Genre: Rock/Pop
Decades Active: 60s, 70s, 80s
Featuring the yelping vocals and visionary, occasionally demented lyrics of Roky Erickson, the 13th Floor Elevators were one of the original acid rock bands. Formed in Texas in the mid-'60s, the Elevators started as a garage rock outfit, scoring their one and only modest national hit with "You're Gonna Miss Me." While Erickson's loopy persona,... [+] Read More
Genre: Rock/Pop
Decades Active: 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s
Big Brother are primarily remembered as the group that gave Janis Joplin her start. There's no denying both that Joplin was by far the band's most striking asset, and that Big Brother would never have made a significant impression if they hadn't been fortunate enough to add her to their lineup shortly after forming. But Big Brother also occupies... [+] Read More
Genre: Rock/Pop
Decades Active: 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s
San Francisco-based Blue Cheer was what, in the late '60s, they used to call a "power trio": Dickie Peterson (b. 1948, Grand Forks, ND) (bass, vocals), Paul Whaley (drums), and Leigh Stephens (guitar). They played what later was called heavy metal, and when they debuted in January 1968 with the album Vincebus Eruptum and a Top 40 cover of Eddie... [+] Read More
Genre: Rock/Pop
Decades Active: 60s, 70s
Featuring two strong singers (who often sang dual leads), hauntingly hazy arrangements, and imaginative songwriting that drew from pop and folk influences, H.P. Lovecraft was one of the better psychedelic groups of the late '60s. The band was formed by ex-folky George Edwards in Chicago in 1967. Edwards and keyboardist Dave Michaels, a... [+] Read More
Genre: Rock/Pop
Decades Active: 60s, 70s, 90s
One of Minneapolis' most popular '60s bands, the Litter are most known for their classic 1967 garage rock single "Action Woman." With its demonic fuzz/feedback guitar riffs and cocky, snarling lead vocal, it was an archetype of the tough '60s garage rock favored by fans of the Pebbles reissue series. In fact, the single, which got some airplay... [+] Read More
Genre: Rock/Pop
Decades Active: 60s
Before forming ZZ Top, Billy Gibbons was the lead guitarist of this Houston, TX, group, which released one album and a few singles in the late '60s. Their single "99th Floor" became one of the most famous vintage garage 45s after its inclusion on Pebbles, Vol. 2, but the Sidewalks actually leaned much more heavily toward psychedelic and... [+] Read More
Genre: Rock/Pop
Decades Active: 60s
This obscure San Francisco '60s band gained a degree of notoriety in the '80s when their punk-garage single "Mr. Pharmacist" was included on one of Rhino's Nuggets compilations and covered by the Fall. Actually, most of the Other Half's material was far less garage than psychedelic, featuring the sustain-laden guitar of Randy Holden, one of the... [+] Read More
