Garage Rock Revival

Contrary to the opinion of some, the garage revival isn't a new phenomenon set in hip-shaking motion by a bunch of sneering "the" bands at the start of the new millennium. Loud-and-proud acts have revisited the lo-fi guitar lashings of the '60s since the mid-'70s, when the original proto-punk pressing of Nuggets segued right into the Flamin' Groovies' truly incendiary "Shake Some Action" — the granddaddy of all garage revival records. That's why you'll find jagged pieces of the past three decades in our Basics playlist, from the demon-exorcising '80s (Lyres, the Pandoras, the Gruesomes) to the recent riff uprisings of bands like Jet and the certifiably psychedelic Brian Jonestown Massacre. As the dust clears, all we've gotta say is we haven't even started yet — plug in our Next Steps, crank 'em up, step back . . .

The best garage revival records don't scream "trend!" so much as "take cover!" Click on Caesars and the Fondas, for instance. While both bands found their feet in the post-Y2K era, "Jerk It Out" (the organ-grinding score of an iPod commercial and several popular video games) and "Wanna Be" could slip into a '60s-vintage set list without anyone questioning their authenticity. The same goes for the cover-song-driven career of the Detroit Cobras and, well, the rest of our playlist in varying degrees, including the Anglo-Canadian '80s twang of the Barracudas, the psych-damaged pop of Outrageous Cherry, and the bleary-eyed post-punk of Television Personalities. And then there's our Deep Cuts, which could easily be packaged into an Essentials playlist called Nuggets: The Next (Lost) Generation.

Never mind the names of retro rockers who stomp across our Deep Cuts playlist (although the Murder City Devils — "Rum to Whiskey" — rings a very loud bell among most indie rock fans of the late '90s). Much like the singles-driven '60s, the cultish cuts of our revivalist set are all about the song: the saw-toothed, Strokes-like swing of "Lost My Baby" by the Necessary Evils, the stacked acid-tab grooves of "My Name Is Tom" by the Jigsaw Seen, Sun Dial's icy and sinister "Plains of Nazca," the note-bludgeoning "A Better Way Down" by the Makers, and the Orchid Highway's sweetly shuddering "Next World."

With the Flamin' Groovies leading the way on their dance-or-die single "Shake Some Action," the garage-rock revival bridged the gap between Nuggets — the legendary double LP that captured first-wave garage's fiercest, finest cuts — and gleeful noisemakers like the Pandoras and the Milkshakes. Every year since has shown traces of lo-fi, kick-out-the-jams-or-go-home traditionalism, including early Rolling Stones aficionados, the Chesterfield Kings; the gnarled and nasty garage punk of the Gories, Thee Headcoats, and the Dirtbombs; and modern but mangled read-meat rock by the likes of the White Stripes, the Strokes, the Vines, and the Von Bondies.