Thee Midniters - terrific 60's LA Rock

[felser]

Despite fear of rousing the anti-nostalgia Nazi's, I wanted to share about this great box set I came across. Thee Midniters were considered by legend to be the premier 60's East L.A. Band, forerunners to Los Lobos. I have known of them for many years, but had never actually heard them. There had never been a CD collection worth getting on then. I have learned at this point to discount 60's rock obscure "legends" who I have not actually every heard on CD (burned many times in the past on this sort of thing by groups that had one great song and tons of cover-version filler), and they were primarily a covers band. But I couldn't pass up a new box set of their complete recordings, "Thee Complete Midniters - Songs of Love, Rhythm, and Psychedelia", a four CD set available for about $25 on Amazon Marketplace. And it's unbelievably good, far surpassing my expectations. Tremendous energy and chops, a spectacular vocalist (Willie Garcia has to be heard to be believed), excellent originals, and this may be THE greatest cover band in rock history (really). Their range of material was far-reaching, their taste nearly unfaltering. The box is a labor of love with replica fold-out mini-LP's, insightful liner notes, many pictures. Kudos to Microwerks records, who will make many friends but little money on this. Any other fans of this group? I'm a new one but a huge one.

I'm also enjoying the new Rhino box set "Where The Action Is", 4 CD's with 101 songs of 1965-1968 L.A. rock, most of which are obscurities I've never heard. Even the items by the well-known groups are things you likely won't be familiar with, tying them into the sound of the project. Great fun, whatever the allocations of "art" or "nostalgia" for another time and place which bursted with seeming possibilities which have since vanished.

[Quincy]

Thanks for the review. The LA Nuggets box is on my hunting list but I've only read about Thee Midniters. Sounds interesting.

[kenny weir]

Despite fear of rousing the anti-nostalgia Nazi's, I wanted to share about this great box set I came across. Thee Midniters were considered by legend to be the premier 60's East L.A. Band, forerunners to Los Lobos. I have known of them for many years, but had never actually heard them. There had never been a CD collection worth getting on then. I have learned at this point to discount 60's rock obscure "legends" who I have not actually every heard on CD (burned many times in the past on this sort of thing by groups that had one great song and tons of cover-version filler), and they were primarily a covers band. But I couldn't pass up a new box set of their complete recordings, "Thee Complete Midniters - Songs of Love, Rhythm, and Psychedelia", a four CD set available for about $25 on Amazon Marketplace. And it's unbelievably good, far surpassing my expectations. Tremendous energy and chops, a spectacular vocalist (Willie Garcia has to be heard to be believed), excellent originals, and this may be THE greatest cover band in rock history (really). Their range of material was far-reaching, their taste nearly unfaltering. The box is a labor of love with replica fold-out mini-LP's, insightful liner notes, many pictures. Kudos to Microwerks records, who will make many friends but little money on this. Any other fans of this group? I'm a new one but a huge one.

Thanks for the heads up on this. I've been on a '60s kick for a while, and this kind of plug helps sort the wheat from chaff!

After a quick look around my regular price comparison outlets, the best I've found is $27.33 from cdconnection.

[AllenLowe]

there's a whole chapter on them in one of Richie Unterberger's books:

Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers: Overlooked Innovators & Eccentric Visionaries of '60s Rock

Edited October 5, 2009 by AllenLowe