Pioneering '60s SF rockers the Flamin' Groovies play the 4 Star Theater
One of the most legendary garage-rock bands to emerge from San Francisco during the psychedelic '60s, the Flamin' Groovies released a series of albums that made minimal impact on the charts, but exerted a major influence on many punk and power-pop acts that followed in subsequent decades.
Anchored by the songwriting partnership of wildman lead singer Roy Loney and guitarist Cyril Jordan, the band embraced a mix of '50s rock and roll (frequently covering songs by the likes of Little Richard and Eddie Cochran), feral garage-rock originals and an ear for punchy pop melodies that nodded to the British Invasion bands of the era. While they may have been out-of-step with the psychedelic sounds that dominated the era, the Groovies would endure to have just as much impact on rock as contemporaries the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane.
The band first came together in 1965, but it wasn't until they self-released their Sneakers EP in 1968 that they score a record deal with Epic. The resulting debut Supersnazz had so little commercial impact that the label dropped the group within a year of its release, but the album has become a cult classic. Embodying the same kind of joyful celebration of primitive rock and R&B that would be echoed in both the New York Dolls and the Ramones, the Groovies delivered ferocious originals like "Love Have Mercy" that stood up alongside renditions of already classic tunes "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Something Else/Pistol Packin' Mama."
The band bounced back by signing to Kama Sutra Records and producing the equally spectacular Flamingo and Teenage Head (featuring the monstrous proto-punk title track), but growing tensions between Loney and Jordan would lead to the singer's departure. Taking complete control of the band, Jordan brought guitarist/singer Chris Wilson on board and relocated the Groovies to England to capitalize on their greater popularity in Europe.
Working with future Rockpile guitarist and solo star Dave Edmunds in the studio, the band eventually put together what many consider its finest post-Loney effort. Shake Some Action came out in 1976 on Sire Records and revealed a sound that ditched some of the '50s rock flavor for ringing Rickenbacker guitars and mod British Invasion pop. The follow-up album Flamin' Groovies Now furthered the band's embrace of a more power-pop sound.
Jordan would continued to lead the Groovies into the '80s and early '90s, but eventually disbanded the group and founded his new band, Magic Christian. However, in 2013, he reunited with Wilson and longtime bass player George Alexander after the Groovies were invited to play Australian festival dates. A series of sold-out shows both in San Francisco and abroad would follow.
In 2015, the Groovies drew packed houses performing their seminal Shake Some Action album in its entirety at a number of local shows including one at the Chapel in San Francisco. The band would return to the venue the following year to kick off a tour marking the band's 50th anniversary. The Groovies also surprised fans when they released a new 7-inch single for Burger Records featuring the song "Crazy Macy" that came out on Record Store Day.
In the summer of 2017, it was announced that the Groovies line-up featuring Jordan and Wilson had completed the band's first new album in almost four decades. Entitled Fantastic Plastic, the effort featuring new original songs and covers of tunes by the Beau Brummels and NRBQ was released glowing reviews in the fall.
While the band was regularly joined onstage by Loney to play their classic early songs in recent years, in 2019 the Groovies embarked on a tour dedicated to performing the watershed Teenage Head album in its entirety plus an assortment of vintage hits. The band played several Bay Area shows and was headed to Europe for a full tour when Loney was sadly sidelined by a fall at the San Francisco International Airport just as the band was preparing to depart for the string of summer dates. Sadly, Loney passed away from organ failure at the CPMC Davies Campus in San Francisco in December of 2019.
Overcoming that tragedy, the band has remained active, touring regularly and reissuing archival recordings including the Cleopatra Records CD Rockin' the Roundhouse featuring London performances from 1976 and 1978. In 2023, the band released a new studio recording of "Fissure of Rolando," a cover of a latter-era tune by garage-rock greats the Cramps.
The group also made a new recording of "She Said Yeah" for a Rolling Stones tribute album on Cleopatra that features drummer Tony Sales singing lead. Jordan's current five-piece line-up of the Groovies with veteran bassist Atom Ellis (a member of Psychefunkapus and Dieselhed in addition to touring with the late Link Wray, Todd Rundgren, the New Cars and the Tubes) and Sales -- whose father played bass for Todd Rundgren, Iggy Pop and David Bowie in the band Tin Machine.
For this Noise Pop 2025 show at the 4 Star Theater in San Francisco Saturday night, the Groovies will be joined by Sacramento garage favorites Th' Losin Streaks. One of Northern California's preeminent purveyors of unhinged garage rock, the band was founded in the state's capitol in the early 2000s when Sacramento garage mainstays Tim Foster (guitar/vocals) and Stan Tindel (bass) of like-minded veteran band The Trouble Makers teamed up with drummer Matt Shrugg (ex-Groovie Ghoulies and Zodiac Killers) and guitar virtuoso Mike Farrell, who had made his name in area bands Daisy Spot, Sex 66 and Persephone's Bees (who he played bass for). The group quickly established a reputation with their frenetic stage show at venues around Sacramento.
The quartet brought a snarling swagger to their raucous 2004 debut album for Slovenly Recordings, Sounds of Violence. Even when addressing well-worn subject matter like two-fisted romance ("Beg, Steal or Borrow" and "Your Love, Now"), the group managed to keep things fresh with razor-sharp hooks, Foster's gruff, authoritative vocals and the collective's fiery delivery.
With Farrell dealing out one searing, sustain-driven lead after another with the same wild abandon that Jeff Beck brought to the classic rave-ups of the Yardbirds, the album solidified Th' Losin Streaks as NorCal garage-rock contenders of the highest order. The group followed up with a 7-inch single for Dollar Records Records the next year, but outside of live performances that included an extensive tour of Europe in 2005, it would be years before the band would finally issue it's sophomore effort.
While Th' Losin Streaks continued to draw sizable crowds and put on blistering live performances, Farrell's recurring struggles with heroin addiction that had started back in the '90s would derail the band, leading the group to dissolve in 2010. Farrell battled his demons for years, moving in and out of rehab before finally getting clean for good in 2016.
The quartet reconvened and began playing shows again, making scorching appearances at the Burger Boogaloo in 2017 and Debauch-A-Reno the following year in addition to returning to clubs in Sacramento and the Bay Area. The band also finished work on the band's long neglected second effort This Band Will Self-Destruct in T-Minus, which finally saw release on Slovenly in 2018.
Recorded with noted garage-rock studio guru Chris Woodhouse (Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall), the group's first release in 14 years is packed with ferocious anthems like "Trouble You Find," the propulsive title track as well as Who/Yardbirds-inspired fuzz of "Time Has Come" and "Order of the Day." While Th' Losin Streaks had to cope with the departure of longtime drummer Shrugg earlier this year, after some searching (Woodhouse sat in on one show and was considered as a permanent replacement), the band eventually brought powerhouse drummer Brian Machado (Go National, The Decibels, The Trouble Makers) into the fold.
The group has since played Bay Area shows supporting British garage legend Billy Childish when he made a rare local appearance for a Burger Boogaloo afterparty in 2019 as well as headlining the closing night of 2022's epic Bargain Rock Festival at Oakland's now shuttered Classic Cars West.
The band released its first new tune in ages with the instrumental surf-rock salvo "Mangalore" that came out last summer on a 7-inch single for Jinx Records featured in a fantastic retro video made by bassist Tindal. They also played one of the affiliated nighttime shows for last year's Mosswood Meltdown in Oakland. Earlier this year, the band unleashed its Slovenly Records follow-up effort entitled Last House.
Another bracing blast of garage-rock fury, the album was recorded with noted producer/engineer Tim Green (Melvins, Sebadoh, The Donnas, Comets on Fire and many others) at his Louder Studios in Grass Valley, the new album ups the ante on the group's trademark blistering sound. More information on this show and other Noise Pop 2025 events can be found at the festival's official website.
The Flamin' Groovies with Th' Losin Streaks
Saturday, Feb. 22, 8 p.m. $25
The 4 Star Theater
