THE OUTCASTS
The Outcasts are a garage rock band from San Antonio, Texas that released a total of five singles between 1965 and 1967. Their most well-known songs are “I’m in Pittsburgh (And it’s Raining)”, and “1523 Blair”; their recordings have been reissued on many compilation albums. According to the Ugly Things compilation album notes, they are the best known of at least 10 bands of this name that were active in the mid-1960’s. (More from Wikipedia)
The Outcasts is one of the truly legendary garage rock bands from the fertile territory in Texas; one of my early Wikipedia articles was on this group. They always placed high in Battle of the Bands contests and actually won the statewide competition in the seminal year of 1966. Their song “I’m in Pittsburgh (and it’s Raining)” is the opening track on Pebbles, Volume 1, the second compilation album of 1960’s garage rock and psychedelic rock music (after Nuggets). In the original liner notes, Greg Shaw calls the song “a blistering punk-rocker, which has been compared to the Pretty Things at their best”.
Galen Niles became the second lead guitarist in the Outcasts when Denny Turner joined the U. S. Army in 1966, and he played gigs with the band throughout that summer. Their last single, “1523 Blair” (released in January 1967) took the band in a different direction and is a nearly unique psychedelic rock song in that it is played at a furious pace. The song inspired the name of a future entry in the Under-Appreciated Rock Bands, a marvelous British band who released one album as Blair 1523.
A remarkable reunion and awards ceremony for 1960’s and 1970’s San Antonio bands is scheduled to take place this Sunday, September 4, 2011. Besides the Outcasts and Ultra, bands that are scheduled to appear include Bubble Puppy (who had a national hit song called “Hot Smoke and Sassafras” that I haven’t heard in ages), Swiss Movement, the Laughing Kind, and Stone Soul Clique, whose members include Chris Gerniottis, formerly of Zakary Thaks. Should be a great time!
(September 2011)
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Items: The Outcasts
