Raunchy Gulf Coast garage from the vaults of Huey Meaux’s Crazy Cajun empire. Sourced from master tapes. 10 tracks previously unreleased.
Maverick Texas-based producer Huey Meaux hit paydirt with Sir Doug’s ‘She’s About A Mover’ in early 1965 and immediately threw out a cattle-call in order to rope in the next bunch of teenaged longhairs who could deliver him a hit. That didn’t happen, but over the next few years he amassed a catalogue of superb grassroots punk and rock’n’roll recordings, spread across his Pacemaker, Tear Drop, Pic 1, Ventural, Capri and other imprints.
While there were occasional visitors from out of state – the Phinx from Mississippi, the Pirates from Louisiana and the Trashmen of Minneapolis – the bulk of Meaux’s acts hail from Texas, ground zero for the raunchiest, gnarliest 60s punk. Mostly taped at Gold Star in Houston or Meaux’s Pasadena Sounds facility, “Don’t Be Bad!” celebrates his garage rock legacy. All tracks are from the golden punk period of 1965-66, as Meaux’s tastes, not to mention the start of his lifelong problems with the law, precluded much investigation of the psychedelic era.
This is the first time these tracks have been officially reissued. Master tape sound on classics such as Barry & Life’s ‘Top-Less Girl’, Destiny’s Children’s ‘The Fall Of The Queen’ and the Passions’ ‘Lively One’ guarantees a punchy listen. And extensive research into the vault located at Houston’s Sugar Hill studios provided unreleased sides from the Driving Wheels, Sands, Gaylan Ladd and others.
In recent years the Ace team has enjoyed many weeks within this rarely tapped archive, blowing the dust off countless tape boxes. We were frequently joined by Texas expert Andrew Brown, who would raise his thumb in appreciation whenever a reel revealed some punk gem or gutbucket blues workout – and would just as easily point it downward if the contents proved to be schlock-y pop or wretched white gospel.
The fruit of all this pleasurable labour is now a power-packed punk set list guaranteed to impress even the most hardened 60s garage collector. Don’t be bad and miss this one!
Alec Palao
