The Groundhogs

Tony McPhee's harried, shrieking guitar break that comes one minute into this 1970 album's opener, "Strange Town," is one of the great unknown moments of early '70s guitar rock. You'll be yelling "Is that guitar rock? Well, TURN IT UP!" No lie. The Groundhogs slipped into a kind of bland blues-rock coma later in their career, but when they recorded Thank Christ, they were messing with the form in a way no one else was at the time. The sound is futuristically clear, the riffs are over, under, sideways and down, and McPhee is a riveting guitar player that few people know about even today.