The Tell Tale Hearts
The Tell Tale Hearts

The substantial difference between Anglo-Saxon music and American music probably lies in the respect and awareness of their origins. While the trendiest English always have an urgent need to wipe the slate clean of everything that came before them (but only apparently, as we will see later), the Americans never lose sight of the fact that there exists a single golden thread that ties them all together, regardless of the genre they aim to express at any given time. If the original root of rock music is probably African (derived from the blues of the 1800s cotton-picking slaves), from there onwards, it becomes a series of references between the two shores of the Atlantic Ocean about the authorship of styles, also becoming a fairly amusing game to determine who the inventor is and who copied and from whom. Narrowing the scope drastically, let's think of the million-dollar question: who invented punk rock? The mass media would swear it was the London-based Sex Pistols because they - in a media sense, indeed - caused a mass social and cultural upheaval that involved not only music but also the customs and the industry linked to them. But the more informed know well that much more quietly and discreetly, people in New York like Ramones and Heartbreakers had already tackled the subject, and even before them, crazy outsiders like Electric Eels, Stooges, and New York Dolls were making punk - understood as four chords and go - without even knowing it yet. Is that the end of it? No. We must go back even further. Always the Ramones, where else would they have gotten inspiration from if not from the true punk, that of the sixties, the garage-punk indeed? Now we're talking!

To further complicate things - indeed - one could argue that garage is still a child of the British Invasion by Pretty Things, Them, and Yardbirds, as a testament to the fact that it's truly complex and perhaps useless to definitively determine a "rock paradigm". What interests me now is to say that sixties-punk - you know the names: Seeds, Chocolate WatchBand, Music Machine, Sonics... - has represented and still represents today a very important and unforgettable historical period in rock music tout court. Thousands of small bands scattered throughout the vast American province, with little money, have recorded hundreds and hundreds of 45s, which in some cases have become exclusively local hits, characterized by a wild, primal sound and genuine adolescent urgency (Count V) that in fact is punk. The importance of this music has been paid homage to multiple times over the years. Covers of Syndicate Of Sound on the first album of the punks Dead Boys, tribute by the hardcore-punk Minor Threat towards the Standells, make us understand that garage-rock has never died. Also thanks to the help of three people in particular: the late Greg Shaw patron of the record labels Voxx and Bomp, the main architect of the garage revival of the 80s, Tim Warren of Crypt, attentive to the trashier drift of the movement with the legendary albums of the "Back from the Grave" series, and Mike Stax, author of the most important sixties-oriented fanzine on the planet, "Ugly Things" as well as bassist and singer of the fabulous Tell Tale Hearts.

The story of Mike Stax is curious. Born English, a student in the 70s in Northern England, a huge fan of Rolling Stones and Yardbirds, he listens to John Peel's program on BBC and is stricken by the music of the Crawdaddys, new garage rockers from San Diego influenced by Anglo-Saxon brand rhythm and blues, architects in 1979 of the debut "Crawdaddys Express" recorded for Greg Shaw's Voxx. He contacts them, and the Crawdaddys even invite him to America to join them! In San Diego, Mike stays with the group for three years, then decides to form his own group - the Tell Tale Hearts - because evidently, he felt the need to experiment firsthand with what he felt capable of, without the restrictions imposed by being, ultimately, a session man. He couldn't have made a better choice! The Tell Tale Hearts in their early gigs were devastating! Impetuous American garage rock with an eye to the early dirty Pretty Things, characterized by a voice , his , abrasive and stinging. The 1984 debut album is masterful for how it balances perfectly the punk fervor of our guys in full respect of the sixties culture made in USA and Europe of Seeds and Pretty Things. Textbook ballads like "Keep on Trying" by the Dutch Outsiders pair with the dark "Me Needing You" by Pretty Things; still the vehement "That's Your Problem", always Outsiders, with the pounding "Won't Need Yours", the best of the lot, written by them.

With all due respect to those who believe the best works are those of Miracle Workers and Chesterfield Kings, I highlight this album as one of the five, or six essential albums of neo garage from the eighties.