Volume and enthusiasm trumps everything else
Jersey Kid | Katy, Texas, America! | 02/15/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Party Party Party: 34 Raw, Ruthless And Rugged Sixties Garage Rockers takes you back to a time that this writer feels is similar to the creation of the universe. A cataclysmic event occurred that resulted in the creation of an entirely new condition, which spawned a vast and wonderful array of entities.
The event took place in early 1960s. Basically, it was an epiphany. Baby-boomers realized that it was possible to write, record and perform music that their peers would enjoy. Using a polyglot amalgam of surf-music, The British Invasion, doo-wop and rhythm `n' blues, as the launching pad, kids - more-or-less in their teens - elected to forego hot rods and following in their parents' footsteps and instead formed bands. What came out of these groups was as varied as its sources, but yet unified it the objective of making a sound that was not merely unique but intensely satisfying on a personal level
Most have called it Garage; some have called it Punk. The name doesn't really matter as much as the sound and intent carried in the belief that volume and enthusiasm will always win out.
Erik Lindgren's compilation brings this feeling to you from the first note of the first sound to the fade-out at the end. In between is the vast panoply of what was being heard during this period in time. And vast it was. Listening to this album, you are forcibly reminded of how diverse this music was within the context of a limited number of sources for hearing it. There were not the slue of compartmentalized, list-driven formats that micro-formatted to a specific demography. Instead, you heard it all on a very few stations or at live performances.
And yes, I stipulate that payola had a lot to do with what you heard on commercial radio. On the other hand, what you heard at live shows and what you might hear from time-to-time on a one-shot basis was just a glorious and maybe - at least through my rose-colored bifocals - a little less money-driven.
Therein lays the beauty of this album: its very anonymity. Lindgren, along with some other folks, made a cottage industry of releasing lower-tier bands of the 1960s long before Cavestomp and Little Steven's Underground Garage (not to fault either!) got into it. While all try to chronicle who were these people, Lindgren often goes a step further by getting comments from band members. This album has none of that. The insert contains nothing more than a selection of labels for some of the material.
So, who are these bands and where are they from? It's unclear. One group is obviously from eastern Pennsylvania - knowledge gained by their name-checking Stroudsburg, Allentown and Scranton in a song - and two others have photos that imply they were from or near Fort Worth, TX and La Crosse, WI. But, the truth of the matter is that it just doesn't matter. All we need to know about these people is that came together and recorded because the beauty of these songs lies in the sound and the enthusiasm. Everyhting else is for professionals...or grown-ups.
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Track Listings (34) - Disc #1