Customer Reviews

Hypstrz

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It's ironic that '60s revivalist bands often produce records that are as rare and difficult to find as the records from which their material is sourced. Such is the case for this Midwest band's fantastic 1980 Bomp LP, "Hypstrization!" Despite the backing from Bomp, the album went unnoticed by many ardent garage rock fans, only to attain a level of cult desirability among collectors in later years. The band themselves were an anachronism, reviving mid-60s garage rock in the teeth of late-70s punk, thrilling and confounding audiences in fraternal halls, local ballrooms and bowling alleys throughout the upper Midwest. What made it work, and what comes across so clearly on these live recordings, is that the group was fully committed to the sounds they produced, and the fuel of fellow punk bands (both local like The Suicide Commandos, and god-like, such as The Ramones) made their snarling, thrashing garage rock a lot more than a pose.

Bomp's original LP is included in full as this CD's opening 15 tracks. It's a sweaty evening of garage rock classics - whether or not they were garage rock in the first place. In addition to mid-60s punk anthems like "Riot on Sunset Strip," "Talk Talk" and "96 Tears," the band revs up the soul side "In the Midnight Hour" and "I Go Crazy," and takes The Small Faces' "All or Nothing" out for a heartfelt spin. The non-stop assault, punctuated by occasional song count-offs, follows the performance template the band picked up from The Ramones, as does their combination of hammering guitars topped with melodic vocals.

This reissue expands upon the original LP with 18 additional live selections from the same pair of nights at Jay's Longhorn. These extra tracks include more garage-ified soul/funk tunes ("Hold on I'm Coming" "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag"), Nuggets/Pebbles standards ("Action Woman" "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White"), well-picked British Invasion winners ("Come See Me" "66-5-4-3-2-1" and "I'm Not Talking"), rockabilly rave-ups (Eddie Cochran's "C'mon Everybody"), and some '60s chart oddities (Sgt. Barry Sandler's "Ballad of the Green Berets" and The Shangri-Las "Remember (Walking in the Sand"). Closing out the collection is a trio of live tracks waxed in 2004 (including a stomping of The Sonics' "The Witch"), proving that the band rocks just as frenetically now as they did twenty-five years ago. This is a must have for garage rock fans, original or neo. [©2005 hyperbolium dot com]

"Eagerly Awaited" is too mild a term to apply to this motherload of live recordings by the frentically thrashing short-attention-span-theatre that is the Twin Cities' own Hypstrz, but this CD has been nearly a quarter of a century coming. The recording history of this group started with some sweaty, shout-yourself-hoarse live gigs taped over a weekend in April 1979 at Jay's Longhorn. These tapes netted the songs that made up their obscure 1979 4 song EP as well as a 15 song LP called "Hypsterization" released on BOMP in 1980. These slabs of vinyl were like a shot of pure grain alcohol to a world whose mainstream music was more like stale, room temperature Pabst Blue Ribbon. Though these records have been hard to find, out of print for more than a generation, and maddeningly expensive as rare items, all has now been rectified by BOMP finally allowing this disc to escape into an unsuspecting public who needs to hear this music---and in addition to the 19 previously released songs, there are another 18 previously "locked up" Hypstrz hits for a total bonanza of 37 songs!


"What's all the fuss about? Who are these guys", you ask? A generic snapshot of the Hypstrz would be "the best cover band specializing in somewhat obscure 60's songs you will ever hear", but that somewhat-limiting description doesn't quite do full justice to what a great rock and roll band this is. They have an incredible knack for taking material that was pretty darn good to begin with, and somehow improving on it most of the time. As I long suspected and as confirmed in the liner notes, The Hypstrz ripped a page out of the Ramones playbook (after seeing the first Twin Cities' Ramones gig in July, 1976). You know, the page that says, "speed `em up, dumb `em down, and thrash 'em out quickly, one after another with scarcely a pause". This isn't a Ramones impersonation, even though the cover art for this disc is suspiciously similar to the cover of the Ramones "Hey Ho, Let's Go" Anthology. The Hypstrz are actually better than the Ramones at nailing 60's covers, anyway. (One listen to "Acid Eaters" will prove me right on this point).

For material, the boys scoured some pretty deep record collections to come up with stuff. Nowadays, you can find reissues and "Nuggets" style collections just about anywhere of all kinds of great originals from the "Garage/Punk" wing of 60's rock, but the Hypstrz started honing their sets when most of this stuff was barely 10 years old, long before the advent of the CD and any of the subsequent waves of 60's garage rock revivals. This means that these guys went prospecting through thrift store record sections and older siblings' collections for inspiration. Most of choices of cover songs came from American bands, like:

13th Floor Elevators (Tried To Hide, You're Gonna Miss Me)
Standells (Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White, Riot On Sunset Strip)
Chocolate Watchband (Let's Talk About Girls)
The Barbarians (Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl)
Shadows Of Knight (I'm Gonna Make You Mine)
Love (7& 7 is, also the arrangement of Hey Joe is like theirs (and The Leaves/The Byrds)
The Litter (Action Woman )
Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels (Jenny Take A Ride)
The Music Machine (Talk Talk)
The Syndicate of Sound (Little Girl)
? and the Mysterians (96 Tears)
The Remains (Don't Look Back)
The Sonics (The Witch)
Flamin' Groovies (Slow Death)

They were not averse to crossing the pond for material, though--they hit up UK artists, like the Pretty Things for 3 songs on here (Can't Stand The Pain, Come See Me, Midnight To Six Man) and also made off with tunes by The Small Faces (All Or Nothing), The Troggs (66-5-4-3-2-1) and the Yardbirds (I'm Not Talking). Even some soul music artists were subjected to their violent pummeling, such as James Brown (I'll Go Crazy, Papa's Got A Brand New Bag), Sam and Dave (Hold On, I'm Coming) and Wilson Pickett (In The Midnight Hour). There are also some novelties like Sgt. Barry Sadler's Ballad of the Green Berets and a thrashed-up girl group number by the Shangra-La's called Remember (Walking In The Sand). The Hypstrz version was recorded over 6 months before Aerosmith released a version on their "Night In The Ruts" LP, by the way. The song tally finally ends with three originals buried in this 37 song feast.

The sound is a medium-high fidelity "warts and all" live recording. They're fast, tight and solid--- not sloppy, but not perfect either. Ernie Batson on guitar blends wall-of sound-distortion, Chuck Berry leads, and lightning quick chord changes in a whirlwind of basic but impressive rock guitar skills. Bill Batson on lead vocals lends a frat-rock shout along mentality to the proceedings and screams like a Banshee when he needs to. The rhythm section is locked in tight but special kudos must go to Randy Weiss on bass-who proves hands-down that he's the Upper Mid-West, healthier version of John Entwistle. These guys often play like they're really late for some other gig. I never thought the original 96 Tears was slow, but after you hear the "Warp-Factor 6" Hypstrz version, you'll think of the original as some sort of funeral dirge. The last three songs on the disc, of similar fidelity to the others yet recorded over 25 years later at a July 2004 gig, demonstrate both how tight and manic this band STILL is, and how they can still miss chords or go out of tune like any good garage band.

This is one blistering set of powerful music delivered with a laser-like intensity. If a listen to this fails to move you or raise your vital signs, see your physician (or undertaker) immediately. This could not be more highly recommended to anyone who professes to love Rock & Roll.

Yeah, it's about time things make it to cd in hopes of better quality. Well, yes, it's better quality than the tape I had of the live show from vinyl. I never knew it was gonna come out, but 10 years after I'd first heard it, it's here and I bought it! The LP didn't have all of the live tracks! This cd has 37 songs. Pretty cool! They did very good versions of 60's covers. They are a very tight band for a band who did garage covers in the 70's. That was kinda unheard of, but these guys did them and they did them well. Another great band from the Minnesota area!

The Twin Cities have produced a lot of great albums in the
last couple decades. Let it Be, Zen Arcade, Hang Time, In
Combo, Big Hits of Mid America...Now another classic album
has finally been re-released by Bomp Records. The classic
HYPSTRIZATION album by the Hypstrz along with the rare 4 song
EP on Bogus Records and various live tracks has been put together on one fantastic disc. 36 tracks in all !!!!!!
Get yourself ready for the HYPSTRZ LIVE AT THE LONGHORN.
It includes turbo charged versions of classics from James
Brown, The Dictators, The Chocolate Watch Band, The Litter
and the 13th Floor Elevators. Also a couple of classic Hypstrz
originals like "Only Matter of Time" and "This has got to be
a joke. Always a magicial live band, now you can go back in
the time machine and feel the maximum rock and roll impact of
a Hypstrz live show. This is not only one of the best local
albums ever put out....but I think one of the best live albums
ever put out by anyone !!!!