The Crawdaddys - "Crawdaddy Express" (VOXX, 1979)

I know you know already, i have a bad thing going on with most moptops of the so-called 80s garage revival scene, right? OK, i know many of 'em were at least good in what they were doing BUT... I don't like fashion and to me first come the music an' not the outfits, the hair, the glasses and/or the Cuban heels. There was a band then, that started in the late 70s, right in the midst of the "trend" of punk in both sides of the Atlantic ocean, and had the GUTS and the BALLS to play rootsy, filthy bad ass R&B, the way Pretties, Them and Downliners (OK, Stones too) taught us. Hailed from America (San Diego), even though their sound was deeply soaked on those Brits mentioned above. John Peel dug them a LOT, Mike Stax in their favor dumped homeland, flew there, joined in and all the rest's by now to more of you, a well known history (Tell Tale Hearts, Ugly Things Mag etc). Their appropriate look on classic sides by John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon, Lazy Lester or Chuck Berry were SUPERB and their name of course picked up by the legendary London R&B club where the Stones and the Yardbirds started to make an impact. A punkier/punchier approach on what many pub rock bands played in England (is this punk or what?). Except for a fully influential & satisfying LP, this was VOXX's first number, the child label of Greg Shaw's Bomp!, almost entirely responsible for what good or bad came out from then til now under the term of 'Garage'! Recorded on a friend's of Greg Shaw (what else?) garage for the total production cost of 12$!!! Hear this platter and come tell me back if you still consider the Fuzztones or the Chesterfields as the best...