Although none of the groups appearing on Where You Gonna Go?: Motor City Garage Bands 1965-1969 were household names, they were held in high esteem by music fans living in Detroit, Michigan, and its surrounding suburbs during the years the collection covers.
The lion’s share of Where You Gonna Go?: Motor City Garage Bands 1965-1969 is dedicated to the Unrelated Segments, who released a series of stupendous singles and skirted mighty close to harvesting nationwide success. Flashing a sound modeled on the Kinks, the Who, the Easybeats, and Paul Revere and the Raiders, the band wrote and waxed songs spewing angst and frustration. Assembled of tail-lashing rhythms and muscular choruses, the title cut of the disc — as well as “The Story Of My Life” and the intensely powered “Cry, Cry, Cry,” which features a dark and bluesy vocal performance worthy of Eric Burdon of the Animals — perfectly represent the group’s ability to emote and electrify.
The Unrelated Segments also tampered with folk pop in the shape of “It’s Gonna Rain,” while “Hey Love,” with its coupling of whirlybird keyboard quirks and jam-oriented guitar gymnastics, carries a sliver of a proto-progressive rock stance. From the Boys, there’s the teen crooner horn pop of “How Do You Do With Me,” a gutsy blues piece from the Unknowns called “Night Walkin’,” and the Quintette Plus check in with “Grits And Grease,” a spiffy instrumental that combines surf rock guitars with a surefire saxophone-soaked soul factor.
Skittish surf licks further fuel the fare on “I Couldn’t Care Less” by the Couriers, and the District Six’s versions of Love’s “7 And 7 Is” and Bob Seger and the Last Heard’s “East Side Story” are executed with pint upon pint of primal pulsations. Smirking and snarling with confidence and conviction, punctured with a steamy guitar solo, “Action (Speaks Louder Than Words)” from the Tidal Waves is a stone cold garage rock classic that nicks resources from both the McCoys and Paul Revere and the Raiders, and the Lykes Of Us exhibit their ballad skills on the frail but flowery “7:30 Said,” while “Tell Me Why Your Light Shines” rattles to a brisk and bubbly beat.
Rich with substance and motion, Where You Gonna Go?: Motor City Garage Bands 1965-1969 contains the sort of stuff any earnest pop or rock group from any era would be proud to claim.
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