The Flamin' Groovies

By the mid-seventies, veteran San Francisco rockers the Flamin' Groovies had lost frontman
Roy Loney, who piloted the group's ferocious, Stones-y LPs Flamingo (1970) and Teenage
Head (1971). Seeking inspiration, leader-by-default Cyril Jordan trekked the band to the
U.K. The result was the keen neo-Merseybeat metamorphosis of 1976's Shake Some Action,
on which the Groovies wear their newfound influence on the sleeves of their m... More >

So authentic that producer Dave Edmunds has reverted to the muddy mix--kinda like the Beatles or the Byrds or the Flamin Groovies. Actually, what it sounds like is mono electrically rechanneled for stereo. The Flamin Groovies were Haight-Ashbury enough to exploit aural distance in the service of a sly, spaced-out obliqueness, but these guys, deprived of singer-composer Roy A. Loney and making their way as an English pop-revival band, get their kicks by playing dumb. This compiles their best recent work and includes some good songs. But only cultists will ever hear them. (Grade - B)