Boss Detroit Garage
"Rock and roll the way God intended"
– Warren Ellis (diepunyhumans.com)
My brother Eli and his wife Mary make up L.A.'s greatest, the Monolators, next to Hang On The Box, my favorite band in the world.
Back in April I sent Eli a Detroit garage band CD I discovered. This week Eli wrote about it. It is true I stole large "quotes" from this latest blog entry, Feed Us A Live Insect, but not all! I urge you all to read Eli's blog. It is simply lovely!
… I'll babble aimlessly about a record I'm listening to at the moment, an awe-inspiringly great comp on Norton Records of mid-sixties garage rock that my brother gave me for my birthday called Friday At The Hideout: Boss Detroit Garage 1964-1967. See, The Hideout was a "teen club" and record label out of Detroit, and basically was a result of the city's post-war white flight phenomenon: while Motown/rhythm and blues happened in the inner city, lots and lots of middle class white kids were stuck out in the suburbs buying Rolling Stones and Byrds records and starting garage bands. Or at least I gather that's what happened.
I dunno if you've heard many of these garage/surf/hot rod-type comps, but they're usually collections of scratchy, ultra-obscure 45 rpm records pressed in tiny numbers by ultra-obscure groups made up of sex-crazed teenagers who later became depressingly old and probably went on to form hideously unlistenable 1970's blues bands (or, in this case, became Bob Seger). There isn't really anything on this comp to match the greatness of, say, Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction," or "Dirty Water" by The Standells, but there are some gems. Probably the most interesting band on the whole disc would be the all-girl Pleaure Seekers whose blatty ode to underage drinking, "What A Way To Die," still seems strangely relevent these days.
You can still get copies of Boss Detroit Garage, it seems. And since we are talking of Detroit and poets (or at least I am) might I just request anyone in blogland helping me find information about Detroit's Miles Modern Poetry Workshop? I believe it had something to do with the Department of English at Wayne and Dr. Chester Cable. Any and all information will be useful. Regardless of this sidetrack, Eli goes on:
The other great track on here is "Youth And Experience" by Doug Brown And The Omens. This is…well, what the hell is it? Why, it's a get-out-the-youth-vote musical endorsement for then Republican U.S. Senator Bob Griffin! It musta worked, because Bob won the election and served all the way from 1966 to 1979, all thanks (I assume) to the brave rock and roll efforts of Doug Brown And The Omens, who apparently recognized that Bob had both youth (?) and experience on his side. Seriously, this is the best theme song ANY republican has ever had or ever will have, featuring a wickedly catchy chorus and the deathless refrain "keep Michigan off the floor/ by keeping Bob Griffin as our U.S. Sen-a-tor." Again, you think I am making this up? I am not. Like Doug says, give Bob a call, 'cause he's got an action slate for our action state. Except that by now he's about 83 years old.
You are brilliant, bro!