VA - Doin' The Mod Volume Three: Maximum R&B (2001)

This mid-priced 30-song CD represents more plumbing the depths of the Pye Records catalog, and more good results. The Kinks open and close the disc, but most of the rest of the acts here are not remotely as well-known and, indeed, the vast majority of them never even came close to charting a single, much less making a major mark on rock & roll history: the Primitives, the Spectres (who later morphed into Status Quo), the Sheffields, the Brand, Peter's Faces, the 'Takers (aka the Undertakers), the Koobas, the First Gear, and more. The major influences throughout are the Who and the Kinks (with Manfred Mann and the Rolling Stones lurking around as well); a lot of what's here is highly enjoyable as well as nicely representative of the mid-'60s R&B/soul boom in England, and as none of it (other than the Kinks' tracks) ever got an airing in America, it's effectively new material to the majority of listeners on this side of the Atlantic.
That said, there's nothing revelatory here, just lots of sincere attempts at American (and American-style) soul and R&B, played mostly on crunchy, over-amplified guitars and done with a youthful sneer, and one will even find a Joe Meek-produced rarity in Reg Austin's "I'll Find Her." Fans of the Who or the Kinks, not to mention mid-'60s American garage rock, can safely raise the rating on this release by a half a point.