Biography
Until the early years of the 2000s, Public Nuisance stayed hidden from everyone except dedicated collectors of 1960s garage rock, largely because the Sacramento band never issued any recordings. The group performed regularly throughout California during the second half of the 1960s and laid down numerous unreleased tracks across 1968 and 1969 sessions that remained vaulted. That situation shifted in 2002 when Frantic Records put out the double-CD anthology Gotta Survive, drawn primarily from those late-decade tapes. The songs displayed a solid unit that fused gritty garage rock drive with exploratory psychedelic guitar textures and forms, while occasionally folding in pop and rock elements. In those aspects the outfit paralleled many California contemporaries, yet it clung to its rawer, punk-edged traits more persistently than most. The band also ventured into ambitious sounds paired with lyrics that mirrored the era’s challenges to convention and expressions of rebellion, alongside familiar romantic subjects.
Public Nuisance began in the mid-1960s as the garage band the Jaguars, which later became Moss & the Rocks. Under the latter name the musicians cut a folk-rock-inflected garage single, “There She Goes”/“Please Come Back,” for the small local Ikon label and then recut both numbers for a Chattahoochee release later that year. Both 45s turned scarce, and by 1967 the group had adopted the name Public Nuisance while steering toward psychedelic territory without abandoning its garage intensity.
The band shared stages with the Doors, Buffalo Springfield, Sonny & Cher, and the Grateful Dead and tracked additional unreleased material at Fantasy in San Francisco. A contract with Equinox, the label operated by noted Hollywood producer Terry Melcher, arrived only after late-1968 demos reached the Byrds and Paul Revere & the Raiders veteran. At the close of 1968 and into early 1969 the musicians recorded enough songs for an album, yet nothing appeared on Equinox or any other imprint.
Public Nuisance broke up around 1970. Guitarist David Houston later produced and played keyboards with the new wave band the Twinkeyz in the 1970s before producing Steel Breeze and Club Nouveau. The 1968-1969 recordings sounded strikingly unrefined by the standards of contemporary psychedelic releases, raising the possibility that none would have surfaced had the group secured an official album release at the time. Even so, the 2002 Frantic Records archival package continues to attract committed listeners of the late-1960s garage and psychedelic style through its breadth and range, exceeding many comparable reissues.
Public Nuisance began in the mid-1960s as the garage band the Jaguars, which later became Moss & the Rocks. Under the latter name the musicians cut a folk-rock-inflected garage single, “There She Goes”/“Please Come Back,” for the small local Ikon label and then recut both numbers for a Chattahoochee release later that year. Both 45s turned scarce, and by 1967 the group had adopted the name Public Nuisance while steering toward psychedelic territory without abandoning its garage intensity.
The band shared stages with the Doors, Buffalo Springfield, Sonny & Cher, and the Grateful Dead and tracked additional unreleased material at Fantasy in San Francisco. A contract with Equinox, the label operated by noted Hollywood producer Terry Melcher, arrived only after late-1968 demos reached the Byrds and Paul Revere & the Raiders veteran. At the close of 1968 and into early 1969 the musicians recorded enough songs for an album, yet nothing appeared on Equinox or any other imprint.
Public Nuisance broke up around 1970. Guitarist David Houston later produced and played keyboards with the new wave band the Twinkeyz in the 1970s before producing Steel Breeze and Club Nouveau. The 1968-1969 recordings sounded strikingly unrefined by the standards of contemporary psychedelic releases, raising the possibility that none would have surfaced had the group secured an official album release at the time. Even so, the 2002 Frantic Records archival package continues to attract committed listeners of the late-1960s garage and psychedelic style through its breadth and range, exceeding many comparable reissues.
Albums
