The Boulders Series: Vol. 1-7 (Rest Of The Volumes Coming Soon)

Another bit of a history lesson, kids.

This is the legendary series of DIY discs put out by one David Gibson, originally of Los Angeles, then Springfield, Oregon. In early 1977, a friend gave him an old record-cutting lathe. Wanting to play around with it, Dave decided to start a label. Thus was conceived, Moxie Records. The first releases were old '60s favourites, such as The Chocolate Watchband, The Tongues of Truth, The Sons of Adam, and The Rogues. Each came with a cheaply-printed picture sleeve. As Dave dug deeper and deeper into '60s Garage Punk records at swap meets and collectors' shows, he subsequently released various EP's on Moxie: a Surf EP, a Folk Rock EP, rare early Frank Zappa productions, etc. But of course, the reason we're here is for the collection mentioned in the header. The chronology, is pretty simple: in 1973, Jac Holzman and Lenny Kaye release Nuggets. In 1979, Greg Shaw put out Pebbles. A year later, came Dave Gibson's Boulders. They were raw; they were crude. Instead of remastering the cuts in a studio, Dave used the cheapest vinyl he could find. The sound quality was atrocious, and the cover art was nothing but photocopies of Polaroids and photocopies. Many of the albums weren't even sequenced. Having said that, tough, Dave was the first to uncover a lot of extremely rare, one-off '60s punk rarities. Many of the gems found here were later reissued elsewhere.

Once again, I got lazy and decided to crib the following descriptions from another site (hey...at least I'm honest about lying).

BTW: I'll post Volumes 8-11 as soon as I get the chance.

Cheers.





(VA) Boulders - Vol. 1 (1980):
One of the earliest series, dating from '79-80 and issued by Cal collector Dave Gibson. Hasn't got the best reputation but this first volume is a classic with every track a winner. A reissue is or was available. Essential to any punk fan.

1	The Jolly Green Giants	Caught You Red Handed	2:11
2	The Beatin' Path	Original Nothing People	2:03
3	The Chylds	Hay Girl	2:25
4	The Hysterics	Won't Get Far	2:03
5	The Hysterics	Everything's There	2:13
6	The Avengers	Be A Caveman	1:53
7	The Fifth Order	Goin' Too Far	2:41
8	Smoke Rings	Love's The Thing	2:00
9	The New Wing	I Need Love	1:59
10	Sur Royal Da Count & The Parliaments	Scream Mother Scream	2:49
11	The Centurys	Hard Times	2:26
12	The Colony	All I Want	2:32
13	The Caravelles	Lovin' Just My Style	3:03
14	The Chocolate Moose	The Chocolate Moose Theme	2:20
15	The Chayns	Why Did You Hurt Me	2:07
16	The Rumors	Hold Me Now	2:27
17	The Shag	Stop & Listen	2:31
18	49th Parallel	You Do Things	2:21

(VA) Boulders - Vol. 2 (1980):

Trackswise almost as good as vol 1 but with the worst sound quality you'll ever hear. Literally unlistenable. Most of the best cuts have been re-ished elsewhere but a few are only available on this. Too bad. It seems the reason some of the Boulders sound so bad is that Dave G insisted on manufacturing them with his own old equipment rather than at a professional plant.

1	Teddy and His Patches	Haight-Ashbury	2:39
2	Something Wild	She's Kinda Weird	2:22
3	The Gentle-Men	Come On	2:06
4	The Other Side	Streetcar	2:23
5	The Premiers	Get On This Plane	2:30
6	Rain	ESP	1:41
7	Rain	Outta My Life	1:57
8	The Early Rationals	I Need You	2:21
9	The Old Exciting Scot Richard Case	Get The Picture	2:13
10	The Bougalieu	Let's Do Wrong	2:25
11	The Rebounds	Steppin' Stone	2:49
12	The Country Classic Esquires	Nashville Blues	3:20
13	The Chocolate Moose	Take a Ride	2:20
14	The Canadian Squires	Leave Me Alone	2:37
15	The Odds and Ends	Cause You Don't Love Me	2:25
16	Samy Phillip	When I Say I Love You I Mean It	3:07
17	The Magic Mushrooms	Never Let Go	2:34

(VA) Boulders - Vol. 3 (1982):
Again an excellent selection and with decent sound quality. Well worth getting. A close inspection of the sleeve will also reveal Mr Gibson's true source of inspiration...

1	Topsy Turbys	Hey Tiger	2:31
2	Good Feelins	Shattered	2:19
3	Spats	She Done Moved	2:28
4	Red Dogs	Open Up	2:03
5	Sounds Like Us	Clock On The Wall	2:55
6	Sounds Like Us	Outside Chance	1:58
7	Checkerlads	Baby Send For Me	2:10
8	W.C. Fields Memorial Electric String Band	Hippy Elevator Operator	3:05
9	Beaux Jens	She Was Mine	3:09
10	Evil	Whatcha Gonna Do 'Bout It	2:13
11	Mustangs	That's For Sure	2:08
12	Evil	Always Running Around	1:48
13	Dave Myers & The Disciples	Come On Love	1:53
14	Wyld	Lost One	2:18
15	Mr. Lucky & The Gamblers	Take A Look At Me	2:49
16	Myddle Class	Don't Let Me Sleep Too Long	3:28
17	Gentlemen Wild	You Gotta Leave	2:45
18	Sheep	Thinkin' About It	2:58

(VA) Boulders - Vol. 4 (1982):
...which could account for the bizarre scheme of alphabetical recycling that begins with this volume. In addition to the inevitable drop in quality there's fewer tracks here than before. Sound quality OK.

1	The Brymers	Sacrifice	2:16
2	The Caretakers	Hidden Steps	2:10
3	The Beaten Path	Doctor Stone	2:10
4	The Badd Boys	Never Going Back to Georgia	2:14
5	The Ban	Bye Bye	2:48
6	Ambertones	I Can Only Give You Everything	2:57
7	The Banshees	They Prefer Blondes	2:24
8	The Beaver Patrol	ESP	2:38
9	Beer	Some Kinda Rich Girl	2:28
10	The Balloon Farm	A Question of Temperature	2:42
11	The Big Town Boys	August 32nd	2:30
12	Al's Untouchables	Come On Baby	2:07
13	Al's Untouchables	Stick Around	2:32

(VA) Boulders - Vol. 5 (1983):

Some good tracks and some fillers. Pretty good sound quality.

1	Cast Of Thousands	Girl Do What You Gonna Do	1:50
2	The Caretakers	East Side Story	2:03
3	The Cobras	If I Can't Believe Her	2:12
4	The Claytons	Puttin' Me On	2:17
5	Brand _X_	She Lied	2:28
6	Cherry Slush	I Cannot Stop You	2:25
7	The Cellar Dwellers	Working Man	1:35
8	Chocolate Balloon Company	Gotta Get This	1:55
9	The Bassmen	The Last Laugh	2:10
10	Danny Belline & The Rich Kids	Money Isn't Everything	2:11
11	The Collectors	Make It Easy	2:32
12	Dan Curry	You'd Better Change	2:27
13	Children	This Sportin' Life	2:44

(VA) Boulders - Vol. 6 (1983):
This one's pretty good. Several classic punkers and some spooky psych tracks. Could be worth it. OK sound.

1	The Deepest Blue	Pretty Little Thing	2:38
2	The David	40 Miles	1:55
3	The Deepest Blue	Somebody's Girl	2:05
4	Evergreen Blues	Three's A Crowd	2:59
5	The Ethics	(A Whole Lot Of) Confusion	2:36
6	Chapter VI	Fear	3:08
7	Cave Dwellers	Meditation	3:53
8	The Dearly Beloved	Flight Thirteen	1:43
9	The David	I'm Not Alone	1:44
10	Ebb Tides	Seance	1:58
11	Ritchie Dean	Time (Can't Heal This Pain Of Mine)	1:58
12	The Dinks	Nina-Kocka-Nina	1:51
13	The Edge Of Darkness	Mean Town	1:44

(VA) Boulders - Vol. 7 (1983):
Again a decent selection of punk/psych but with too many fillers. Sound quality below average.

1	The Mops	Please Kill Me	2:50
2	Jackasses	Sugaree	2:39
3	Country Gentlemen	Saturday Night	1:51
4	Cindermen	Don't Knock It	2:10
5	Clease	The Weird One	3:05
6	Chosen Few	Asian Chrome	2:20
7	Cheques	To Stone	2:36
8	Del Vetts	Everytime	2:20
9	Dewayne And The Beldettas	Hurtin	1:47
10	Don And The Agitators	Going Back Home	2:33
11	Escapades	Mad Mad Mad	2:05
12	John English II	I Need You Near	2:07
13	Butch Engle And The Styx	Going Home	2:00