The Hypstrz - Hypstrz (2005/2012)

It's ironic that '60s revivalist bands often produce records that are as rare and difficult to find as the records from which their material is sourced. Such is the case for this Midwest band's fantastic 1980 Bomp LP, "Hypstrization!" Despite the backing from Bomp, the album went unnoticed by many ardent garage rock fans, only to attain a level of cult desirability among collectors in later years. The band themselves were an anachronism, reviving mid-60s garage rock in the teeth of late-70s punk, thrilling and confounding audiences in fraternal halls, local ballrooms and bowling alleys throughout the upper Midwest. What made it work, and what comes across so clearly on these live recordings, is that the group was fully committed to the sounds they produced, and the fuel of fellow punk bands (both local like The Suicide Commandos, and god-like, such as The Ramones) made their snarling, thrashing garage rock a lot more than a pose.

Bomp's original LP is included in full as this CD's opening 15 tracks. It's a sweaty evening of garage rock classics - whether or not they were garage rock in the first place. In addition to mid-60s punk anthems like "Riot on Sunset Strip," "Talk Talk" and "96 Tears," the band revs up the soul side "In the Midnight Hour" and "I Go Crazy," and takes The Small Faces' "All or Nothing" out for a heartfelt spin. The non-stop assault, punctuated by occasional song count-offs, follows the performance template the band picked up from The Ramones, as does their combination of hammering guitars topped with melodic vocals.

This reissue expands upon the original LP with 18 additional live selections from the same pair of nights at Jay's Longhorn. These extra tracks include more garage-ified soul/funk tunes ("Hold on I'm Coming" "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag"), Nuggets/Pebbles standards ("Action Woman" "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White"), well-picked British Invasion winners ("Come See Me" "66-5-4-3-2-1" and "I'm Not Talking"), rockabilly rave-ups (Eddie Cochran's "C'mon Everybody"), and some '60s chart oddities (Sgt. Barry Sandler's "Ballad of the Green Berets" and The Shangri-Las "Remember (Walking in the Sand"). Closing out the collection is a trio of live tracks waxed in 2004 (including a stomping of The Sonics' "The Witch"), proving that the band rocks just as frenetically now as they did twenty-five years ago. This is a must have for garage rock fans, original or neo.