It's Trash! Garage Music In The '60s
By Lizzy Ramone
In the ‘60s, everyone was an artist and garage music was this phenomenon par excellence. Generally consisting of outsider suburban teens in their garages barely able to play their instruments, they embodied a proto-DIY spirit in their small efforts to save enough money to press a ’45, and maybe play a few birthday parties. Smaller than most niche scenes we can conceive of now, if the band got lucky, they could get a weekly club night - but—there in an instant and gone in a flash—a wild garage band could pop locally only to never be heard outside of their region.
The way we see traditional punk angst is in political and social protest, but it’s prelude in the angst of the ‘60s garage era was that of unrequited love, betrayal of friendships, and being an outsider. It’s not that it was vapid, rather it was emblematic of a generation’s fleeting innocence - they just weren’t drafted yet and didn’t exist within a golden age of capitalism. In a way, ‘70s punks were angry because they saw their older siblings were robbed of their innocence and forced to conform. Perfectly encapsulating this transition from ‘60s angst to ‘70s angst is The Bluestars “Social End Product”. The song includes the line, “I don’t stand for the queen” which was intentionally buried in the mix so that it could get radio play.
I have a feeling that garage music is left to cratediggers because the movement wasn’t image-based - these teenagers looked as clean-cut as could be and they weren’t drug-fueled like their younger hippie siblings. First impressions matter so much in our modern world, but it malfunctions in the ‘60s: the garage sound is at odds with its practitioner’s aesthetic, as the homeland was with the war abroad. It’s understandably challenging for people to reflect on wild punk music that looks like it was made from suit-wearing bowl cut boys. The YouTube comments for these songs back this up - the musicians, children, and spouses of these bands look back at this era like the back of a yearbook. “Have a great summer! We had a real cool time.” But, the ambition is so clear in these recordings. Take a listen to The Factory’s “Gone”, a foundational freakbeat song that’s essentially the backbone to late-’80s psychedelic bands of the baggy era.
This mix includes bands from all over the US, New Zealand and the UK and has some of my favorite gems I’ve discovered since becoming obsessed with this era. I’m still paving out characteristics of this movement, so you might see more regional-specific mixes from me at a later time.
Normal is the new punk.
MIX: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnFR8pjZTRa1OHLK839MZhjxiRNqguhDn
TRACKLIST:
1. Swamp Rats - Louie Louie
2. The Cavaliers - Seven Days of Cryin’
3. The Romancers - She Took My Oldsmobile
4. The Keggs - To Find Out
5. The Pleasure Seekers - What a Way To Die
6. The Bluestars - Social End Product
7. Thane Russell & Three - Security
8. The Fleur de Lys - Circles
9. Half Pint and the Fifths - Orphan Boy
10. The Factory - Gone
11. The Bittersweets - Hurtin’ Kind
12. The Del-Vetts - Last Time Around
13. The Kinks - All Day and All of the Night
14. The What Four - I’m Gonna Destroy That Boy
15. The Chymes - He’s Not There Anymore
16. Dirty Wurds - Why
17. The Cobras - Goodbye
18. The Syndicate - My Baby’s Barefoot
19. Circuit - Yesterday We Laughed
20. Cave Men - It’s Trash