The Flamin' Groovies

• Genre: Garage Rock Pioneers
• Hometown: San Francisco

About

America's finest original underground band, the Flamin' Groovies had the awful luck of being rock 'n' roll adherents in an age of hippie ideology. While other bands were either broken up or strung out in France, the Flamin' Groovies stayed on the path, releasing powerful, influential rock 'n' roll records. When Epic Records went out on a limb to release Supersnazz in '68, they took a huge risk that never ended up paying off, and so the eternally out of step Groovies were left to fend for themselves throughout the '70s. They ended up making ferocious, anomalous music for an audience that had existed ten years previous and wouldn't exist again until nearly ten years later. Ardent fans pit the early '70s Roy Loney-fronted version of the band against the late '70s Chris Wilson-fronted version; and even more fans pit those versions against the incarnations devised by founding member Cyril Jordan that continue to this day. Take a listen to the furious energy of Teenage Head or the jangling folk-rock of Shake Some Action, and you won't really care what anyone says.

- Jon Pruett