The Flamin' Groovies and the Groggs

One of America's greatest, most influential, and legendary cult bands, Flamin' Groovies came out of the San Francisco area in 1965 playing greasy, bluesy, rock'n'roll dashed with a liberal sprinkling of British Invasion panache, in an era soon to be dominated by hippie culture and hyperextended raga-rock freakouts. Caught in a double bind of playing the wrong kind of music at the wrong time (as well as not looking the part), the Groovies were almost completely forgotten as the Fillmore/Avalon Ballroom scenes, dominated by the Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, et al., rendered them anachronistic. The plain truth, however, was that despite not being in tune with the zeitgeist, the Groovies made great music, and managed to sustain a career that lasted for over two decades.

The Groggs hail from Santa Cruz and play an amalgam of vintage rock in the tradition of their wide-ranging influences but tend to favor the early garage-punk spirit of bands such as The Seeds, The Stooges, Them, The Standells, Hasil Adkins and a healthy dose of late '70s street sensibility. Always the social chameleon, this group adapts to its audience whether slumming it up in punk mayhem or masquerading in the parlors of high society. But at home the sound resembles a rollercoaster ride through the fading annals rock and roll, with a penchant for over-the-top reinterpretation.