The Top Ten Garage/Psychedelic Reissues of 2005 (in no special order or anything)

1. ? and the Mysterians
The Best of: Cameo Parkway 1966-1967

(Abkco 2005)

? and the Mysterians experienced the ultimate rock 'n' roll fantasy when their debut single skyrocketed to #1 in 1966. With its fiery organ work, steady bass line, and seductive vocals from lead singer ? (Rudy Martinez), "96 Tears" caught on faster than the plague, and these five Chicanos from Texas via Michigan were suddenly teenage rock stars. The follow-up hits "I Need Somebody" and "Can't Get Enough of You, Baby" also made an impact, but the group quickly ran out of steam. The Mysterians' music has surreptitiously found its way onto compact disc before, but this compilation marks the first domestic, legitimate CD release of their material. Although titled The Best of, this release in fact collects the entire body of work the group recorded for Cameo Records (including their two albums, 96 Tears and Action). Discard those old bootlegs and scoop this up. The liners are informative, and, most importantly, these garage classics have never sounded better.

2. The Merry-Go-Round
Listen, Listen: The Definitive Collection

(Rev-Ola 2005)

After departing from LA club band The Palace Guard, Emitt Rhodes founded The Merry-Go-Round, a more melodious, pop-oriented group. Their classy debut single, "Live", became a minor hit and remains their best-known song (it deservedly features on Rhino's Nuggets box set, incidentally). Their sole album is full of gems, including "You're a Very Lovely Woman and "Time Will Show the Wiser", the latter of which was adopted by the UK folk rock group Fairport Convention and went on to become one of that group's signature tunes. The Merry-Go-Round's excellent music had been only shoddily released on CD until fans were gifted with this stellar compilation. Living up to its subtitle, Listen, Listen rounds up everything the band recorded for A&M Records, along with early Emitt Rhodes solo material. With the first-rate research, liners, and sound that we've come to expect from Rev-Ola, Listen, Listen finally gives fans the complete picture of this gifted pop group.

3. The Daisy Chain
Straight or Lame

(Sundazed 2005)

From Orange County, California, the all-girl garage band The Daisy Chain released the ultra-rare Straight or Lame on the tiny United International label in 1967. One of only a handful of full-length albums recorded by all-girl bands in the sixties, Straight or Lame is stylistically hard to pin down, mixing together such diverse ingredients as psychedelia and The Supremes. An eccentric little period piece, the album gained something of a reputation as collectors traded tapes of it for years. Thanks to Sundazed, however, Straight or Lame is now on CD, allowing interested listeners to check out the minor-key psych ballad "Zzotto", the Motown-worthy, horn-propelled "Unhappy for Me", and the trippy "Superfluous Daisy". In many ways, Straight or Lame sounds more like the soundtrack to a cheesy sixties movie than a standalone pop album, but that may well be part of its charm.

4. Strawberry Alarm Clock
Wake Up...It's Tomorrow

(Collectors' Choice 2005)

Strawberry Alarm Clock are a group that should need little introduction. After all, their #1 single "Incense and Peppermints" has come to represent all that was exciting and preposterous about the psychedelic sixties. What's a shame, however, is that "Incense" is all that Strawberry Alarm Clock are remembered for. Even in the sixties, everything else Strawberry Alarm Clock released after "Incense" was all but ignored. Nevertheless, the band recorded several worthwhile psychedelic pop albums, which are finally being released on CD domestically. Wake Up…It's Tomorrow, their second album, includes their lush follow-up hit "Tomorrow" and the self-explanatory "Pretty Song from Psych-Out", which the group recorded for the 1968 counterculture film. More organic than their debut album, Incense and Peppermints, Wake Up…It's Tomorrow is probably their best. These recent Collectors' Choice reissues of SAC's original albums make obsolete their expensive Japanese counterparts and the inadequate domestic compilations that fans were forced to settle for in the past.

5. The Stooges
(Self-Titled) [2-Disc Deluxe Edition]

(Elektra/Rhino 2005)

When Rhino Handmade's limited-edition release 1970: The Complete Funhouse Sessions rapidly sold out, we can assume that Rhino got the message that Stooges fans wanted more Stooges music. Finally, to replace those old Elektra reissues from the eighties, Rhino has released expanded, deluxe editions of both The Stooges and Funhouse. In addition to greatly improved sound quality, each of these deluxe editions includes a second disc of previously unreleased material from the sessions. In the case of The Stooges, the bonus material includes vastly different alternate mixes that were prepared by producer John Cale, alternate vocal arrangements, and extended versions of "No Fun" and "Ann". In addition, these revamped reissues feature lush packaging and detailed liner notes (a big improvement on the short blurbs included in the old reissues). These deluxe editions come as a very welcome improvement to the catalog of a rock group whose innovative style and subsequent influence need not be rehashed here.

6. The Fun and Games
Elephant Candy

(Rev-Ola 2005)

A Texan pop group, The Fun and Games recorded an album for the UNI label, Elephant Candy, and scored a minor hit with the breezy "The Grooviest Girl in the World" in 1968. Produced by the talented Gary Zekley, The Fun and Games border on bubblegum, but there's a depth to their music, facilitated by Zekley's strong production, that invalidates the bubblegum tag. The Fun and Games are more akin to soft pop groups like Eternity's Children or The Yellow Balloon (another Zekley production) than, say, The 1910 Fruitgum Co. Never before released on CD, Elephant Candy features "Grooviest Girl", the notorious (and infectious) title track, and the appealing closer "It Must Have Been the Wind". Rev-Ola's reissue supplements the original Elephant Candy album with single versions of album tracks and the "Grooviest Girl" follow-up single, "We", which was not featured on the album despite its being one of their best songs.

7. Sandy Nelson
Sandy Nelson's Big Sixties Beat Party!

(Ace 2005)

Drummer Sandy Nelson had sizable hits with "Teen Beat" and "Let There Be Drums" as the late fifties became the early sixties, but by the mid sixties, the hits had stopped and Nelson concentrated on producing albums--and lots of them. Like those of The Ventures, Nelson's late-sixties albums feature original compositions and instrumental interpretations of many of the top hits of the day, and like the Ventures, he churned out album after album, releasing over fifteen longplayers from 1964-'69. Included among these albums are some great tracks, delightful instrumentals caught somewhere in between the garage and the lounge. Sandy Nelson's Big Sixties Beat Party! spans this late-sixties era of Nelson's career, culling twenty-four tracks from a pile of albums. Because of the huge amount of source material, there are unsurprisingly some omissions (such as Nelson's splendid version of The Yardbirds' "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago"), but the tracks that are included here are, on the whole, winners.

8. Davie Allan and the Arrows
Cycle-Delic Sounds

(Sundazed 2005)

Kings of exploitation movie soundtracks, Davie Allan and the Arrows recorded an enormous body of material during the late sixties. In addition to providing the soundtracks for such films as The Wild Angels, Born Losers, and Devil's Angels, Davie Allan and co. released three albums of their own and recorded countless studio sessions that yielded a bevy of pseudonymous discs on the Sidewalk and Tower labels. Unfortunately, a mere pittance of that material has ever seen the light of day on CD. Finally, however, Sundazed has done something about that. Arrows fans now have their choice of the forty-track compilation Devil's Rumble (2004) or individual reissues of their three original albums: Apache '65, Blues Theme, and Cycle-Delic Sounds. With the highest degree of experimentation and variety, Cycle-Delic Sounds is probably the best of these three, boasting strong traditional instrumentals like "Cody's Theme" and "Blue's Trip" along with experimental sonic freakouts like "Cycle Delic" and "Mind Transferral".

9. The Collectors
(Self-Titled)

(Collectors' Choice 2005)

Though stars in their native Vancouver, The Collectors remained on the periphery of the US pop scene during the course of their career, despite playing on both coasts and releasing two albums on Warner Bros. in 1968-'69. As is now widely documented, in 1967 The Collectors accommodated producer Dave Hassinger by assisting The Electric Prunes on their infamous Mass in F Minor album, which unfortunately didn't display the talents of either The Electric Prunes or The Collectors. But The Collectors' 1968 self-titled debut album is a different story, including highlights like the lovely "She (Will-o-the-Wind)", "Lydia Purple", and the nineteen-minute, classically informed "What Love (Suite)". Along with their second Warner Bros. album, Grass and Wild Strawberries, The Collectors is now widely available on CD from Collectors' Choice. Both reissues feature liner notes by Richie Unterberger, who tells The Collectors' story with comments from the band members themselves.

10. The Peanut Butter Conspiracy
Spreading from the Ashes

(Big Beat 2005)

The Los Angeles-based Peanut Butter Conspiracy released three albums and enjoyed a minor hit with "It's a Happening Thing" during 1967-'69. But prior to their contract with Columbia Records, the group was known as Ashes, and they released a handful of records on the Vault label. That Vault material has been released on CD for the first time on Spreading from the Ashes, which collects those early Vault recordings along with previously unreleased material recorded during the sessions for the group's two Columbia albums, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading and The Great Conspiracy. Early versions of the album tracks "Time Is After You" and "Dark on You Now" are intriguing, but there are plenty of good surprises here, too--for instance the lovely folk-rock tune "Is There Anything I Can Do?" Spreading from the Ashes complements the Conspiracy's original albums perfectly, fully revealing a group whose talent could so easily be overlooked or dismissed.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

11. Pandamonium
No Presents for Me: Singles and Rarities

(Radioactive 2005)

Originally from Kent, UK, Pandamonium released three singles in their initial phase, including the now-legendary "No Presents for Me". This compilation collects the A and B sides of each of the band's three singles along with unreleased material by the band's nucleus of Bob Ponton and Martin Curtis over the next few years. The title track and their version of "Season of the Witch" are highlights, but there are other worthwhile tracks, and it's certainly nice to have all of Pandamonium's singles together in one place.

12. Sweetwater
(Self-Titled)

(Collectors' Choice 2005)

Although Rhino Handmade released the limited-edition Cycles compilation (now out of print) a few years ago, Collectors' Choice has, for the first time, released each individual Sweetwater album on CD: Sweetwater, Just for You, and Melon. Decidedly the pick of the three, Sweetwater best displays the band's fusion of jazz, classical, and rock influences and features their adaptation of the traditional "Motherless Child" as well as the social comment-laden "What's Wrong" and the darkly psychedelic "My Crystal Spider".

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