The Bay Area band was criminally disregarded by its hippie peers on the music scene during the latter portion of the ‘60s. It’s kind of understandable seeing as how the extended jams of those Dead styled ensembles was in stark contrast to what the Groovies were trying to work out. But in the band’s adherence to its source material – ‘50s rock and roll, trashy blues and British Invasion groups – the Groovies wound up presaging punk with a few tracks.
“The Slide” should rightly be considered the band’s pinnacle – it’s all fast, nasty slide guitar and whopped vocals. But another song, “Teenage Head,” ended up being the band’s proper legacy. During 1976 some Canadian miscreants found the song to be so agreeable that they - Frankie Venom, Gord Lewis, Steve Mahon and Nick Stipanitz - set up shop as a band under the song’s auspices.
Today, the group isn’t generally thought of too much outside of Canada – although if you watch enough Kids in the Hall you’re bound to see a Teenage Head poster plastered up on a wall somewhere. But over the course of its first few albums, Teenage Head rivaled the popularity that Ramones had in its own home country. Of course, only one of those bands wound end up being an international foundation of a genre, but life isn’t always fair.
The group’s first album, a self titled disc released in 1979 was met with a decent reception from fans and remains Teenage Head’s most singularly focused disc. The 1980 follow-up, Frantic City, finds the band pulling in some of its older affinities. There’s still a healthful amount of straight punk represented over the course of the disc, but the early ‘60s is aptly represented as well.
Even in song titles like “Let’s Shake,” it should be clear to listeners that a time in rock and roll during which everyone wore suites was to the band’s liking. The bluesy progression doesn’t work to dismiss that take either. Of course, since the song is followed by “Infected,” it’s rather crunchy guitar and round bass line, punk was seemingly the underlying through-line Teenage Head needed to craft its work.
The cover of “Brand New Cadillac” works in much the same fashion as the Clash get a nod, but so do all the earlier rockabilly players that served to inform the song. Frankie Venom’s crooning works to good effect here while the guitar and piano run up and down scales for the entirety of the song. It’s not necessarily a highlight, but it is a well conceived cover.
And that’s pretty much what the majority of Frantic City feels like: a tremendous homage to what came before Teenage Head. Even in the band’s physical appearance the past had as much to do with it all as whatever punk fashion would become. Teenage Head certainly wasn’t classy, just not straight outta the gutter.