A Fistful of Rock N’ Roll: Vols. 5 & 6
Various Artists
Tee Pee
Whereas garage as a genre may look to 1964-66, the harder sounds that are the historical jumping-off point for many of the cuts here come from slightly later, with bands like Iggy and The MC5. Each CD has 18 cuts each by a different band, as well as a gratuitous macromedia “enhancement” that makes playing these in a computer a bit of a pain in the behind. People need to stop putting all this extraneous crap on CDs and just worry about the music.
Which, by and large is pretty good. This is basic loud guitar (with the occasional retro-ish keyboard in the background) rock about rock and roll, cars, sex, drugs/drink, and crime. All your faves, in other words. Vol. 5 features cuts by The Dwarves, Mooney Suzuki, and Rik L Rik, while Vol. 6 includes Turbonegro, Scott Vincent (with Scott Asheton – speaking of Iggy – and Captain Sensible), and Gluecifer. Some standout cuts by lesser-knowns include The Mad Daddy’s “Shake It Like You Mean It,” The Upsets’ cop of “Sonic Reducer” called “Sonic Reaction,” and Uppercrust’s spot-on early AC/DC reincarnation with “We’re Finished With Finishing School” on Vol. 5, and The Plungers’ “Gimme Gimme Gimme Rock N’ Roll,” TV Killers’ (singing in French!) “Mis Au Pas” and Torn Down Units’ “Unit a Go Go” on Vol.6. Rock, man!
Tee Pee Records, PO Box 20307, New York, NY 10009-9991; http://listen.to/afistfulofrock, http://www.teepeerecords.com
