Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon

I returned to Chicago late last night from a quick trip up to Minnesota. While there, we celebrated my father’s 72nd birthday (you can spot one of his presents here), caught the English-dubbed version of the animated film Ponyo, and caught up with a few old friends. I also ducked in and out of a garage or two.

Minnesota garages can been cool: musty, full of mysterious objects, and on occasion musical. Back in the 1960s, it seems that every Twin Cities garage sprouted its own rock band, equipped with fuzz guitars, Farfisa organs, and long, long hair. The structure of the music industry back then was such that bands could still have regional hits, getting regular airplay on local top 40 radio stations and becoming neighborhood heroes. On the drive to Minnesota this past week, I brought along two recently acquired CD reissues of classic 1960s Minnesota garage rock:

One was The Stillroven, Cast Thy Burden Upon The Stillroven (Sundazed, 1996). The Stillroven were one of the best groups on the scene, Minnesota’s answer to Los Angeles’ Love—in fact, like Arthur Lee and company, Stillroven recorded “Hey Joe,” and they also covered Love’s “Signed D.C.” “Little Picture Playhouse,” a minor regional hit from 1967, is my favorite piece here: I can’t get the quaint, psychedelic piano riff out of my head.

The other was T.C. Atlantic, Best of T.C. Atlantic (Dionysus, 2002). T.C. Atlantic were another Twin Cities garage rock legend from the 1960s. I’ve known their “(20 Years Ago) In Speedy’s Kitchen,” a baroque pop ballad that became a local hit in Minnesota back in 1968, since I was a child. This reissue includes that, as well as a nice selection of their more typical fuzz-toned, psychedelic garage rock, including the semi-legendary rocker, “Faces.”