The Wailers
Livewire!!!

First of all, I believe it's necessary to immediately clarify that this band has nothing to do with Jamaica, reggae, or Bob Marley.

Being a fan of 60s garage, I have always wondered if there was a band that could compete with the Sonics in terms of power and sonic violence (we're talking early 60s) and when you look, the usual groups always come up (great groups) like Kinks, The Who, Pretty Things, Yardbirds, etc. etc., it's hard to hear these Wailers mentioned, also known as Fabulous Wailers. It's also hard to hear them mentioned among the very first garage bands where Seeds, Shadows Of Knight, Sonics, Electric Prunes, etc. etc. shine. They're not even included in the cult collection of the genre, the garage bible, Nuggets.

To finally hear them mentioned, one needs to go back to the Sonics and the bands that, according to Gerry Roslie, inspired them, and foremost we find the Wailers followed by Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. It turns out that the Wailers were not among the pioneers but the very first to turn inside out the already violent rock (for the time) of Berry and Diddley. It's clear that if by '65 the Sonics were already considered too violent and dangerous, imagine the Wailers who played even more violently but in 1960, also originally from Seattle and discoverers of Roslie's group, who after hearing them convinced them to enter the studio and record the legendary single "The Witch".

As we were saying, active since 1959, the year of their debut with the album "Fabulous Wailers," but their masterpiece remains "At The Castle" from 1962. This "Livewire" is a best that represents them in the second period 65-67, inside pure dynamite: "Dirty Robber," "The Wailer" but especially two versions of "Hung Up" capable of making the hair on a dead man's ass stand up, in addition to the classic "Out of Our Tree" and a nice cover of "Mercy Mercy", in total 16 tracks.

A fundamental group capable of exploding rock before "Louie Louie" and the British Invasion, excuse if it's little, what a band guys!!