After I exhausted the original Nuggets, I got into Pebbles. I had no idea where
to start, but the rumor was that Volume 7 was the one to get. So I got it.
Lots of ’66-'67 unknowns thrashing their hearts out into the overloaded cheap
microphones of two bit studios across the country (and UK, too). “Stop It Baby”
was the track that really grabbed me by the throat. The sounds were so heavy
and aggressive, lyrics dripping with sexual frustration and hormonal excitement,
perfectly distorted everything. The Kinks “All Day and All of the Night” must’ve
been a huge deal to these guys. It was a huge deal for me, I can tell you. It
always amazes me how this sound was so of its time and place that thousands of
retro garage bands from the late 70’s on up through today can’t seem to quite
get the sonics right, and here’s this band of screaming 19 year olds who’d
probably never set foot in a studio before and they hit pay dirt, as did many of
their unknown contemporaries, captured by the primitive recording equipment of
the day in an improbably perfect confluence of technology and cultural
phenomena. The irreproducible conditions of rock.

-Andrew Chalfen