. But amongst all of the label’s releases were a few from Japan’s the Registrators. Everything’s outta print at this point, but the conflagration of punk and garage comes off pretty well when the Registrations mess with the formula.