Customer Reviews

Friday at the Hideout

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read a review of this disc two weeks ago in the Sunday Detroit Free Press. I was pretty impressed that there was a record company compiling and preserving stuff that was this obscure.

From 1964 through 1967, there was a very active "teen club" scene in Suburban Detroit. The two guys that recorded all these bands pretty much started that scene. One of them, Punch Andrews, is still Bob Seger's manager.

The Recordings themselves are better than I expected. The individual instruments and voices are all balanced adequately ,considering the mid-sixties technology. Everything is being played on vintage Fender, Gibson, and Rickenbacker Equipment, before it was vintage! The Material is real cool, a lot of originals, and some interesting covers. (Surprise Surprise, Stones) There is early Glen Frey in a Band called the Mushrooms, and Seger is singing and playing keyboards with Doug Brown and the Omens. There is also a very young Suzi Quatro (Leather Tuscadaro in "Happy Days") playing with her two sisters in the Pleasure Seekers. Unfortunately, there is only one cut by the Fugitives, argueably the best band in the Suburbs in 64-65.

The book is nicely done. Great old pictures, and a lot of inside information on the early rock scene in Detroit.

I heard most of these bands, and this disc brings back great memories. If you were a Detroit teen-ager in the mid-sixties, or just interested in hearing what it was like "at the creation",
this is a must-have.

While the other reviewers are on-target, what's not mentioned is this is a nice collection of roots power pop tracks - yes, 'garagey' but it still holds up pretty well. Raggedy yes - but's the charm. Sound quality is acceptable on most of the tracks - better than lots of collection of 'lost tracks.' Well worth adding to your collection.

Primary importance is the write up about those times included w/the CD. So maybe every "garage" band wasn't all that great (lyrical or music), but ya gotta admire the sincerity and enthusiasm. My favorite Underdogs 45, Love's Gone Bad, isn't on this CD (not on the Hideout label)(one of my fave 45s of all time), but the other "singles" are. Unfortunately, many rock lyrics in general in this era are female hostile, but, hey, at least we have female musicians on the CD! We're talking early 1960s, folks, way before we women became a sisterhood. Read the insert & immerse yourself in the perspective. Groovy!

The term "garage rock" gets tossed around a lot, but I'm not really sure what it means. Does it only refer to those early teenegae bands alot of us had, with their crude sound and cruder performances? If so, about half the cuts on this album fit the bill. The other half- like Suzi Quattro's band- are professional produced and promoted bands that never got beyond playing the local lounges.

Remember how, when you were little, you'd bring home a painting you did at school, and your Mom would tack it up to the fridge? It wasn't great art, and it might not have even been a halfway decent picture of a dog, or whatever, but it was yours. And you were proud of it. That's what this album is. None of these bands are particularly great, although a few do show some real skill.

There were a lot of good bands in the Detroit area back then- both high school bands like ASTIGFA (which featured a young Marshall Crenshaw), as well as full time professional bands like Tribal Sinfonia, Frijid Pink, the Spike Drivers, Misty River, and The Rationals, all of whom were better and tighter bands than most of what's on this album, and some of whom were recorded as well.

But if you remember hearing the bands on this album in the clubs, or at some local teen hop, then this is the album for you, because you may never get another chance to hear them again.