Whittier Blvd

Blending vestiges of zoot-suited Pachuco soul with lowriders’ love of classic R&B and some good old fashioned American garage rock, Thee Midniters were easily the best Latino rock ‘n’ roll outfit of the ‘60s. They also pioneered the implementation of horns, congas and timbales alongside guitars and keyboards to create a sound that would later be expanded upon by bands like Santana and Malo. A feverish title track tears open this collection with a performance so hot that the following “Stubborn Kind Of Fellow” seems like a chaser, even though it’s more danceable. The mellow “That’s All” is the perfect teenage parking song as Willie Garcia croons romantically under his band’s tranquil gait. Conversely, “Empty Heart” grooves hard like some kind of go-go gospel rave-up where Garcia preaches a heartbroken sermon to a warbling Farfisa organ going head-to-head with piercing surf-guitar leads under bastardized bursts of East Los Angelino Mariachi horns. A blistering hot cover of “Johnny B. Goode” closes, but not before a stormy rendition of Barry Gordy and Janie Bradford’s “Money” steals the show.