60's Garage Punk!

Here are a couple records from the 60's that flat out rock!

First up is The Sonics from Tacoma, Washington. The Sonics were a pretty big deal in the Pacific Northwest in the 60's. Their release of "The Witch" on Etiquette Records became one of the biggest selling singles in the history of the Pacific Northwest. This song is "Like No Other Man" released on Jerden Records around 1966.

The next single is by The Swamp Rats on the Co & Ce label. The Swamp Rats are from McKeesport, PA, a small town near Pittburgh. They were only around for a year and a half, but they released a good amount of decent records. Unfortunately, they were mostly cover songs and they didn't get very good distribution, so they never really gained any popularity. This record, "It's Not Easy" was released in 1967.

The final single today is by The Underdogs on Hideout Records. The Underdogs are from Grosse Pointe, MI and were one of many, including Bob Seger and The Last Heard and Ted Nugent and The Lourds, to play the Hideout Club in Harper Woods, MI. The owners of the club decided to go into the record business, so they released this single as the first record on their new label in 1965. The song, "Judy Be Mine" was later recorded by The Romantics in the 70's.

Craigslist score!

Every once in a while you come across something that seems like it's too good to be true and then it turns out to be as great as you hoped... It really doesn't happen to me very often, so when I saw an ad on Craigslist for some 78's like Jimmie Rodgers and Gene Autry, I assumed they would be the only good ones in the bunch and most likely beat to crap. The ad said something like "39 78 rpm records with artists like Jimmie Rodgers and Gene Autry". I called right away and set up a meeting with the lady who was selling them. We met and I looked through the first 10 records and decided to buy them. Everything for the most part looked to be in good shape and there were lots of original company sleeves, so that was cool. When I got them home and started looking through them, I got really excited! They were all pre-1940 records and they were mostly country/ hillbilly. Very exciting! The one posted here, Frank Blevins and his Tar Heel Rattlers is one of the gems. The other really great one was The South Street Trio doing "Mean Old Bed Bug Blues" on the Victor label. All in all, I ended up with about 20 records that are worth keeping, so not bad for $30!

Eddie Bond

Eddie Bond
Originally uploaded by loshuevos15

Here is Eddie Bond on Mercury Records singing a great uptempo rockabilly tune called "Boppin' Bonnie". This is a great song with great guitar playing and a cool walking bass line in the breaks. One of my favorites for sure. Eddie Bond is a rockabilly and country singer who grew up in Memphis and was a contemporary of greats like Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins. Eddie and his band, The Stompers, auditioned for both Sun Records and Meteor Records with no success. They were able to secure a recording contract for the much smaller Ekko records and they released two decent country flavored records. After these two releases, they were picked up by a major label, Mercury Records. Here Eddie Bond and the Stompers really came into their own releasing such great rockers as "Rockin' Daddy" and "Slip, Slip, Slippin' In". This record is one I've had for a while that I found at a record show in Oakland, CA back in 2002. I hope you enjoy it!