Nuggets II: Another Essential Box Set

The second Nuggets box set is dedicated to ‘60s rockers outside the U.S. of A. Whereas the original Nuggets is all dungarees, garages smelling of Pabst Blue Ribbon and the oil leaking from a customized Dodge Dart, and enough dirt and grease that no amount of soap or Clearisil could ever make clean, the new edition is more art school, more ruffled collars and brand new shoes - it tunes in, turns on and then rocks out. Whereas the U.S. Nuggets was much more straight ahead garage rock, this set is more weighted towards psychedelia, and even has room for some pretty poncey twee-pop.

Don’t fret, this rocks like a mother - in fact, it almost seems that each disc gets progressively heavier, and the compilers counterbalanced this by making the lighter stuff correspondingly wussier. For example, Timon’s “The Bitter Thoughts of Little Jane” is so fey, it makes Ray Davies sound like Bon Scott. (By the way, this song so perfectly juxtaposes frilly shirted tunesmithing with sinister lyrics - no wonder Timon later performed “Lose This Skin” with The Clash). And bands like Kaleidoscope and Blossom Toes are perfect for afternoon tea.

The comp hits the A-list of bands that didn’t quite make it in the U.S.: The Small Faces, The Pretty Things, The Move and The Creation are well represented. Then the next tier of bands get their due, like the amazing Action (mod-pop produced by George Martin - Phil Collins was their biggest fan!), Os Mutantes, John’s Children (with Marc Bolan), The Birds (with Ronnie Wood) and other great artists, who can certainly fill a best of disc that would hold their own with the best of the ‘60s.

Of course, the bulk of the disc is comprised of bands that, for the most part, only fired a few shots, but were able to hit the bull’s eye at least once. For every Q65 or Shakers who had fairly substantial careers in their homeland, there are handfuls of artists who clicked just enough to get on the comp.

You also get exposure to the early work of artists who became much more famous later on, like Jeff Lynne, Glen Sharrock (yep, the Little River Band singer), Deep Purple’s Ian Gillian and Roger Glover, Yesmen Steve Howe, Tony Kaye and Chris Squire, South African solo star John Kongos and more. The Downliners Sect does a pre-Velvets Lou Reed/John Cale composition. Jeff ‘Mono Man’ Connolly of legendary Boston garagesters The Lyres worships The Outsiders, featuring Wally Tax on vocals, and this set shows why.

And then there are songs like “I’m Just A Mops” by Japan’s The Mops - who come across like a wobbly Standells on this self-referential anthem, and The Elois’ “By My Side”, a veritable pop-art explosion, with some surf vibes - kind of a precursor to The Hoodoo Gurus. Want a little R & B? Listen to Time Box’s “Gone Is The Sad Man”, which is all summer swoon. Or try The Motions, a Dutch mod outfit who fall right between The Small Faces and the early Who.

I could go on with track descriptions - this set is so rich in quality. This includes the superlative liner notes from Alec Palao, Greg Shaw (of Bomp magazine/label fame) and the track-by-track writing of Mike Stax, whose Ugly Things ‘zine is essential reading if you want to learn more about this stuff. Moreover, the MVP of this disc, as he is of so many Rhino reissues, is Bill Inglot, the Master of mastering. He finds a way to bring maximum sonic clarity to these tunes, without sacrificing a drop of the primal rawness - it’s the best of both worlds.

Now, I’m not exactly a voice in the wilderness here - this box set has received favorable write ups in about every mainstream publication I’ve seen - Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Spin, et. al. On one hand, it’s great to see that they are paying attention. On the other hand, while these tunes are admittedly ‘artyfacts,’ as the subtitle of the box set notes, the mainstream treats these musical styles as something ossified, something temporal that can no longer be captured. Yet the same mainstream rags will soon be (rightfully) be praising the new Robbie Fulks album. Why is it OK for some musicians to explore the past and for some styles to be revived, while others are relegated to cult status, and thus, implicitly dismissed?

Granted, there is something odd about most of the current garage bands - they are primarily dudes in their 30s and 40s, reviving tales of teen angst or tracing tire tracks on the Timothy Leary highway. So maybe the immediacy and the freshness of musical discovery that the teens and art schoolers on Nuggets had no longer exists. To many, the current practitioners in the psych and garage genres are deluded poseurs.

But so much of garage and psych is about posing. Zadie Smith notes in her brilliant debut novel White Teeth that one of the great things about being 17 is that you can change your personality, style and attitude at the drop of a hat, because it’s easy to do - you’re not locked in yet. And no matter how authentic this ‘60s stuff is, it’s still a pose, whether it’s The Bluestars doing a blues blowout protest on “Social End Product” or Dantalion’s Chariot blissing out on “The Madman Running Through The Fields”. All these bands were taking the thoughts in the head and the pangs of the heart and the inevitable angst of youth and blowing them up onto seven-inch plastic discs, vinyl acting as an aural canvas for expressing both frustration and hope, and finding the appropriate contrivances as vehicles to convey what they HAD to say. To say it is wrong for current adults to make these same poses is like saying that no should perform Shakespeare, on the grounds that it is dated.

It’s a shame that so many musicians who carry on these traditions are not getting their due in the same pages that this box set is being trumpeted. You won’t see The Swingin’ Neckbreakers or Rockfour or The Kaisers or The Embrooks in Rolling Stone or Spin. You see, they’re just ‘retro’. Moreover, they aren’t new - the new garage revival (being reported in Entertainment Weekly, of all places) will pass them by - while this will be great for talents like Detroit Cobras, the Greenhornes and the good, but overrated, White Stripes, it’s a crime that some of the best rock music on the planet is simply ignored. Then again, this is why we have both Nuggets sets in the first place.

The reason most of the ‘60s stuff was ignored was due to the fact that there was so much great music already on the charts. While it’s too bad that every group on both box sets did not hit the Top 40, it wasn’t like America was lacking for great rock and roll on the radio. That is not the case today. Quality has been ghettoized. Nowhere is this more evident than in the pop and powerpop coming out today. Some Fufkin faves will get a whiff of big time press, and will get backhanded praise - ‘this is great, but it’s been done before’. Well, as Jack Rabid of The Big Takeover points out, what hit singles of the past few years will ever be played 20 years from now? Almost nothing.

This is due to corporate control, which is getting worse by the way, preventing most great music from getting heard. In the meantime, Myracle Brah, The Shazam, Frisbie, The Vandalias, The Masticators, The Liquor Giants, The Sugarplastic, The Grip Weeds, Chris von Sniedern, The Lackloves, Cockeyed Ghost, and so many others that many of you are digging here in 2001 are making the classics of tomorrow today. So if you’re wondering what will be in 2030 Nuggets box set - you’re probably listening to some of it right now.

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