Beat Happening was among the truly seminal and influential American bands of the post-punk era, a paragon of pop minimalism, rebellious innocence, and indie defiance. The linchpin of the Olympia, WA-based International Pop Underground, they adopted a stance in direct opposition to the accepted norms at the heart of rock music; ignoring all... [+] Read More

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Few of punk rock's founding fathers could have anticipated the extreme to which Half Japanese took the music's do-it-yourself ethos. Founded by brothers Jad and David Fair, Half Japanese was quite probably the most amateurish rock band to make a record since the Shaggs, all but ignoring musical basics like chords, rhythms, and melody. However,... [+] Read More

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Jonathan Richman was one of rock's most eccentric and unpredictable cult figures, a performer whose eternally childlike public persona and seeming naiveté -- typified by songs like "Ice Cream Man," "Hey There Little Insect" and "I'm a Little Aeroplane" -- tended to obscure the dexterity and craft of his music, which skirted from garage rock to... [+] Read More

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For aficionados of Incredibly Strange Music, Lucia Pamela is a gift from God: a senior citizen who made a totally unknown, crudely recorded album in the late '60s that sounded like a garage nursing-home band. Pamela was a former Miss St. Louis and veteran entertainer with several decades of experience under her belt by the time she recorded Into... [+] Read More

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She were one of the few all-female garage psychedelic American bands of the 1960s that played their own instruments and wrote their own material, although their official output was limited to one obscure 1970 independent single. She nonetheless had a lengthy and somewhat complicated history, beginning in the mid-1960s when guitarist and primary... [+] Read More

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Thanks to their 1989 pseudo-gay album It's Only Right and Natural, the Frogs became a hip name to drop as fans like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Smashing Pumpkins ascended to superstardom in the 1990s. Milwaukee brothers Dennis (drums) and Jimmy Flemion (guitar) have an edgy sense of humor, skewering stereotypes -- sometimes racial, but mostly... [+] Read More

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The New Creation were heard by very few people in their brief lifetime, and for good reason. Their sole album was 1970's Troubled, one of countless rock "vanity" albums self-pressed during the psychedelic era. Only 100 copies were made, none were sold commercially, and it was only known to have been played on the radio once. More than that,... [+] Read More

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