Garage rock

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"Garage band" redirects here. For other uses, see Garage band (disambiguation).
"Frat rock" redirects here. For the album with a similar name, see Frat Rock! The Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Party Tunes of All-Time.
Garage rock
Stylistic origins Rock and roll, rockabilly, beat, rhythm and blues, soul, blues, surf rock, instrumental rock
Cultural origins Late 1950s, United States and Canada
Typical instruments Electric guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, tambourine, harmonica
Derivative forms Punk rock, garage rock revival, garage punk, psychedelic rock, power pop, glam rock, hard rock, protopunk, punk blues, indie rock, psychobilly, heavy metal, Paisley underground
Subgenres
Acid punk - Garage punk
(complete list)
Regional scenes
Chicago, Detroit, Austin, San Antonio, Memphis, Grand Rapids, Cleveland, Ohio, Philadelphia, New York, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Montreal, Portland, Seattle, Twin Cities, Southern Florida, Boston

Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. Its name derives from the perception that many often rehearsed in a family garage.

The style was characterised by lyrics and delivery that were more aggressive and unsophisticated than in commercial pop music at the time, often, for instance, using guitars distorted through a fuzzbox. It began to evolve from regional scenes as early as 1958, heavily influenced by surf rock. The "British Invasion" of 1964-66 greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience. Thousands of garage bands were extant in the USA and Canada during the era; hundreds produced regional hits, and a handful had national chart hits. By 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts. It was also disappearing at the local level as amateur musicians faced college, work or the draft. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name.

In the 1970s, some critics referred to the style as punk rock, the first form of music to bear this description; although it is sometimes called garage punk, protopunk, or 1960s punk, the style has predominantly been referred to as garage rock.

Characteristics

The term garage rock comes from the perception that many such performers were young and amateurish, and often rehearsed in a family garage.[1] Some bands were made up of middle-class teenagers from the suburbs, but some were from rural or urban areas, while others were composed of professional musicians in their twenties.[2]

The performances were often amateurish, naïve or intentionally raw, with typical themes revolving around the traumas of high school life and songs about "lying girls" being particularly common.[3] The lyrics and delivery were notably more aggressive than was common at the time, often with growled or shouted vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming.[1] Instrumentation was often characterised by the use of guitars distorted through a fuzzbox.[4] Nevertheless, garage rock acts were diverse in both musical ability and in style, ranging from crude one-chord music (like the Seeds and the Keggs) to near-studio musician quality (including the Knickerbockers, the Remains, and the Fifth Estate). There were also regional variations in many parts of America with flourishing scenes particularly in California, offering bands such as Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Electric Prunes, Dino, Desi & Billy, The Standells, and Texas, offering bands such as Sir Douglas Quintet, The 13th Floor Elevators, Sam the Sham (Wooly Bully never made #1 despite being on the Billboard Hot 100 for almost four and a half months in 1965), and Fever Tree.[3] The Northwest states of Idaho, Washington and Oregon had perhaps the most defined regional sound with bands such as The Bootmen, The Sonics and Paul Revere & the Raiders.[5]

History

Origins

The D-Men (later The Fifth Estate) in 1964

The style began to evolve from regional scenes as early as 1958. Link Wray, with his innovative use of power chords and distortion, was an early influence.[6][7][8][9] "Tall Cool One" (1959) by The Fabulous Wailers and "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen (1963) are mainstream examples of the genre in its formative stages.[10] By 1963, garage band singles were creeping into the national charts in greater numbers, including Paul Revere and the Raiders (Boise),[11] the Trashmen (Minneapolis)[12] and the Rivieras (South Bend, Indiana).[13] Other influential garage bands, such as the Sonics (Tacoma, Washington), never reached the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.[14] In this early period many bands were heavily influenced by surf rock and there was a cross-pollination between garage rock and energetic and upbeat party frat rock, though the latter is sometimes viewed as merely a sub-genre of garage rock.[15]

The "British Invasion" of 1964-66 greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience and leading many (often surf or hot rod groups) to respond.[3][16][17] The Invasion also inspired new, and often very raw, bands to form. Garage rock bands were generally influenced by those British "beat groups" with a harder, blues-based attack, such as The Kinks, The Who, The Animals, The Yardbirds, The Small Faces, The Pretty Things, Them,[18] and The Rolling Stones. A handful of British garage bands were formed, the most successful being the Troggs.[19] Another influence was the folk-rock of the Byrds and Bob Dylan, especially on bands such as the Leaves.[20]

Peak of popularity

Paul Revere & the Raiders pictured in 1967

Thousands of garage bands were extant in the USA and Canada during the era and hundreds produced regional hits.[3] Usually thought to be the first to enjoy national success were The Beau Brummels with "Laugh, Laugh" and "Just a Little", which both reached the top 10 in 1964.[21] Other examples include: "Fortune Teller" by Des Moines's The Image (1967), "The Witch" by Tacoma's The Sonics (1965), "Where You Gonna Go" by Detroit's Unrelated Segments (1967), "It's Cold Outside" by Cleveland's The Choir, "Girl I Got News for You" by Miami's Birdwatchers (1966), "Dirty Water" by Los Angeles-based The Standells (1966), "I Need Love" by Peoria's The Third Booth,[22][23] and "1-2-5" by Montreal's The Haunted. The November 12, 1966 issue of Billboard cited that sales of the "96 Tears" single by Question Mark & the Mysterians, a band from Michigan, had attained sales of one million copies. Boston's Remains, though only able to make it onto Billboard's Bubbling Under charts, had enough of a following and reputation to open for the Beatles during their 1966 U.S. tour.[24] Michigan's Shondells released a minor regional hit in 1964 before disbanding. When it was unearthed by a Pittsburgh DJ in 1965, the resulting success of "Hanky Panky" revived the moribund career of Tommy James, who formed a new group of Shondells and went on to chart twelve more Top 40 singles.[25] The 1965 song "¡Demolición!" by Peruvian act is Los Saicos is considered a South American classic. Allmusic, writing about Los Saicos, noted "The guitars sound like nothing so much as fountains of sparks, the drums have a tribal post-surf throb, and the vocals are positively unhinged" and "These guys were a punk rock band, even if nobody outside Lima knew it at the time".[26]

Decline

Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were commercial failures. For instance, "Going All the Way" by The Squires was issued on a national label under (Atco) and is now regarded as a genre classic, but was not a hit anywhere.[27] It is generally agreed that garage rock peaked both commercially and artistically around 1966.[3] By 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts (the minor hit "Question of Temperature" by The Balloon Farm being a notable exception). It was also disappearing at the local level as amateur musicians faced college, work or the draft.[3] New styles had either evolved out of garage rock or replaced it, such as psychedelic rock, progressive rock, heavy metal, country rock, and bubblegum.[3] In Detroit, garage rock stayed alive well into the 1970s, with bands like the MC5, The Stooges, The Up and Death, who employed a much more aggressive style. These bands began to be labelled punk rock and are now often seen as protopunk or proto-hard rock.[28]

Revivals

Main articles: Garage punk and Post-punk revival
Iggy Pop of The Stooges onstage in 1977

The revival of garage rock can be traced to the release of the two disk Nuggets compilation in 1972 by future Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye, which drew together both commercially successful and relatively obscure tracks from the mid-1960s and whose sleeve notes helped coin the phrase punk rock to describe the phenomenon.[29] Iggy Pop and the Stooges, arguably the last garage band, carried garage rock into protopunk in the early 1970s.[4] The mid-to-late 1970s saw the arrival of the quintessential garage punk bands, most notably The Ramones, who are usually considered the first punk band.[30]

In the 1980s, another garage rock revival saw a number of bands linked to the underground music scene earnestly trying to replicate the sound, style, and look of the 1960s garage bands, including The Chesterfield Kings, The Fuzztones, The Pandoras, and Lyres.[31] This trend coincided with a similar surf rock revival, and both styles fed in into the alternative rock movement and future grunge explosion, which some say was partially inspired by garage rock from the Tacoma area like The Sonics and The Wailers, but was largely unknown by fans outside the immediate circles of the bands themselves.[32]

This movement also evolved into an even more primitive form of garage rock that became known as garage punk by the late 1980s, thanks to bands such as The Nouns (Los Angeles, CA), The Gories, Thee Mighty Caesars, The Mummies and Thee Headcoats.[33] Bands playing garage punk differed from the garage rock revival bands in that they were less cartoonish caricatures of 1960s garage bands and their overall sound was even more loud and raw, often infusing elements of protopunk and 1970s punk rock (hence the "garage punk" term). The garage rock revival and garage punk coexisted throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s with many independent record labels releasing thousands of records by bands playing various styles of primitive rock and roll all around the world. Some of the more prolific of these independent record labels included Estrus,[34] Get Hip,[35] Bomp!,[36] and Sympathy for the Record Industry.[37]

The Black Keys performing in 2011

In the early 2000s, a garage rock or post-punk revival[38] achieved the airplay and commercial success that had eluded garage rock bands of the past. This was led by four bands: The Strokes of New York City, The Hives of Fagersta, Sweden, The Vines of Sydney, New South Wales, and The White Stripes from Detroit, Michigan, christened by the media as the The bands, or "The saviours of rock 'n' roll".[39] Other products of the Detroit rock scene included; The Von Bondies, Electric 6, The Dirtbombs and The Detroit Cobras[40] Elsewhere, other acts such as Billy Childish and The Buff Medways from Chatham, England,[41] The (International) Noise Conspiracy from Umeå, Sweden,[42] The 5.6.7.8's from Tokyo, Japan,[43] and Jay Reatard and the Oblivians from Memphis, USA[44] enjoyed moderate underground success and appeal. A second wave of bands that managed to gain international recognition as a result of the movement included The Black Keys,[45] Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Killers, Interpol, and Kings of Leon from the US,[46] The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Editors, and Franz Ferdinand from the UK,[47] Jet from Australia,[48] and The Datsuns and The D4 from New Zealand.[49]

The mid-2000s saw several underground bands achieve some mainstream prominence. Bands such as Black Lips[50] and Jay Reatard,[51] who initially released their records on traditionally garage punk labels such as In The Red Records, began signing to larger, more well-known independent labels.[52] Several bands followed them in signing to larger labels such as Rough Trade[53] and Drag City.[54]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 R. Shuker, Popular music: the key concepts (Routledge, 2nd edn., 2005), p. 140.
  2. ↑ E. J. Abbey, Garage Rock and Its Roots: Musical Rebels and the Drive for Individuality (McFarland, 2006), pp. 74–6.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. Erlewine, All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (Backbeat Books, 3rd end., 2002), pp. 1320–1.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 N. E. Tawa, Supremely American: Popular Song in the 20th Century: Styles and Singers and what They Said about America (Scarecrow Press, 2005), p. 179.
  5. ↑ N. Campbell, American Youth Cultures (Edinburgh University Press, 2nd edn., 2004), p. 213.
  6. ↑ Cub Koda & Steve Leggett (2008). "Link Wray" Biography, AllMusic.
  7. ↑ "Link Wray Obituary". New York Night Train. 2005-12-01. Retrieved 2013-02-21. 
  8. ↑ "link wray". Sound Citizen. 2009-02-11. Retrieved 2013-02-21. 
  9. ↑ "The Rumble Man, Link Wray". Rockabilly.nl. Retrieved 2013-02-21. 
  10. ↑ Otfinoski, Steven, The Golden Age of Rock Instrumentals (Billboard Books, September 1997), ISBN 0823076393, page 36.
  11. ↑ W. E. Studwell and D. F. Lonergan, The classic rock and roll reader: rock music from its beginnings to the mid-1970s (Routledge, 1999), p. 213.
  12. ↑ J. Austen, TV-a-go-go: Rock on TV from American Bandstand to American Idol (Chicago Review Press, 2005), p. 19.
  13. ↑ S. Waksman, This Ain't the Summer of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk (University of California Press, 2009), p. 116.
  14. ↑ F. W. Hoffmann and H. Ferstler, Encyclopedia of recorded sound, Volume 1 (CRC Press, 2nd edn, 2004), p. 873.
  15. ↑ R. Sabin, Punk rock: so what?: the cultural legacy of punk (Routledge, 1999), p. 159.
  16. ↑ "Overhauling the British Invasion (part two)". Office Naps. Retrieved 2013-02-21. 
  17. ↑ "THE HULLABALLOOS – Self Titled – (Roulette) – 1965 | WHAT FRANK IS LISTENING TO". Whatfrankislisteningto.negstar.com. 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2013-02-21. 
  18. ↑ "Them: Gloria", Allmusic, retrieved 8 September 2011.
  19. ↑ Buckley 2003, pp. 1103
  20. ↑ R. Unterberger, S. Hicks and J. Dempsey, Music USA: the Rough Guide (Rough Guides, 1999), p. 385.
  21. ↑ V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. Erlewine, All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, 3rd edn., 2002), ISBN 0-87930-653-X, pp. 80–1.
  22. ↑ Mike Dugo. "The Third Booth". Retrieved 2013-02-26. 
  23. ↑ "WLS 890 Hit Parade". 1968-07-08. Retrieved 2013-02-26. 
  24. ↑ C. Tichi, High Lonesome: The American Culture of Country Music (UNC Press, 1994), p. 222.
  25. ↑ R. Shuker, Popular Music: The Key Concepts (Routledge, 2nd edn., 2005), p. 75.
  26. ↑ ¡Demolición!: The Complete Recordings Allmusic review
  27. ↑ V. Joynson, Fuzz, Acid and Flowers: A Comprehensive Guide to American Garage, Psychedelic and Hippie Rock (1964–1975) (Borderline, 4th edn., 1997), p. 309.
  28. ↑ G. Thompson, American Culture in the 1980s (Edinburgh University Press, 2007), p. 134.
  29. ↑ Smith, Chris (2009). 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music. Oxford University Press. pp. 96–8. ISBN 978-0-19-537371-4. Retrieved 2010-08-06. 
  30. ↑ N. Rombes, Ramones (Continuum, 2005), p. 26.
  31. ↑ J. DeRogatis, Staring at Sound: The True Story of Oklahoma's Fabulous Flaming Lips (Robson, 2006), p. 35.
  32. ↑ P. Scaruffi, A History of Rock Music: 1951–2000 (iUniverse, 2003), p. 281.
  33. ↑ P. Scaruffi, A History of Rock Music: 1951–2000 (iUniverse, 2003), pp. 266, 385 and 465.
  34. ↑ P. Blecha, Music in Washington: Seattle and Beyond (Arcadia, 2007), p. 121.
  35. ↑ D. R. Adams, Rock 'n' Roll and the Cleveland Connection: Music of the Great Lakes, (Kent State University Press, 2002), p. 469.
  36. ↑ S. Frith, ed., Popular Music: Music and Identity (Routledge, 2004), p. 98.
  37. ↑ E. True, The White Stripes and the Sound of Mutant Blues (Omnibus Press, 2004), p.73.
  38. ↑ J. Stuessy and S. D. Lipscomb, Rock and Roll: Its History and Stylistic Development (Pearson Prentice Hall, 5th edn., 2006), ISBN 0-13-193098-2, p. 451.
  39. ↑ C. Smith, 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 240.
  40. ↑ Buckley 2003, pp. 1144
  41. ↑ Buckley 2003, pp. 189–90
  42. ↑ "Review: The (International) Noise Conspiracy, A New Morning; Changing Weather", New Music Monthly Nov-Dec 2001, p. 69.
  43. ↑ C. Rowthorn, Japan (Lonely Planet, 8th edn., 2003), p. 37.
  44. ↑ E. True, The White Stripes and the Sound of Mutant Blues (Omnibus Press, 2004), p. 59.
  45. ↑ "The Black Keys: El Camino | Album Reviews | Pitchfork", Pitchfork.com, 2 December 2011, retrieved 5 December 2011.
  46. ↑ S. J. Blackman, Chilling out: the cultural politics of substance consumption, youth and drug policy (McGraw-Hill International, 2004), p. 90.
  47. ↑ D. Else, Great Britain (London: Lonely Planet, 2007), ISBN 1-74104-565-7, p. 75.
  48. ↑ P. Smitz, C. Bain, S. Bao, S. Farfor, Australia (Footscray Victoria: Lonely Planet, 14th edn., 2005), ISBN 1-74059-740-0, p. 58.
  49. ↑ C. Rawlings-Way, Lonely Planet New Zealand (Footscray Victoria: Lonely Planet, 14th edn., 2008), ISBN 1-74104-816-8, p. 52.
  50. ↑ "Signed: Black Lips Sign To Vice Records" Spacelab.tv, retrieved 30 November 2011.
  51. ↑ "Red rag: Jay Reatard signs with Matador", Drowned in Sound, retrieved 30 November 2011.
  52. ↑ Steve Rose, In The Red Records’ Larry Hardy – Interview – January 2010, Rockfeedback.com, retrieved 30 November 2011.
  53. ↑ Justin Jacobs, "The Strange Boys Sign to Rough Trade, Tour With Julian Casablancas, Prep New Album for 2010", Pastemagazine.com, 11 November 2009, retrieved 30 November 2011.
  54. ↑ "Ty Segall Signs to Drag City for New Studio Album", Exclaim.ca, 2 March 2011, retrieved 30 November 2011.

Additional references

  • Buckley, Peter (2003). The Rough Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to More than 1200 Artists and Bands] (3rd ed.). London: Rough Guides. ISBN 1843531054. 

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