All this pretty much spot on. 
In terms 2000's stuff, i'll also add:

Fe Fi Fo Fums- shake all night 

Live fast die- Bandana Thrash Record 

Boys Club- s/t and all the 7's (like a poppier supercharger)

Time Flys- Energy and Wet Ones 7's. "Fly" Lp too.

Real Losers- music for funsters 

Radio Beats- Ready to shake

Chris said:

Try the first 2 Loli and the Chones singles (Weenie Choker Rock N Roll and Straitjacket Baby/Makeout Party) .... also the first, greatest Donnas album (The Donnas)... and Thee Tee Pees... All the Rip Off Records compilations too (Spoiled Brats etc) ... and of course the very first recordings by Jay Reatard under the name of The Reatards... Not to mention the mighty Supercharger / The Brentwoods and any other stuff made by the lo-fi genius Darin Raffaelli.

Of course , there's Randy Alvey and The Greenfuz , they sound like they were TRYING to sound as bad as possible 30 years before everyone else was trying to sound as bad as possible.

Stack Waddy , from The UK , PLAYING RED MEAT -RAW R'N'B COVERS 5 YEARS AFTER IT'D GONE OUT OF STYLE.  They did cover a Jethro Tull song when it was still current ("Love Story" . Alexander Harvey did it , later.), and , when criticized for this move , said , "Well , we wrote it , din we?" One of their albums was called "Bugger Off!" because that's what they told the Sound Engineer.

They were hilarious. "If mashed potatoes were security guards , we would'nt get anything done , if mashed potatoes were security guards , we would'nt have a  whole lot of fun !!!

WHOA , WHOA , WHOA , WHOA ! MASHED POTATO !".  I had a two piece combo in 1982 , called Born in an Elevator. Well , sometimes a three piece. We were too young to play clubs , so we did two parties , then split.
 
whatwave dave said:

Deja Voodoo were amongst the very first of the 2 piece combos...starting about 1982 and lasting 8 years...Drum kit with no cymbals, 10 dollar guitar (like you mentioned) and a cheap amp. They would travel by Edsel in the early days (until the Edsel broke down) and then via bus and train with all of their equipment tightly packed as carry on luggage.

Here's a link to their facebook page that has lots of pictures/posters and a few of the Edsel that i took many years ago:

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Deja-Voodoo/23682273521

Deja Voodoo were also the people behind OG Records, the label responsible for releasing The Gruesomes records as well as many other cool recs.

Hey, that's really cool. Where can I hear some of this Abstractia?

"The young thinks only of now.
The old thinks only of yesterday.
When shall a man think of tomorrow?"
-Chabis Yodofsky

I should start this off by declaring myself if not in, then most certainly approaching, that "old" category. That's not to me a bad thing. Bill Haley and Comets were hip when I was a youngin, Elvis's "Hound Dog" was top ten before my age reached that nice round number, and my own career as a working musician closely matched that of the Beatles. But what brought the words above to mind was my recent experience of seeing my bands recordings from the sixties -- recordings I and the other band members had long thought forgotten -- suddenly come back to life pressed in new pristine vinyl.

The band was "The Abstracts" whose one released recording, "Always Always" never truly made the charts. The band had been together just two and half years, made some noise, and then were (I thought) completely forgotten. Then in the past year all that changed. And in April our first LP -- from recordings made some 45 years ago -- was a recommended selection of the month in England's Record Collector magazine.

I won't go into the details of how this came to pass. That is not my purpose here. What is is this: To encourage all my fellow musician friends here on GaragePunk Hideout to think beyond today. To take steps now to preserve what you are doing for posterity. 

In this The Abstracts were lucky. Well, I guess it was luck. For certainly I had not foreseen that anyone would care 45 years in the future (I.e., today) that pristine versions of our then unreleased studio recordings would interest anyone. Nor that someday a record producer would be asking us to share what photos we had of the band. And yet we'd saved those things.

"Only once before in all the records we have produced has a band been able to provide photos of this quality" Those were the words of the record's producer.

And good quality recordings. Not just of the studio sessions but live tracks too. Tracks that showed posterity what the band had meant to our fans back then. As Mike Stax put it in his recent Ugly Things review:

"Abstractmania? Who knew?"

For The Abstracts this has been a real trip. A totally unexpected one.  One totally out of mind when we were 16 and 17 year olds making music back in the mid-sixties.

So here is the point...

This could be your band's future too.

But only if you preserve it. 

-Don

definitely SG, with 'fat bottom skinny top' strings.

If the strings on an SG aren't big enough, why not play an SG 12 string?

Yup, good point about the nut, so it's obvious that you need a new guitar! Any excuse....One that you can tailor to your specific needs. As Winston so rightly points out, there's a ton of affordable guitars out there.

Have fun!

Nero

Don said:

That's a good thought Nero. Thanks.

I believe I have a set of 11s on there now -- I've never been into light gauges -- but even so, the short scale neck on the Gibson makes those strings feel as soft as nylon. (I've accidentally bent 'em right off the neck!)

Of greater concern than the neck relief would be the nut. I'd not want to enlarge it because the guitar is just so "right" with the elevens!

Hi There are tons of options these days with the great & affordable Asian made guitars. I forsook my tele for 15 years & only played my Martin M36 with 13-56 gauges on. After picking up on electric again 3 years ago there was no way of going back to those fusewire strings! Have you considered a Gretsch or similar? You'd have the twang plus the depth & the organic feel of the semi body. Plus they look as cool as can be. Cheers. Winston.

That's a good thought Nero. Thanks.

I believe I have a set of 11s on there now -- I've never been into light gauges -- but even so, the short scale neck on the Gibson makes those strings feel as soft as nylon. (I've accidentally bent 'em right off the neck!)

Of greater concern than the neck relief would be the nut. I'd not want to enlarge it because the guitar is just so "right" with the elevens!

Can't say that I've had to make a similar transition, but I was wondering what gauge strings you're going to use on the electric. Quite apart from the sound, have you considered using a set of 12-56 or something similar, to approximate the feel of the strings on your dreadnought? Bigger strings equals more noise! Might have to swap in an unwound G if you're playing lead stuff, though, and also might need to adjust the truss rod to accomodate the heavier tension.

Cheers

Nero

I first posted this short meditation on my GPH blog and appreciated kopper's suggestion that some of you folks here might have some valuable thoughts to share...

 * * * * *

As most all of that play electric guitar know, that while there are dozens and dozens of worthy and desirable guitars 'out there' (both past and present), they almost all fall into one of two sound categories: Fender and Gibson; single coil of humbucker.

I started out as a Gibson man - something that is rather funny considering that my first love as a guitarist was surf music. But my first Gibson was equipped with P90s - a single coil PU that could pretty well emulate the Fender single coli sound, especially when reverb soaked.

Not too many years later I bought an old Tele and after replacing the Fender neck PU with one taken from an old Gretch I found what became my signature sound: Bright leads thickened with intense Marshall amp overdrive and the type of heavy rhythm pulse that can only come from a HB equipped guitar.

But here's the catch that leads to my title question:  Of late I have been playing almost solely on a Martin dreadnaught acoustic -- one loaded with medium gauge strings - string that by electric guitar standards are as thick as hemp rope. And this week I will be playing and singing with a band for the first time in quite a while. How then can I transfer my present style best to an electric?

I'm leaning towards using an Gibson SG -- a twin humbucker equipped guitar. Certainly that will allow me to well replicate the strong chordal pulses I have become accustomed to playing the Martin. Or a second possibility is to take my beloved Tele and run it through an old late 80s Peavey and take advantage of that amp' famed "soak" knob to thicken the sound.

Anyone here ever had to make a similar transition?  Your thought would be much appreciated! :)

-don

Robert Johnson.  But damn it, he didn't make any more!

-don

I've recently bought a turntable (1 month ago) and often go to street or flea markets to get to some old vinyls and really got some pretty good records such as Los Mac's (Chile), Herman's Hermits, Los Quarrel's (Chile) and Los Beat 4 (Chile).

I've got lots of records from Chile and, though the quality and sound are quite good, it is disappointing they were compelled to record a certain amount of covers before including some original music. That's the case of Los MAC's, whose first album was only covers and one original tune. Very sad.
However, there are some bands who could do it and recorded a bunch of amazing singles like Angeles Salvajes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTp4bslq4Zk

On the other hand, I do admire and I'd love to have those amazing 60s Peruvian records, since the main focus of wildness was THERE in South America and they mainly recorded original songs. For instance: Los York's, Los Saicos, Los incas Modernos, Los Datsuns, Los Apsons, etc.

If I had to decide which record to add to my colection, it would definitely be Los Incas Modernos' from 1962. I love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smaMq5Vp5yY

Cheers.

Fact is people screw each other. All classes of people. There is no one "percentage" that does it more than another.

Ever read about the lawsuit Liberty DeVitto had to have against Billy Joel?  All those albums, all those tours, and Lib was left penniless.

We like to classify this as a one group screwing another thing but in truth it is not. Its people.

Mind you there are a lot of fine people on all ends of the music biz, they're just overwhelmed by the number of scoundrels. Same, alas, is true among musicians.

One such fine person is Wolfgang Völkel at Break-A-Way Records. My work with him, altogether on line, in the creation of The Abstracts' "Hey, Let's Go  Now!" was a lesson in what the music business, or any business for that matter, could be. But that is because Wolfgang does what he does because he loves garage band music and also, I expect, because at heart he is simply a fine human being.  And the later is what is rare every where in the human gene pool.

-don

SOFA Entertainment, eh? I wonder if they're related to IODA or whatever. See this previous discussion.

antonio said:

"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by SOFA entertainment".

OMG.

It's really astounding how record labels STILL think that musicians are desperate enough that they'll sign any shit contract just for the glamor of being on a label.  Recently got wind of a setup where one label required artists to pay them $15,000 dollars for the privilege of having that label do their digital distribution! 

It's exciting to live in an era where CDBaby and other outlets are making it easier for artists to handle licensing themselves, without the record company doing God knows what behind their backs.

"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by SOFA entertainment".

OMG.

Right now I dig The Last's cover of "Be Bop A Lula," it's painful and spooky and has the same heartwrenching anger of John Cale's cover of "Heartbreak Hotel."  The Barracuda's version of "Codeine" completely cracks me up, it's so *sincere!*  And I adore The Incredible Staggers version of "Little Sister" right up and down my spine!

But what stands out in my mind is The Morlocks version of "Teenage Head!" It is one of the greatest garage tunes ever, and the Morlocks just bring it right home!  In fact I can't think of anything I'd love more than to hear Wild Evel and The Trashbones cover that song!

doornail said:

Kissing Cousins - The Saints

Kissing Cousins - The Saints

Nights In White Satin - The Dickies

Mr. Pharmacist - The Fall

Folsom Prison Blues - The Geezers

Catman - The Stingrays

Run For Your Life - Robert Gordon

Leaving Here by Motorhead.

Kind of obsessed by the song "Little Boy Sad" originally by Johnny Burnette.  I have many different versions, the best is The Gants punked up garaged speed ball cover.  But I have country versions and teen pop versions.  Mpd Ltd do a good cover of the Gants cover too.

That is a good tune.

Aldyth Beltane said:

Right now, my fave is "Vampyros Hetros" by Jarvis Humby. Hysterical lyrics and a nice chunky keyboard sound!  But there are so many great tunes with the Chicks Who Are Trouble theme!

Right now, my fave is "Vampyros Hetros" by Jarvis Humby. Hysterical lyrics and a nice chunky keyboard sound!  But there are so many great tunes with the Chicks Who Are Trouble theme!