1960s Northfield Garage Rock: The Night Crawlers

I was having a chat with an old guy the other day and we came to the subject of local bands that were active in the 1960s. A former student of Carleton College in the ‘60s, he brought up a band that I hadn’t heard of yet–The Night Crawlers. 

The Night Crawlers were a band formed in Northfield, MN in 1965 made up of students from Carleton College and evidently Owatonna High School, too. The lineup consisted of Marc Reigel (Class of ‘67) on piano and organ, Mark Headington (Class of ‘67) on bass, Mike Jines on guitar, Bill Redeker on drums, and Barry Gillespie on vocals.

 

Image taken by David Gray during 1965-1967 uploaded by Carl Grad on Flickr

They released only one 45 in 1966 with the songs “You Say” written by Barry Gillespie and “Night Crawlin’” written by Marc Reigel and Mark Headington. It’s not bad garage rock at all, though it leans more toward folk-rock and has a jangle-pop quality that makes this single stand out a bit more stylistically compared to the other Twin Cities garage bands of the time. 

The Night Crawlers also have a Facebook page and despite having disbanded have gotten back together multiple times throughout the years. There's also a great album of pictures from then and now of the band taken by David Gray and Ken Wedding uploaded on Flickr. 

You Say/Night Crawlin’ (1966)

1960s New Ulm Garage Bands: The Fabulous Depressions and The Shags

I’m not sure how great of a name “The Fabulous Depressions” is for a band, but it’s memorable! 

The Fabulous Depressions

The Fabulous Depressions were a band out of New Ulm (which is small now and was even smaller then) that formed in 1964 and presumably played until around the late ‘60s with their first and only 45 being released in 1967. The original lineup consisted of Phil Groebner on lead guitar, Peter Kitzberger on organ, Jim Dauer on bass, Tom Lindsay on vocals, and John Tretault on drums. Greg DeBerry was also the band’s drummer for some time in 1966, but both he and Tretault left that year and were replaced by John Ginkel of The Shags. Randy Evans was also a vocalist for some duration of time.

“Can’t Tell You / One By One” is a pretty typical ‘60s garage record. Side A looks like it’s an original written by lead guitarist Phil Groebner and bassist Jim Dauer. Side B is a cover of the song “One by One” originally by the Blues Magoos.

Can't Tell You / One By One (1967)

The Shags

The Shags, not to be confused with the many other garage bands across the country that performed under the same name, also hailed from New Ulm and released one 45 in 1966. It contains a cover of “Louis Louis” with not much singing and more of a focus on the guitar. It sounds like they had fun at least, the energy is good despite it being a bit of a slower cover than what you’d typically hear or expect. Side A is a cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues,” which I haven’t found or heard yet. I can imagine that they brought a good energy to the tune, likely with more of a focus on the guitar response to the vocals.

Louis Louis (1966)

The Good Idea, Thundertree, and Billy Hallquist

Here’s a single released by The Good Idea, a garage rock band from St. Cloud that formed in 1967 and disbanded in 1968. I couldn’t find too much on these guys, and they only released one 45 in 1968. The Good Idea featured saxophonist and lead vocalist Bob Blank, guitarist Dave Linder, keyboardist John Miesen, drummer Rick LiaBraaten, and guitarist Billy Hallquist. I was unable to find the first track off of the 45, “Patterns in Life,” but did find “Inside, Outside,” which is a pretty solid garage/psychedelic tune. 

Inside, Outside (1968)

Billy Hallquist, Rick LiaBraaten, and John Miesen continued on in the psychedelic rock band Thundertree from 1968 to 1971. They released one album in 1970, produced by the organist/keyboardist John Miesen and with a cover illustration by Ely Besalel, who has had quite a prolific design career. Side two of the record (starting with “1225”) is perhaps a bit more exciting than side one. It ends on a good note with “The Sun is Shinin’ for Me.”

Thundertree

Thundertree (1970)

After The Good Idea and Thundertree, Billy Hallquist released two folk albums in 1972 and 1976. They’re pretty typical ‘70s acoustic folk records and not as exciting as his previous work. The final track off of Persephone titled “Persephone” is good, so if you just listen to one of his songs go with that one. It could be seen as a bit more of a psychedelic folk tune. It wraps up the album in a similar way “The Sun is Shinin’ For Me” wraps up that Thundertree album. The first track “Desert Rats” could be a good listen on a road trip, leisurely stroll, bus ride, or day in the park. 

I’m not as big of a fan of his second album Travelin’, so I’m deciding not to include it here. It’s available on Spotify and YouTube. “Ballad of a Poor Man” is decent, Hallquist is at his best making those longer tracks. You’ll especially notice the religious themes.

Bill Hallquist

Persephone (1972)

1960s Minneapolis Prog Rock Band: Jokers Wild

Not to be confused with the British rock band of the same name that featured guitarist David Gilmour!

Jokers Wild is a personal local favorite of mine, especially with Lonnie Knight as a writer and lead vocalist. I originally discovered the band last winter by picking up Lonnie Knight’s 1974 album Family in the Wind at a record store in St. Louis Park while looking through some cheap ‘70s folk LPs. The Minneapolis address on the bottom back of the record sleeve for Symposium Records at 315 East Franklin, which is about a block away from Electric Fetus and from which another album I own by Leo Kottke (Circle 'Round the Sun (1970)) was also manufactured and distributed, piqued my interest.

Family in the Wind

The band consisted of an excellent lineup of Twin Cities musicians, featuring members from other well known local groups such as The Litter and Crow and originally formed by the bassist and guitarist of The He-Too’s/The Aardvarks. Starting originally as a five piece group in the fall of ‘65 (just a year after the Jokers Wild in Britain formed) it eventually became a trio in ‘68 ‘til ‘69, later becoming Flash Tuesday in 1970 and then had a few short revivals in ‘71.

The original lineup via Minniepaulmusic.com

In late ‘66/early ‘67 two original members of the band, lead vocalist Dave Wagner and keyboardist Dave Middlemist, departed to join South 40 (which later became Crow) and shortly after Lonnie Knight joined as lead vocalist. Greg Springer also joined after a year as a keyboardist with Illusions. A few months later, they released a 45 through Metrobeat with the songs “All I See Is You” (written by Lonnie Knight (this song also appears on two compilation albums: The Best of Metrobeat (1990) and Garage Beat ‘66 (2007)) and “I Just Can’t Explain It” (written by Bill Jordan, the lead guitarist). Throughout ‘68 there were more changes to the lineup as it vacillated between being a four piece and three piece group before solidifying as a trio in the fall and gaining wider popularity.

There were multiple attempts at getting a record deal and producing an album, but many of these attempts ended up falling through. In May of ‘69 the band opened for Creedence Clearwater Revival at a show in Minneapolis and were later invited to join CCR’s Southern US Tour, but that unfortunately ended up coinciding with Tom Fogerty’s departure from the band and the tour was canceled–another opportunity hitting a dead end.

After Jokers Wild, Lonnie Knight went on to pursue a solo career, releasing his first album Family in the Wind in 1974 and playing as a studio musician at Sound 80 Recording Studio throughout the '70s.

Lonnie Knight sometime in the early/mid '70s, promotional photo by David Anthony for Symposium Records

The band name “Jokers Wild” was apparently suggested by Doni Larson of the Underbeats (a connection to the previous post). It’s reasonable that Larson wouldn’t’ve been familiar with the other band across the pond. According to Minniepaulmusic.com, the name came up as an idea during a card game, relating it to a wild card, a joker card.

While Minneapolis had quite the music scene in the 1960s, Jokers Wild sticks out from the other garage, rock, and psychedelic groups of the time with their progressive sound and spread of original songs. They apparently had quite the stage show too, with a lot of equipment and accompanying psychedelic lights. Photographs of them from the late '60s also pop up now and then in relation to ‘60s psychedelic mens’ fashions. I was particularly drawn to the photographs taken in the summer of ‘68 with Lonnie Knight, Pete Huber, and Denny Johnson wearing brightly colored nehru shirts and flared pants, of course.

Late '60s psychedelic fashions via psychedelicbabymag.com

Like many great bands of this era, their music isn’t the easiest to find all in one place or convenient for listening, although Liquid Giraffe is available on CD and vinyl after a release in 2013 if you can get your hands on it. Here’s a selection of Jokers Wild tunes in one place for ease of listening:

Download

1960s Twin Cities Garage Band: The Underbeats

The Underbeats were a garage band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1962 originally composed of guitarist and vocalist Russ Hagen (replaced by Ray Berg in '63, then Enrico Rosenbaum in '66), guitarist Jim Johnson, bassist Doni Larson, and drummer Bob Duane (replaced by Rod Eaton in '63, then Tommy Nystrom in '65).

From a basement to the circuit of ballrooms, dances, civic centers, roller rinks, teen clubs, and other spaces where a Twin Cities youth could find bands and live music the Underbeats found popularity and fans across the Twin Cities area, becoming a hit band of the Midwest by the mid-'60s. In 1964 the band scored its first 45 and its first big local hit in the song "Foot Stompin'" as well as popularity with the songs "Little Romance," "Annie do the Dog," and "Sweet Words of Love." Although they performed many covers, as were much of the songs played by garage and dance bands of the time, the Underbeats contributed their own stylistic appeal with their vocal harmonies (an excellent example of this is in their cover of "Since I Don't Have You" performed in 1967 at Bobby's Teen Club in Mendota Heights, Minnesota, as well as songs like "Book of Love"). They went on to release nine 45 singles and were even one of the local Twin Cities bands that were chosen to open for the Beatles when they played the Met Stadium in 1965 in Bloomington, Minnesota.

By 1969, after a few more changes in the line-up, the band was composed of Jim Johnson, Doni Larson, Enrico Rosenbaum, Jay Epstein, and James Walsh. With the move from Minnesota to Los Angeles there was an end to the Midwestern teen dance group The Underbeats and a start to the West Coast progressive rock group Gypsy.

It's interesting to listen to a song like "Darkness" (written by Jim Johnson and Enrico Rosenbaum and released as a single in 1968) compared to their earlier singles and then compared to the music released as Gypsy. "Darkness" has a heavier rock sound with a strong, shrieking electric guitar solo, bluesy vocals, and a distinctive lack of the vocal harmonies that characterized them in their early days. Elements of the original Underbeats can still be heard in the music of Gypsy, such as the vocal harmonies in the first track of their first self-titled album Gypsy released in 1970.

Here is a selection of songs from the Underbeats available to listen to and download:

1. Annie do the Dog (1964)

2. Book of Love (1965) (original by the Monotones in 1957)

3. Broken Arrow (1964) (original by Chuck Berry in 1959)

4. Darkness (1968)

5. Darling Lorraine (1965) (original by the Knockouts in 1959)

6. Fate of a Fool

7. Find this Woman (1967)

8. Foot Stompin' (1964) (original by the Flares in 1961)

9. Footsteps (1967)

10. I Can't Stand It (1966) (original by Smoky McAllister in 1963)

11. It's Gonna Rain Today (1967)

12. Jo Jo Gunne (1965) (original by Chuck Berry in 1958)

13. Little Romance (1964)

14. Our Love (1965)

15. Route 66 (1964) (original by Bob troup in 1946)

16. Shake it for Me (1966) (original by Willie Dixon in 1961)

17. Since I Don't Have You (live at Bobby's Teen Club in Mendota Heights, Minnesota, 1967) (original by the Skyliners in 1959)

18. Sweet Words of Love (1964)

19. Sweetest Girl in the World (1967)

20. You're Losing Me (1968)

Download