Texas garage rock from the '60s

Texas garage rock? Yeah, this happened.

This is interesting where guitar history is concerned.

For a time, I was playing nothing but Jazzmaster guitars and learned about all things surf from the 1960s. I did some searching if there was any Texas-specific music going on during the '60s, and oh yeah, there was. But it wasn't surf. That's a California thing. Texas had a garage/punk flavor going on instead.

To be clear, this is '60s garage rock, which is very different from what most people think this style is supposed to sound like. Basically put, it's like surf rock but with a much more forward in-your-face vibe to it.

A few bands from this era are Coastliners, Y'Alls, Status Quo and Reddlemen to name a few. There were many.

This is a music style where while I'm not totally in love with it, but can still appreciate the simplicity. It is the simple nature of the songs that gives off the punk vibe more than anything else. Some bands sang while others just shouted loud into the mic.

One of the better ones to my ear is Is It a Lie by The Mysterions (very cool band name):

Here is a 42-minute collection of songs. You'll hear a ton of different guitar tones here, mostly differentiated by the amp used rather than any particular effect. Some songs have average volume coming from the amp, while on others you can clearly hear the amp was cranked up with the tubes white-hot.

It's probably true you haven't heard these particular songs before, but most likely have heard the style. Where? Movies and television.

The more you listen to this stuff, the more you recognize the style. Few of these were ever hit songs, but the style definitely made its way into motion picture soundtracks.

And, interestingly enough, it's a Texas-specific sound. You'd never peg Texas as a garage rock state, but at one point in history it absolutely was.

Published 2021 Feb 2