TWENTY AMERICAN 60s PUNK SCREAMERS…..Every day I get letter after letter in the Agony Shorthand P.O. Box asking “When, WHEN are you going to list your Top 20 American 60s garage punk screamers? We want the best! Hurry!!!”. Jeez, all right then. Here they are, ranked and ordered, with a margin of error of about 2 or so. And hey, did I miss any? Or mistakenly throw a CANADIAN in there? (No, not the Five Canadians – can’t fool me there). Never mind the SONICS – I decided they’d clog this list up too much, so let’s remove them from the equation and give others a chance. There are the high-water marks for raw teenage garage band howling, circa 1964-66, every song essential to understanding the fertility of the era and the place – and the fact that true punk rock didn’t begin on the King’s Road in 1976 (but you knew that):

1. MURPHY & THE MOB – Born Loser
2. MODDS—Leave My House
3. TY WAGNER & HIS SCOTCHMEN – I’m a No-Count
4. ESQUIRES – Judgment Day
5. HUNS – Destination Lonely
6. SPLIT ENDS – Rich With Nothing
7. FIVE CANADIANS – Writing On The Wall
8. REASONS WHY – Don’t Be That Way
9. AVENGERS – Be a Caveman
10. SHAMES – My World Is Upside Down
11. LEVIS – Hear What I Say
12. CAVE MEN – It’s Trash
13. LARRY & THE BLUE NOTES – In & Out
14. RATS – Rats Revenge Pt. 1 & 2
15. THEE SIXPENCE – My Flash On You
16. LYRICS – They Can’t Hurt Me
17. ILLUSIONS – City of People
18. MONTELS – I’m Moving On
19. KEGGS – To Find Out
20. SYNDICATE – The Egyptian Thing

Where to find them? The majority of these tracks pop up here, here and here.

posted by Jay H. at 1:38 PM