Rich collection of mostly original mid-60s garage-rock obscurities

You know you’re in for an interesting ride when a compilation begins with an obscure single, “Lady Greengrass” (and it’s flipside “Love of Mine”), by a pre-Tangerine Dream light-psych incarnation called The Ones, from a 7” single that sported the legend “Music for Hippies.” There are a few better known garage items, like the Litter’s “Action Woman,” and E-Types “Put the Clock Back on the Wall,” but most of these cuts are obscure to all but completist collectors of Nuggets, Pebbles and Boulders compilations or the original 45s from which they’re made. You’ll hear lots of fuzztone and reverbed guitars, whining Farfisa, badly recorded drums, tambourine, frat-rock dance beats, and vocals that range from snotty and bored to loud and confrontational. Tracks by the Shadows of Knight’s (“Gloria”) and the Mojo Men (“She’s My Baby”) aren’t the original single versions – though they may be period alternates, and Blue Cheer’s bombastic “Summertime Blues” doesn’t really belong here. Audio quality is good (though, of course, the original records weren’t always great to begin with) and the transcriptions seem to have been cleaned up as there’s virtually no surface noise, clicks or pops. What’s here is listenable, if not always from the best source; the E-Types “Put the Clock Back on the Wall,” for example is available in higher fidelity stereo on Introducing… The E-Types. Like many of Goldenlane’s compilations, the lack of provenance for these tracks keeps this set from achieving the collector’s nirvana of the Nuggets box sets [1 2 3] or Pebbles reissues [1 2 etc.], but 50 tracks for less than the price of a single CD is a great deal even without band bios or track notes. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]