Garage rock
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Garage rock was a simple, raw form of rock and roll created by a number of United States bands in the mid-1960s. Inspired by British Invasion bands like The Beatles, The Kinks, and The Rolling Stones, these mostly Midwestern United States groups played a variation on British Invasion rock. While the American Midwest produced many of the best-known examples of garage rock, there were many bands in that style coming from the West Coast of the United States and Australia.
The term "garage rock" comes from the perception that many such performers were usually young and amateurish, and often rehearsed in a garage. These bands' music was often much cruder than their inspirations but was full of passion and energy. Most of the bands used simple chord progressions, pounding drums, and catchy lyrics. In many ways, the garage bands were the first bands in what would eventually be known as punk rock.
Hundreds of garage bands popped up around America and a handful of them — Shadows of Knight, The Count 5, The Seeds, The Standells — had hits, but most were destined for obscurity. In fact, nearly all of the bands were forgotten by the early 1970s, though the famous Nuggets compilation brought them back somewhat closer to the spotlight.
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Revivals
In the 1980s, there was a garage rock revival that saw a number of bands earnestly trying to replicate the sound, style, and look of the '60s garage bands; this trend coincided with a similar surf rock revival, and both styles fed in into the alternative rock movement and future grunge music explosion, which was partially inspired by garage rock from Seattle like The Sonics and The Wailers.
This movement also evolved into an even more primitive form of garage rock that became known as garage punk by the late 1980s, thanks to bands such as The Gories, The Mummies, and The Devil Dogs. Bands playing garage punk differed from the garage rock revival bands in that they were less cartoonish caricatures of '60s garage bands and their overall sound was even more loud, obnoxious, and raw, often infusing elements of proto punk and 1970s punk rock (hence the "garage punk" term). Garage rock and garage punk coexisted throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s with many independent record labels releasing thousands of records by bands playing various styles of primitive rock and roll all around the world. Some of the more prolific of these independent record labels included Estrus, Rip Off, In The Red, Telstar, Crypt, Dionysus, Get Hip, Bomp! and Sympathy for the Record Industry. Also in the early 2000s, a few bands playing garage rock actually gained mainstream appeal and commercial airplay, something that had eluded garage rock bands of the past. These included The Strokes, The White Stripes, and The Hives, while other lesser-knowns such as The Detroit Cobras, The 5.6.7.8's, The Dirtbombs, The New Bomb Turks, the Oblivians, Teengenerate, The Makers, Guitar Wolf, Lost Sounds, The Hard Lessons and others enjoyed moderate underground success and appeal.
In the late '90s, Steven van Zandt ("Little Steven") became a torchbearer, spokesperson, and proponent for garage rock, promoting concerts and festivals in New York City and also, in 2002, starting a syndicated radio program called Little Steven's Underground Garage and also launching an Underground Garage channel on the Sirius Satellite Radio network.
See also
Original 1960s and '70s garage bands
- 13th Floor Elevators
- Davie Allan and The Arrows
- The Amboy Dukes
- The Atlantics
- The Balloon Farm
- The Barbarians
- The Beacon Street Union
- The Beau Brummels
- The Bees
- Blues Magoos
- Blues Project
- The Bohemian Vendetta
- The Bootmen
- The Bourbons
- The Brigade
- The Brigands
- The Brogues
- The Calico Wall
- The Castaways
- The Charlatans
- The Children of the Mushroom
- Chocolate Watchband
- The Choir
- The Clash
- Clefs of Lavender Hill
- The Count 5
- Cosmic Rock Show
- Cotton Mouth
- The Crome Syrcus
- The Cryan Shames
- The Daily Flash
- The Del-Vetts
- The Dovers
- The E-Types
- Earth Opera
- The Elastik Band
- Electric Prunes
- Fenwyck
- The Five Americans
- The Floating Bridge
- Kim Fowley
- Freeborne
- Frijid Pink
- The Frost
- The Gants
- The Gestures
- The Golliwogs
- Gonn
- The Groupies
- Harbinger Complex
- The Hombres
- The Human Beinz
- The Human Expression
- The Humane Society
- Kenny and The Kasuals
- Kinks
- The Kingsmen
- The Knaves
- The Knickerbockers
- Larry and the Bluenotes
- The Leaves
- The Lemon Drops
- The Litter
- The Live Five
- The Lollipop Shoppe
- Love
- Lyme and Cybelle
- The Lyrics
- The Magic Mushrooms
- The Magicians
- Max Frost and the Troopers
- MC5
- The Merry-Go-Round
- Michael and the Messengers
- The Mind's Eye
- The Mojo Men
- The Monks
- Mouse and the Traps
- The Moving Sidewalks
- Mr. Lucky and the Gamblers
- The Music Explosion
- The Music Machine
- The Mystery Trend
- Nazz
- New Colony Six
- The New Tweedy Brothers
- The Nightcrawlers
- The Night Walkers
- The Nuggets
- The Outcasts
- The Outsiders
- The Other Half
- The Palace Guard
- Phluph
- The Premiers
- Pretty Things
- Psychedelic Stooges
- Question Mark and the Mysterians
- The Rare Breed
- The Rationals
- The Rats Two Line
- The Remaining Few
- The Remains
- Richard and the Young Lions
- The Rovin' Kind
- The Rumors
- S.J. and The Crossroads
- Sagitarius
- Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs
- Saturday's Children
- The Seeds
- Shadows of Knight
- Sir Douglas Quintet
- The Sonics
- The Sparkles
- SRC
- The Squires
- The Standells
- Stereo Shoestring
- The Stooges
- The Strangeloves
- Strawberry Alarm Clock
- The Swingin' Medallions
- Syndicate Of Sound
- Teddy and The Pandas
- Teegarden
- The Third Bardo
- Third Power
- The Third Rail
- The Tidal Waves
- Thursday's Children
- The Troggs
- The Turtles
- The Ugly Ducklings
- Ultimate Spinach
- The Underdogs
- The Uniques
- Unrelated Segments
- The Vagrants
- Van Winkle
- Wailers
- We The People
- The Wilde Knights
- The William Penn V
- The Woolies
- The Yorkshires
- The Zakary Thaks
1980s, '90s, and 2000s garage revival bands
- The 5.6.7.8's
- The Alleys
- The Avatars
- The Bent Scepters
- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
- Billy Childish
- The Cynics
- Dead Moon
- The Detroit Cobras
- The Dirtbombs
- The Embrooks
- The Fleshtones
- The Fuzztones
- Girl Trouble
- The Gore Gore Girls
- The Gravedigger 5
- The Greenhornes
- The Hentchmen
- The Insomniacs
- The Kaisers
- Lyres
- Mando Diao
- The Milkshakes
- The Miracle Workers
- Mondo Topless
- The Mooney Suzuki
- The Morlocks
- The Nymphs
- The Nomads
- The Original Sins
- The Outta Place
- The Pandoras
- Plane 9
- The Satelliters
- The Seers
- The Stems
- The Stomachmouths
- The Strokes
- The Subsonics
- The Stepford Husbands [1] (http://www.wfmu.org/~dathedj/shbio.html)
- The Swingin' Neckbreakers
- The Untamed Youth
- The Von Bondies
- The White Stripes
- The Woggles
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