AA.VV.
Pebbles Vol.1

After a long period during which my listening habits mainly revolved around prog, kraut, jazz, and avant-garde, lately – perhaps due to my tendency towards musical bulimia – I've been experiencing a rejection of overly elaborate/cerebral sounds and am rediscovering the joys of simple and instinctive music played without too many frills and with a lot of sweat.

Well, in my wanderings seeking sounds that could please me, I have stumbled upon a genre that I have mostly ignored until now, namely garage. Trusting the advice of the gurus in the field, who assured me that the true essence of the garage verb, more than in individual albums (not forgetting the masterpieces of groups like Monks, Cramps, 13th Floor Elevator and company), is to be found in compilations (and in the anonymity of the countless bands that played for the cause, remaining confined to basements, or emerging just in time to leave a single song for posterity), I immediately rushed to gather more information. I discovered that for most, the sacred triad in this context is composed of the Nuggets, Back from the Grave, and Pebbles compilations.

Well, since the first two seem to be out of print at the moment, and thus purchasable only at inhuman prices (while I wait to return to Italian soil where I might attempt to circumvent the availability problem by alternative means), my choice was enormously facilitated, and I opted for the first volume of Pebbles. Released in 1978 under the title Pebbles, Volume One: Artyfacts from the First Punk Era (a nod to the famous and “rival” compilation Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era), this compilation offers us the blood and sweat of 18, to the author unknown, bands (tagged in the second half of the '60s) determined to make us move our asses through an explosive combination of (post)rockabilly, (proto)punk, and (pre)psychedelia. Raw and instinctive music that goes straight to the gut, to be blasted at full volume while cruising around or dancing, with company or alone in your room, or to get drunk with friends.

Back to the roots!