VA - Looking Stateside: 80 US R&B, Mod, Soul & Garage Nuggets (2016)

The series now takes a trip to the US of A, sixties style for its latest theme. The latest 'Looking' set travels from uptempo R&B and Early Soul to Garage Punk, Northern, Frat Rock, Proto-Psych and wild instro's. Looking Stateside goes back to the roots of the Mod scene on Disc 1. From the opening bars of Georgia Lynn's 'Sugar Shack Queen', these are the sounds you might have heard down at The Scene Club in London's Ham Yard (had Guy Stevens or other DJs have owned these tunes on import). Willie Jones is still treading the boards to this day; indeed, he issued a new album on RPM's sister label Shout a couple of years back. Disc 2 offers a superb cross-section of mid-Sixties soul, from familiar classics (Chuck Jackson, The Showmen, Don Varner) to more obscure fare (Timi Yuro, The Kampells, Richard Anthony & The Blue Notes) and a whole lotta quality in between. Often, we've chosen less familiar sides. The Newbeats, for example, are represented by the terrific but often overlooked 'I'm A Teardrop'. Disc 3 is launched with a hail of buzzsaw fuzz guitar and snotty vocals, courtesy of The Brogues' classic 'Don't Shoot Me Down', and the pace rarely lets up thereafter. Again, the compilers have married bona fide garage punk classics (the Moving Sidewalks, The Sonics, etc.) with a clutch of tracks new to CD and others which have eluded compilations of this sort.