My homie DJ 12XU is one of my favorite local DJs. And its not just because he’s a good friend either. No, it’s due more to the fact that he’s the sort of dude who could have records from The Clash, Cutty Ranks, Radiohead, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Donna Summer, MF Doom, Nelly Furtado or Black Star in his set on any given night.
His selection of vinyl is nutty! He’s got just as many, if not more, rare Punk 7′’s, weird Noise records and bugged out Psyche joints in his collection as he does Hip-Hop 12′’s, Funk 45s and other dancefloor-friendly disc jockey ephemera. And that shouldn’t be too surprising since he’s named after a seminal Punk tune.
It was always a treat having him sit in on the now-defunct Dusty Grooves radio program Emeyesi and I used to host. He’d play a lot of Funk and Soul, per the show’s usual flavor. But he’d also delve into his freaked-out Rock and Punk sides, educating our listeners about the intersection of psychedelic Rock, Garage-Rock Metal, Ska, Dub, Punk and Hardcore.
Inevitably the in-studio conversation would turn to the origins of Punk-Rock. Bands like The Stooges and Detroit’s revolutionary Rock crew MC5 would be bandies about. And, somewhat inexplicably the name Question Mark & The Mysterians would come up and the discussion would veer off into bald-faced praise for the band’s mega-hit “96 Tears,” incredulity at the bandleader’s eccentricities and rabid shit-talking the “art” of music journalism and music criticism.
So, what does a Garage-Rock band formed by a group of sci-fi-inspired Mexican American teens–one of whom to this day never appears in public without sunglasses, alleges that he is in fact a Martian, and legally changed his name to “?”–whose claim to fame is a familiar staple of Oldies radio have to do with Punk music? Well, only one of the aforementioned practitioners of music criticism–namely Dave Marsh, who coined the term “punk rock” in a 1971 Creem magazine article about the band–could rightfully answer that.
Whatever Marsh was thinking when he made that landmark pronunciation it’s not so great a stretch to recognize how a groundbreaking Garage Rock band from Michigan–notably the same state that produced both The Stooges and MC5–might make an easy addition to the Proto-Punk pantheon. Though in the case of The Mysterians, particularly on their breakthrough recordings, I think their “punkiness” is most evident in their attitude, and their unencumbered ferocity, than their sound itself.
If you’re only familiar with their million-selling debut single “96 Tears” you might think you’re not qualified to agree or disagree with such notions. But that song’s squealing carnival-style organ riffing and sizzling stove-top groove are pretty emblematic of the band’s sound on their first two LPs, 96 Tears and Action. And the song’s snotty “you’re gonna get yours” lyric is a fantastic example of what comparatively conservative minds during the 1960s might have viewed as the callous attitude of a “young punk.”
I’ve been a lifelong fan of “96 Tears” but lately I’ve become particularly enamoured of the Action LP. Released only a short while after their hitmaking debut, the band is still laying down churning, sloppily funky Garage grooves, largely influenced by chintzy organ Pop, campy Bubblegum & gritty Southern Soul, and dominated by the sounds of the Farfisa and Vox organ. But they build on that foundation, and their organ driven sound, by stretching out into fuzzier psychedelic territory, likely inspired by the sounds emerging from the UK and California’s Bay Area at the time, on the standout opener “Girl (You Captivate Me).”
Bread and butter tunes like “Got To,” “It’s Not Easy,” “Smokes,” the frenetic “Do You Feel It,” “Just Like a Rose,” “Can’t Get Enough of You Baby,” the drum-n-bass-heavy “Don’t Hold It Against Me” and their stellar rendition of the Isley Brothers‘ chestnut “Shout” with their rinky-dink organs and twangy guitars, sound as if they were cooked up by the likes of Booker T. & The M.G.’s or the Bar Kays at Stax’s Memphis studios. And Question Mark’s vocals on these tracks can shift from a raspy soulful shout interspersed with almost preacher-like spoken testifying that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a Volt label 45 or maybe an Animals record, to saccharine-sweet crooning and high falsetto a-la Tommy James and Tommy Roe.
Both 96 Tears and Action had long been out of print and unavailable on CD with the group’s former label Cameo Parkway (whose entire catalog was being kept under lock & key) even refusing to license the recordings for compilations. But in 2005 the label finally relented and a double-dip set titled The Best of 1966-1967 which features both albums in their entirety plus a couple of bonus cuts and alternate takes is now available for anybody who wants to hear what it sounded like when “punks” first started to “rock.”
