Stage Door Witchdoctors

Considerable stretching and digging was done to compile enough material by this band to comprise an entire CD, but it's an above-average mid-'60s garage release, with a more authentic-sounding British R&B/rock feeling than most such non-U.K. efforts of the era. In addition to both sides of their singles, it includes the 1964 demo "I Forgot How It's Been" (the only original on the disc other than "I Want Her"); covers of "Come See Me," "Early in the Morning," and "Mystic Eyes" that were outtakes from the session for their second single; an unreleased version of Them's "One Two Brown Eyes" from 1967; four songs, in rough fidelity, from a 1966 live show; and a 1966 spoken interview. The audio on some of the studio tracks, actually, is less than stellar, with some surface noise peeping through, but it's quite listenable and certainly not a problem. "I Want Her" remains the highlight of their slim discography, largely since it was their most original outing, but even on the covers they have an appealing raw energy that will get a thumbs-up from fans of the Pretty Things and similar raw mid-'60s British groups. Incidentally, although "That's the Way It's Got to Be" is credited to "copyright control," it is actually a cover of an original song from the second single by the Poets, Scotland's best 1960s group.