THE GANTS/ROAD RUNNER LRP 3432 (-65) US MONO PROMO

US teen garage outfit formed as "The Kingsman" 1963 in Greenwood, Mississippi, and first playing local events as school dances. After member changes due to some parents wouldn't allow out of town concerts they re-named to "The Gants" and got a slightly wider spread. However as the guys still attended high school or college they couldn't go all in with a musical carreer and were mostly limited to perform as supporting acts to visiting bands and then with a repertoire mainly consisting of covers. 1965 they were spotted by The Animals US manager York Noble which led to a recording of Bo Diddley's "Road Runner" for the small Statue label. After the 45 being re-released by Liberty and then selling ok in US and Australia they got the opportunity to cut this debute album. Only judging from the background story - school kids playing covers on home turf, hesitating to go further - one wouldn't expect much, maybe some kind of teenybop with occational rocking outbursts. Yet this sounds surprisingly mature garage, partly very raw and direct. "Road Runner" is downright mean. I didn't think anything could come close to Pretty Things classic version, but this is almost there in its own fuzzed way. Though "Gloria", "Bad Boy" and "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" are very faithful to the Them and Beatles versions they're so well sung and performed you just have to like them. The self-penned songs are very much in a contemporary Beatles style, but without dierctly copying and again so well sung and performed they get by. To me this is pleasant listening with top audio, the only track I could be without is of Dylan's "Don't Think Twice..." - too mellow. As a whole a good blend of salty and sweet with the slight lack of originality well balanced by a professional presentation...and worth it just for "Road Runner". To my knowledge only released in US and Canada on vinyl - also in stereo (LST 7432). German 1999 CD "Gants Galore - Road Runner" (Rock-In-Beat-Records RB 039) came with thirtyone tracks - from the band*s three albums plus three non-LP 45 cuts. The "audition record" label shown here is probably some kind of promo. The common 1st issue came on the partly colored label with gold logo to the left in a matt cover. (YZÄ*) (ÖGÄ*) (ÖXCÅ*) (ÖRJ*)