BATTLE OF THE GARAGES, PART 2
The blog entry on the Crawdaddys is headlined: “In a Ché Underground exclusive, Ray Brandes offers the first comprehensive history of San Diego’s original retro-visionaries.” Ray Brandes was previously a member of the Mystery Machine, which contributed a mind-bogglingly great song called “She’s Not Mine” (written by Carl Rusk) to a Voxx Records garage rock band “competition” called Battle of the Garages, Part 2.
(January 2015/2)
* * *
The Mystery Machine was formed in 1982 by veterans of several other like-minded bands like the Hedgehogs, the Crawdaddys, and Manual Scan. Bandmembers included Ray Brandes (vocals), Carl Rusk (acoustic and electric guitar), Mark Zadarnowski (bass guitar), Bill Calhoun (keyboards, saxophone), and David Klowden (drums). The band stayed together only about one month, but that was long enough to create one of my long-time favorites called “She’s Not Mine” that was included on three different Bomp! Records/Voxx Records compilation albums: Battle of the Garages, Part 2, The Roots of Power Pop, and Destination: Bomp!.
(September 2017)
* * *
Another song by SS-20, “No Matter What” is included on one of the Battle of the Garages albums on Voxx Records, specifically Battle of the Garages, Vol. III (1984). I don’t have any of the original Battle of the Garages albums, but I do have a compilation album that collects songs from Vol. III and Vol. IV among these albums, Battle of the Garages, Part II (1993) that has a nearly identical cover to Battle of the Garages, Vol. III. SS-20 did not make the cut for Battle of the Garages, Part II, but the song does appear on SS-20 with Sky Saxon.
(December 2017)
