One of the crowning achievements in classic oldies comipilations was Warner Special Products' Wild Thing, a double album (don't think it ever came out on CD) concocted for the the TV marketing company LakeShore Music.

The collection compiled the crude recordings of America's favorite garage bands (or protopunks), primitive groups who, 15 years before the English and New York punk explosions, nurtured a raw sound built upon only three chords.  (And what chords they were!)

These bands were not concerned with nihilism. Their revolution was a simple one--turn the amps up loud and blow mom and dad away!

The greatest example of this, of course, is the Kingsmen's "Louie Louie," which is punk incarnate, a drunken brawl with bodies and cymbals crashing. The record is so sloppy that, after the guitar break, the vocalist interrupts too early, nearly throwing everybody off the beat into a tumbling heap. This instant of brash carelessness defined American garage-punk rock.

The punk of the '60s is the most impudent style in rock history. As the Standells' "Dirty Water" fades out, the lead singer proclaims that he's the Boston Strangler. Or, consider the vehemence of the fuzztone on rabid classics such as the Leaves' "Hey Joe," Music Machine's "Talk Talk," and Count Five's "Psychotic Reacation."

Wild Thing contained 30 of these chaotic tunes--from frat-house romps like the Swingin' Medallions' "Double Shot" to psycho stomps like Balloon Farm's "A Question of Temperature. The only collection that can compete with this one in establishing the positive energy of the much-maligned punk genre was 1972's Nuggets--Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era.

If you're looking for punk and garage records, you've come to the right place at POPKRAZY