The Stems Rank Their Top Five Garage Punk Bands

With a 40th anniversary tour on the way and a live album out today for Western Australia icons The Stems, frontman Dom Mariani is taking The Music through his top five garage punk bands.

1. The Electric Prunes

The Electric Prunes have always been my favourite and a big inspiration since discovering them in the early eighties, by way of a cassette I’d found in a record store bargain bin. This was their second album, Underground, released in ’67. The album is a masterpiece, full of great songs and a wonderful Dave Hassinger production. Their amazing single, I Had too Much to Dream (Last Night), also known as the opening track to Lenny Kayes' Nuggets compilation, is, to my mind, one of the greatest garage psych songs of all time. A personal thrill for me was sharing the stage with them at Little Steven's Underground Garage Festival in 2004 and meeting and sharing the ferry ride back from Randall Island to Manhattan with singer Jim Lowe and bass player Mark Tulin after the concert. Who would have thought?

2. The Music Machine

They’re a very unique sounding band that was pushing the envelope with a harder rock sound and unconventional song arrangements. I’ve always thought that these guys were the pioneers of proto-punk and heavy metal. Sean Bonniwell's deep throaty vocals and the killer fuzztone guitar add to the idea. Their classic Talk Talk that clocks in at just under 2 minutes is a wild ride, and other nuggets like The Eagle Never Hunts the Fly, Trouble, and The People in Me are great examples of their dark, wild, and menacing sound.

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3. The Seeds

Another personal fave out of California who had their own unique sound. No other band sounded like The Seeds. They embraced the whole psychedelic flower-power thing of the time and took the craze to a whole other level. Sky Saxon’s enigmatic persona and unique vocal style along with Daryl Hoopers' electric piano on their hit single Pushin’ Too Hard pretty much distills the band's signature, raw and uncomplicated sound. One of those songs that I still get a buzz from no matter where and when I happen to hear it.

4. The Masters Apprentices

My all-time favourite and to my mind the coolest Aussie band of all time is The Masters Apprentices. Most people would know them for their 70’s hits Turn Up Your Radio and Because I Love You, but their earlier hits like Undecided, War or the Hands of Time, Buried and Dead, and Elevator Driver are pure garage punk and psych pop workouts. The Masters have an impressive body of work spanning from the mid 60’s to the early 70’s. They moved with the times quite successfully from garage and psych pop to heavy progressive rock.

5. The Lyres

Thought I’d leave the 60’s and look to the garage rock revival/Paisley Underground scene of the mid to late eighties. The Lyres were contemporaries of The Stems, having existed around the same. Their debut album On Fyre and the EP with She Pays the Rent made them one of the stand-out groups of all the '60s styled garage bands of that time. Great songs like Don't Give It Up Now, She Pays the Rent and Help You Ann are as good as gets for 60’s inspired garage rock, and like The Stems, they also found an enthusiastic audience in Europe and Japan.