Hey, man, better stock up on TAB diet soda and Bugles corn snacks because you're going to have to fortify yourself (and satisfy the munchies) as you work your way through 90 tracks of groovy hits –and misses– in this fantastic compilation of 60's music, Heroes and Villains: The Sound of Los Angeles 1965-68. [Amazon]
Sure, there's music from famous acts like The Beach Boys, the Monkees, The Byrds, Sonny & Cher, and all the usual SoCal suspects. Too many to list here.
But wait—there's more!
You'll freak out to the obscure recordings, unreleased versions, and kooky demos from all stripes of LA's surf rockers, proto-punks, garage bands, one-hit wonders, hippies and folkies. You'll get tunes from all your "favorite" 60's bands like Children of the Mushroom, The Whatt Four, and Merrell Fankhauser and H.M.S. Bounty.
Those are Heroes, so who are the Villains? The 80-page booklet by David Wells is a psychedelic encyclopedia that reads like a Tarantino movie treatment. You'll trip out to the behind-the-scenes machinations of the 60's LA music scene of hungry hustlers like Charles Manson, Casey Kasem, and Lou Adler. The booklet is crammed full with great band pics, obscure record labels ("South Bay Records"?), and vintage gig posters from the Ash Grove, the Whiskey, and other Sunset Strip clubs. Come for the tunes, but stay for the booklet—it's really great!