Little Steven's faux-garage makes me sick. I can't imagine his show ever coming close to playing the real stuff that spins on the GPP all the time. He probably hasn't even heard of the Sonics or Billy Childish.

Uuuhm, I'll take five a those too! Ryan Katastrophe said:

Do you think Little Steven could leave his sig off that guitar por favor?

Huzza! I'll have five copies a that please! swt said:

Rag on Springsteen all you want, as long as you lay off my favorite, BRUCE SPRINGSTONE. (sorry, the video on this site has been disabled)

Rag on Springsteen all you want, as long as you lay off my favorite, BRUCE SPRINGSTONE. (sorry, the video on this site has been disabled)

Do you think Little Steven could leave his sig off that guitar por favor?

YES! I hear it comes with a load of cool crap! Hahahahah, man I'm so cheap! swt said:

<<I have also entered to win a set of GP.com toiletries!>>

I want to win the whole toilet.

Hahahha, thanks for approving! You have my bows for sure ;)))) Certainly not crappy, but I'll enter the GETWETS tix contest that also has a direct flight to EL WIG included in the package! Wipeout! said:
Hahahaha....yer cool enuf in my book, baby! ...sorry I don't have a crappy hack of a band like Springstink to give you prize tix to see

oh brother ! why doesn't little steven put some video up seeing as he taped all those bands that played his travelling sideshow a few years back

<<I have also entered to win a set of GP.com toiletries!>>

I want to win the whole toilet.

IDON MINE said:

Lets get all wonky: "Speaking of it, I want to win my GP.com I-POD since my profile is better than yours! I have already uploaded ONE of TWO videos! Am I done and cool enough? I have also entered to win a set of GP.com toiletries! Hand signed by the staff! So cool and collectible"

Uhm... I'm done!

First off, I think mass exposure of GARAGEPUNKRAWK is good... BUT NOT IN THAT WAY!! As much as I hate internet whacking, I not-so-secretly wish that site would get the DENIAL OF SERVICE treatment, others got a while ago... SO ANGRY. But also, I couldn't be more unaffected by this uninteresting, unfun and unfuzzed ignorant, high nose rip-off. This seems like a speck of shit coming from a piece o the same. I guess if you are around there you don't participate in it, but you're told what's cool by the expert staff. ...Seems like I gotta sign up after all. Hhaha, since I never understood the whole music thing anyhow! Lets get all wonky: "Speaking of it, I want to win my GP.com I-POD since my profile is better than yours! I have already uploaded ONE of TWO videos! Am I done and cool enough? I have also entered to win a set of GP.com toiletries! Hand signed by the staff! So cool and collectible" Uhm... I'm done!

For those of you who know me, this is not always about Garage Music for me. It is about the people who helped create the Music via both Technology and Recording, as well as the gear used by those who performed the Music. Lately we have lost a couple of folks here in the Pacific Northwest who may not have been well known, but were instrumental in building and supporting the people who made History. I was lucky enough to meet several of these people and I am sad to see them go. I heard about my Friend George Wright's passing on Friday August 21st 2009, from our group of Technicians who own/maintain/repair vintage Ampex tape machines. I was asked to enter this group of people many years ago when George (via my Friend Alex) offered him an Ampex 350 1/4" 2 track tape machine for $600 (and unheard of price even then). I fronted Alex the money and expected to get paid back. Alex was always hard up for cash in those days, finally admitted he couldn't pay me back for my investment and so I paid George the Balance due after about 6 or 8 months and became the owner of a 1959 Ampex 350 All-Tube 1/4 inch 2 track tape machine. It was a Pandora's Box that was opened for my world. I did many recordings on that 350 for many years. George always helped me out. You see, he had built this particular Ampex 350 out of spare parts he had lying around. He built some solid state playback circuits to go with the Nortronics heads he put into the thing. He also build a wooden chassis for all of this (which I have since later replaced). All in all it was a fine machine to record to. I mixed down and/or recorded "Live to 2-track" the following records; West Section Line The Mystery Action 'Here's to Another Year" The Bastards of Jazz- "¡Bastardos!" The Stone Crazy Blues Band "Microstoned" Howlin' Houndog & The Infamous Loosers "Loud & Live" Felicia Loud's "Tribute to Lady Day" Beatnik Party- "The Bass Diaries" Ochestre Zirconia "Demo Session" I kinda think George's legacy continues in those recordings and all the work he did with the Wright-Sound Company. I wish I had gotten him more copies of recent projects for him to listen to. I think he woulda liked that. I know there was more to George than just keeping Old Technology running. He always took the time to answer my emails or (sometimes desperate!) phone calls. I met many of the folks I call my closest Friends through George. I especially owe my friend Alex a huge debt of Gratitude for him introducing me to George back in the mid 1990s. I only wish we had more time to spend with him (I know Alex got more time than I did) to learn a lot of what he had to offer. I will miss George Wright very much. All I can do is offer up what he wrote on his website about why he did what he did. I think it speaks volumes more than anyone could say. Bye George! Take Care! We'll miss Ya! Sincerely, Erik 4-A (Owner, Vagrant Records & Studio of Seattle Washington) From the Wright-Sound website; http://www.wright-sound.com/ George Wright said:

A message from George about his early years Now I am going to talk about myself a little and some of the reasons I have always loved music and electronics. I always tell about being in the second grade, wandering around the school yard during lunch recess, going around the corner of a building and walking into the path of a baseball bat being swung full tilt. I explain that I received a frontal lobotomy with a Louisville Slugger and started to build radios. But in fact I was already involved with learning radio and electronics from before I can remember. At least I have a good excuse, then I will turn to the person I am talking to and ask, what’s your excuse! My first DIY project was out of a 1954 Mechanics Illustrated article on how to build a one transistor, one diode radio receiver, using a coil built on a toilet paper roll, I made this thing and it worked. I bought the parts at a little Radio TV repair shop just two blocks from my home. The owner a Don Wickersham saw my interest and taught me much about electronics. He must have felt sorry for me because he gave me the rest of the parts I needed to build this thing. After school I started to hang out at his shop, he had me first repair the old radios then onto TVs and then with the Electronic Organs. I learned a lot from him and sad to say he has passed on, but not before he had passed on much of his wisdom and knowledge. After building that first radio I made the statement that transistors will never replace the vacuum tubes as it did not have enough gain to pull in the stations I wanted to hear 80 some miles away. Next I built a bunch of one and two stage amplifiers using battery tubes because transistors were the rage and those tube sets were just being thrown away. By 1960 I was designing my own amplifiers and by 1961 my own receivers, I also studied a DeVry Electronics course, one of my dads friends had taken and brought all the study materials home. I really studied Color Television Broadcast, including the NTSC, Pal and Secam systems and at the age of 15, was the youngest Color TV repairman in history at that time, as far as I knew. I had to have someone older drive me to people’s homes to repair their TVs and they would ask me why doesn’t my father come and repair their sets. I would laugh and tell them he wasn’t my dad and they didn’t want them in their house because he would stay in the car drinking, then they would shut up and let me fix their sets. Ah, the good old days, of working over a hot soldering gun smelling soldering flux fumes drift up my nose! I worked at several shops and when I was a senior in high school I worked after school and weekends at TV repair shops and after that at a local Music store. I learned how to tune pianos, repair musical instruments and had built up my record collection as that is how I got paid in those days. So I appreciate what a music note sounds like and am very critical on how it is reproduced. Being as I was designing and building my own amplifiers, receivers and other electronic devices, I merged the two together to work as well as possible to design and build equipment that sounded as life like as modern electronics could produce. One area I am very picky on is power amplifiers, even though I am known for the phono preamps I build, and while I build different types of both single end, push pull and even OTL headphone amplifiers, my favorite type is always pure triode designs. This goes back to working with Don, going out to the churches to work on these older electronic organs such as the Wurlitzer and Hammond products, both with amplified mechanical tone generators and listening to those great push pull parallel 2A3 power amplifiers producing the lowest registers of the foot pedals and how good those old systems worked. Many of these still had the original 2A3’s in them and at that time some 30 years latter they still sounded great. That is why I built the AU-15 transformer coupled 2A3 push pull 15 watt power amplifier. Now the AU-15 is a great product, I took a pair of these to one of my California dealers to try out and at first they didn’t want to hear another tube amp as they had a lot on their floor. After a while they decided to hear them and they tried to put them to shame, they hooked them to a pair of large Magapans and turned them on. The wife was sitting in her office, walked out and said, “We will take them” and then she sat down and listened for a long while. The wife is the organist at her church and the husband is also a concert pianist. I myself could not believe how well they worked with those power hungry speakers, but they handled them very well. It is funny that they had the Maggie’s hooked up to some 100 watt SET tube amplifier would show off the system and the 15’s sounded much better. My new AU-70 is a power house of vacuum tube amplification, it is detailed, clean and dynamic. I only have five of these out there right now but I'm working on getting more of these into production. Everyone who has heard and bought these are amazed on how powerful and realistic these preform. So much for the sales part, back to the technical part, I spent my life working in the repair, design and quality control areas of electronics. I am a troubleshooter by nature and I do not like to repair what I design, so I am careful. My last day job was working in the IT depart of a school district on computers, audio and video systems design and repairs. Along with design of all the sound systems and cabling requirements of the new schools, auditoriums and stadiums I help save the district a lot of money by eliminating the sound consultants. Before that I worked for many years as a video camera technician along with camcorders and VCR’s for consumer and broadcast customers, but audio has been my passion. So I started Wright Sound Company after going with a friend to an audio club and hearing what was being presented as good vacuum tube equipment. I said I can do a lot better than that and that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! George Wright the third.

What's the deal with that Remains documentary??...I believe it's called America's Lost Band and it premiered at the Boston Film Fest recently. Does anyone know when this will be out on dvd? I read somewhere that it amassed good reviews in the press, they were truly a legendary band. I know it's not remotely close to garage but I thought the recent Townes Van Zandt doc and Tim Buckley live footage dvd's were excellent as well.

Dig - The Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols (not 60's)....I have always stuck to my guns on this one and felt Brian Jonestown Massacre was nothing special - way too overproduced and the songs just aren't there. The lead singer in Jonestown is no genius but probably just as big an asshole and poser as the lead singer of Oasis. I know some people would enjoy this though.

J

Don't know the names of the films, but been meaning to look into "The Spiders" Japanese flicks from the 60's...

"Blast-Off Girls" is (of course) an all-time favourite. Can't figure out why the guy plays an inverted accordion instead of a proper organ though. Would love to see a soundtrack come out for that.

What's the flick with "The Bit-O'-Sweet" in it (doing their fabulous version of "Is it On, Is it Off?" - I believe)?? Grungy old b&w flick I think you can get on the Something Weird Video catalogue...

Never heard of it!?! ;-) Andy Seven said:

"Blast Off Girls" by Herschell Gordon Lewis is as real as it gets. He even recruited a real garage band to play The Big Blast. Highly recommended stuff.
I also recommend "Mondo Mod" which has documentary footage of the Sunset Strip including bands performing at Gazzari's and The Whisky A Go-Go.
And if you like pre-fab rock groups there's always Max Frost & The Troopers in "Wild In The Streets".

http://www.thevideobeat.com/ has a fine selection of 50s/60s Rock n Roll, Teen, Surf and Explo movies that are pretty hard to find elsewhere...

Another movie of note is “That Thing You Do!”. It’s not from the 60’s, but from 1996. It’s written-by, directed-by and stars Tom Hanks, about a 60’s one-hit-wonder group called the Wonders. Great music send-ups of various 60's styles - from pop, to Motown/Specter, to lounge, to jazz, to the Tornado’s “Telstar”. It’s well worth seeing.

Here's a link for Riot on Sunset Strip on DVD.

Here are some others:

- “Cool Ones” – With a Hullabaloo/SHINDIG type show called Whizbam, and features The Leaves and The Bantams.
- “Wild In The Streets” – Gives us the fictitious Max Frost & The Troopers.
- “Head” – The Monkees full-length psychedelic feature, co-written by Jack Nicholson.
- “Get Yourself A College Girl” – Features The Animals, Dave Clark Five and The Standells.

There’s all those beach movies too, featuring Dick Dale, Jan & Dean, Beach Boys, etc.

Thank you all I have a lot to watch right now. Cool.

British movies:
The Deadly Bee's - a scene with The Birds
The Sorcerers - cant remember the band The Atlantics or something really good fuzz stomper, set in a mid 60's club.
Whats good for the Goose - loads of shots with psych era Pretty Things amazing.

gotta rack my brains now....

YES! You're Gonna Miss Me. I reviewed it a couple of years ago. It's HERE Jannell said:

I watched a pretty good doc about Roky Ericson of The 13th Floor Elevators. If you dig that band at all you'll at least find this interesting. If you aren't familiar with Roky's story - he did a lot of drugs and had some shock therapy done to him for being schizophrenic and is now just batshit crazy. Sad. But interesting.

A thread like this would also go on for twenty pages and two months. My favorite kind of post though was always like "I'm new here, what's a good comp to listen to" or "what's a good band" and everyone would totally make stuff up. Wasn't that great? Maybe everyone is taking themselves too seriously here. Grrtch said:

not weird enough for me! good lord whatever happened to the days when a thread like this woulda scored at least two dozen snarky posts in the same 11 hours?

..ooooo..... hahaha! I've turned into one of those, "remember them good old days, Johnny?" geezers... sheesh! and whatta short memory, too! just got back from SXSW and inhaled bands for like six days straight. no, wait.. I never inhaled... naw.. no way...

Ning is fucking cool. I personally enjoy using it both as an admin and a peon (although admittedly I have done a pissweak job at finding any willing members for our community). For the dissenters in the thread I have located some gifts/necessities on the Internet.

Hey ESGAR!
A whole lotta sweetnesssssssssss in all of these!