10 years ago Rhino released two fine 24-track CD compilations, Come to the Sunshine and Hallucinations, both subtitled “Nuggets from the WEA Vaults.” These compilations made thematic sense and included a lot of unfamiliar music. The sound was consistent as most of the songs came from the Warner Bros./Reprise labels, with a smattering from labels like Cotillion, Atco and Valiant.
I was hoping this approach would be repeated for this 3 CD set, Dig That Underground Sound! Rare Garage Rock from the Vaults of Warner Bros., Elektra & Atlantic Records. It’s a well-programmed selection of music, mixing familiar songs with the obscure, but that’s about the only thing I like about this release.
Unfortunately, there’s no unifying theme to this compilation. “Farmer John” follows “Black Roses”, and is followed by the Association. Most selections are singles, but then there are album cuts by the Fugs and Iron Butterfly. A few UK singles are mixed in, for no particular reason other than that they were released on Atco or Elektra. There are even a couple Flamin’ Groovies cuts from 1976, originally released on Sire!
Nor is there anything approaching ‘rare’ on this set. The only song that hasn’t already been reissued on CD is the Waphphle’s “I Want You”, which is hardly essential. There are no previously unreleased tracks. 13 tracks appeared on Rhino’s earlier CD set, Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets: 1965-1968 including the most inspired choices of obscure songs, such as “The Rebel Kind” by Dino, Desi & Billy, and “Come Alive” by the Things to Come.
A third of the selections come from the Warner Bros./Reprise labels, including oft-reissued fare by the Electric Prunes, the Music Machine and the Premiers. This set would have benefited from songs like the Magic Mushroom’s “I’m Gone”, the New Order’s “Why Can’t I” & “Meet Your Match”, and the Gates of Eden “Elegy”, all originally released on Warner Bros and never officially reissued.
Other than three songs from Love, Elektra is only represented by Leviathan’s “Remember the Times”, Clear Light and the Waphphle (the undeserving “I Want You” instead of the better “Goin’ Down”).
Atlantic/Atco provides the Vagrants (three songs), The Common Cold, Rose Garden, Iron Butterfly, and a couple UK artists: Vamp (“Floatin'”) and Sharon Tandy. The rest of the tracks are from other labels controlled by Warner Music Group, such as Dunwich, Mustang, Roulette, Mira, Original Sound, Autumn, many of which are good selections.
The sound quality is generally good but suffers on certain tracks, such as the Shadows of Knight’s “I’m Gonna Make You Mine” which is brittle and lacking in bass. The clipping was obvious when I opened the file up in an audio editor.
Other than a few nice Record Store Day 7″s, the Rhino Custom imprint seems to specialize in unexciting rehash of old music. The six page booklet has short bios on the three primary labels and ten of the bands. It’s a cheap package, but at 15 tracks per CD, it’s not even a bargain.
First off, I’d like to say thank you for taking the time to review “Dig That Underground Sound.” I did want to provide a little more background and context into what we were trying to achieve with this 3CD release. This title is a bit unorthodox and should have probably been reviewed as such in the manner that it was created exclusively for POPmarket.com(the leading online flash deal music site) – meaning it is unavailable to anybody not signed up on the POPmarket website. You won’t find it at your local indie record store, or any other online retailers. It was on sale for 24 hours during a daily flash deal promo and is now available ongoing in the POPmarket web store. So with that said, the goal was not to re-create a new Nuggets multi-CD box set with even deeper, more obscure cuts, but rather offer a sampling of some of the stronger tracks in our repertoire that could be found on those earlier sets at a value to the consumer. As a bonus, we were able to include a few tracks not previously available on any of the previous Nuggets releases. Regarding the rarity of the tracks I can say that this is a piece clearly not aimed at your reader and that the choice of repertoire is dictated by budget, time constraints, artist/management approvals and many other factors that are usually not made transparent. In fact, several of the tracks that you mention should have been included were on a list of tracks to be cleared for use but files could not be located and we needed to work within a deadline so those tracks had to be dropped. I would disagree about this package not being a bargain. This release is a much better value than if someone wanted to assemble this release digitally on I-Tunes. Not to mention the fact that not all the tracks are currently available on I-Tunes. Plus we had to pay the original designer of the LA Nuggets box to do new artwork! And in keeping with the tradition of Rhino, the Custom Products division is actually trying to issue physical product for the collector-minded individual by targeting our releases to our client’s customer base. In summary, this is a budget-minded collection aimed at the novice that is an excellent representation of some of our classic repertoire of the genre that makes for an enjoyable listen for even the well trained garage rock aficionado.
This compilation is a perfect example as to why a bootleg market exists for this kind of material. The rights owners of the material have no idea how to market and continually fail to get over the petty money issues and licence it. I do have sympathy with those trying to licence material from owners who’s expectations are ridiculous. As a result illegal compilations frequently achieve higher standards in everything other than sound quality. I bought this because its the only legit reissue of the Vamp track which has been bootlegged many times …and is still in print on a bootleg as I type. If it wasn’t for the bootleg I wouldn’t even know of the track. I don’t accept that there is any market for this product other than specialist and specialists want quality presentation and insight which this compilation fails to deliver. Anyone with a passing interest would just stream the tracks . They wouldn’t buy a CD.
As a member of the UK band Leviathan, I was interested to see that one of our tracks “Remember the Times” has been included on this Rhino box, but at the same time disappointed that it is not generally availably through any of the normal outlets in the UK (or the US).
This will surely limit sales income for Rhino & royalties for the featured bands?
I would also like to know if there are any plans to release all of the existing Leviathan material on a CD album in the near future?
GM
Gary I tried to licence your material once from Rhino. The advance they wanted was comical. It would never have sold enough to cover the advance. Ideally what is required is a system that all major labels and rights holders sign up to where its easy to licence material that won’t sell huge quantities so at least bands see some income. Instead nothing comes out because the demands are just too great and the material just sits there doing nothing (and then gets bootlegged…which the majors do not police because its not worth it…)
Hi Richard,
I guess you are going back many years, however more recently (2012) Record Collector Mag. did manage to prise the Leviathan master tapes from Warner/Elektra for a reasonable sum, and released all of our tracks recorded in 1969 on a 750 copies limited edition vinyl double album. If you are still interested in issuing a CD compilation, then we would be very interested in hearing from you.
Gary
Hi Gary, I’m afraid I’m out of the reissue game but I bought that LP (very nice) ….. the only people worth contacting on this would be Cherry Red. Can’t think of any other label it would fit on other than US ones liked Sundazed. Richard
Hi Richard,
thanks for your comments.
We already tried Cherry Red – they don’t like dealing with Warner & Sundazed never replied .
Gary
If Cherry Red don’t deal with Warner I’m guessing its probably because of the price issue I mentioned…. They do lots with Universal. I note few people seem to licence from Warner .
R
PS I suspect that Rhino didn’t anticipate the vinyl boom when licencing that album…. Richard
can’t really comment on that.
Have you seen the MSS Greek LP released last month?
They put a really nice package together.
G
I know its out but haven’t seen a copy. Good label and the packaging is normally top quality. I presume it contains the same tracks as previous editions ? R
Yes – a selection of tracks of the 4 piece band + mysteriously 2 early ones from the 6 piece band “Follow Me” (Drifters cover) and a Stuart Hobday original “Workout”
G