Sub-subtitled “The IN sound of 60s Connecticut”, there’s little doubt that, in reality, you couldn’t have got much further out (of public favour, that is) than the likes of The Fourth Ryke. It’s a curiously random rewriting of history that sees these high-school dropouts local hits, misses and unreleased demos take their place on CD racks in 2008. Entirely welcome, mind, because it seems no matter how far you zoom in on a mid- 60s American map, outcrops of superior snotty I Can Only Give You Everythings just keep on appearing.
So, in real life these cats’ lives consisted of shelf-stacking frustration, long-hair outcast status and inevitable sexual rejection, but for two minutes 40 years ago, these losers had grounds for hope, and may even in their own minds have made King Of The Hop. Twenty-two tracks split unevenly between eight back-lot smoking’n’drinking gangs see The Lively Ones win the battle of the bands with Too Many Lies, though Uranus & The Five Moons claim all-important bragging rights for stupidest name.
