Five Years Ahead of My Time

April 1, 2019

Musician Bovey (English, Louisiana State Univ. at Alexandria) enthusiastically romps through the history of guitar-driven, feedback-infused garage rock. He starts with such precursors of the broadly defined genre as the Wailers, the Kingsmen, the Sonics, the Trashmen, and the distorted surf-garage of Dick Dale. Turning to the mid-Sixties heyday of garage bands, which arose in the wake of the British Invasion, the author considers the folk garage of the Byrds, the Stones-inspired Chocolate Watchband, the psychedelic garage of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, girl garage groups, and garage bands around the world. Bovey continues with the garage band revival, which emerged from the ceaseless promotion of journalists such as Lester Bangs and Lenny Kaye's Nuggets (1972) and Greg Shaw's Pebbles compilation series (1979). The work ends with garage rock revivalists such as the Cramps, the Chesterfield Kings, the Lyres, the White Stripes, and the Black Keys. VERDICT Though not exhaustive and sometimes stretching the limits of the genre with such subcategories as folk garage, this fascinating and informative book builds upon the pioneering work of Richie Unterberger (Unknown Legends of Rock 'n' Roll). Will appeal to rock fans.--David P. Szatmary, formerly with Univ. of Washington, Seattle

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.