UK Freakbeat

[j]

Partly due to watching Gangster No. 1 (like 5x), I'm getting into this semi-vague genre of music. Stuff like you would hear in To Sir With Love. A lot like the Kinks, I guess. It has to be fast, distorted, and nearly out of control. And cause me to sneer in approval.

For example: The Quick, Shel Naylor, Beatstalkers, Poets, The Majority... basically I'm stuck with the compilations I've found. I guess it's just UK garage/invasion type stuff.

Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions for bands/songs I should check out?

 

[Alter]

The song in To Sir With Love at the dance at the end is:
It's Getting Harder All the Time by Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders.

Check them out.

 

[j]

I'll check it out. Congrats on a month BTW, keep it up.

 

[Alter]

Originally Posted by j

I'll check it out. Congrats on a month BTW, keep it up.

Thanks, it hasn't been too tough this time. I smoked for 20 years...it's enough.

I don't know so many songs from that band to know if they are sneer-inducing enough but that one song is great.

 

[Bandwagonesque]

Some more well known freak:

The Birds - Collection of Rare British Birds
The Creation - Our Music is Red with Purple Flashes
The Art Woods - Art Gallery
The Outsiders - Strange Things are Happening (they are actually Dutch, but they are one of the coolest freakbeat groups ever)
The Easybeats - Friday on My Mind
The Smoke - My Friend Jack
Pretty Things - Get The Picture/Emotions
Les Fleur De Lys - Reflections
The Action - Action Packed
The Eyes - forgot the name of the comp
The Motions - Introduction to the Motions (more Dutch freak)

And for all the lesser known stuff, just pick up the Nuggets II box set, or some of the Decca compilations (Mod Scene, Freakbeat, R&B) - they blow away stuff like the English Freakbeat compilations.

 

[Bandwagonesque]

BTW, what Kinks albums have you heard? If it's just the first two, I highly suggest you check out (in this order IMO) Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur, Face to Face, Kontroversy, and then Something Else. I really don't care for their Shel Talmy stuff of the first two records... boring!

 

[Get Smart]

Bandwagon listed the essentials, good list man!

also check out:
The Attack
The Zombies

 

[Bandwagonesque]

Originally Posted by Get Smart

Bandwagon listed the essentials, good list man! also check out: The Attack The Zombies
Yeah, I was going to list The Zombies as well... but considered them more pop, or too well known.

The Repertoire release of Odessey and Oracle is great - it contains the entire O&O album, plus nearly 20 early Zombies singles. I should have added The Small Faces, and Billy Nicholls. Nicholls was the UKs answer to the Beach Boys - the Small Faces are the backing band on his record "Would You Believe", and it was recently re-reissued by Immediate again. The style isn't really freakbeat - there's one track with Marriott's heavy guitar sound, and soulful yells... the rest of the record is just very pop, and very good. Jason, know of any bands keeping freakbeat alive today?

 

[Get Smart]

yea there's a few that could be classified under 'freakbeat'

these bands have myspace and i'll link them later when I have more time to sit on it:

The Clamour
The Gentlemen Callers (this is a great band!)
Aceface (canada, not UK)
The Riots (great full length, broken up)
The Lost 45s

lots more, this is what's currently in my head...

 

[j]

GREAT lists, I'm getting some of this and it's just what I'm looking for. All I had of the Kinks were a couple best-ofs so I'm looking into the other 66-68ish era stuff. Thank you so much.

Also I should say I'm not against non-UK (I should say, US, since we've represented Holland and others) freakbeat-type stuff. Would you consider 13th Floor Elevators to fit in this style? I'm enjoying the couple of songs I have so far.

And maybe this isn't quite relevant, but in my searches I branched out somehow and came upon the Lambrettas, which I'm also enjoying.... any other "70s Mod Revival" I should look into?

Thanks.

 

[Get Smart]

The Lambrettas arent the best representation of 70s revival modrock, but they have a couple decent songs (good cover of poison ivy)

better choices:
-The Chords (their 2 disc anthology "This is What they Want" is a must have, amazing!)
-The Small Hours (more R&B driven than their contemporaries)
-Long Tall Shorty (great representation of "hardmod"...more punk than contemporaries, one of my faves)
-Purple Hearts (only their first album "Beat It"...avoid anything else)
-Secret Affair (their best of "Time for Action" is a good place to start)
-Merton Parkas (a bit cheesy at times, but keyboardist went on to form Style Council with Paul Weller)
-Makin' Time (one of my alltime faves...features Martin from pre-Charlatans days..more R&B oriented)

 

[Bandwagonesque]

13th Floor Elevators are straight up Texas Psychedelia! I love "Slip Inside This House", but for the most part, I find the electric jug that is present in almost every single one of their songs annoying. I think their last album, before the lead singer went mental is jugless. The Jam were the first and last word in Mod Revival - they were the ace faces. A lot of other revival bands at the time were just poseurs latching onto a trend. For some mods, it's ALL about the revival. I don't know much about the top bands at the time, but I've heard of all the ones Jason listed, so start there

EDIT: And the Killermeters!

 

[Bandwagonesque]

For revival and other related stuff... tons of MP3s under "Sounds" http://punkmodpop.free.fr/

 

[Get Smart]

That's a GREAT site! I used to practically live there online!

J, If you havent gotten into US 60s Garage you really need to. Stuff like The Sonics and The Wailers esp, they were punk before that word ever got coined.

 

[Bandwagonesque]

Absolutely... there is a ton of good 60s US garage stuff. And with all good genres, there's a Nuggets box set (the original one, not the British Empire one - but get both anyway

And then get the Sons of Nuggets box set!) as well, and that's usually the best place to start. The Sonics, The Seeds, Shadows of Knight, Blues Magoos, Chocolate Watchband, Electric Prunes, Thee Midniters, Knickerbockers, ...