Heroes & Villains: Sound of Los Angeles 1965-1968 - Heroes & Villains: Sound Of Los Angeles 1965-1968 / Various

Three CDs. A four-hour, 90-track overview of the Los Angeles music scene between 1965 and 1968. Featuring a dazzling combination of major league LA players, enduring cult acts and ultra-rare garage punk 45s. Housed in a stylish clamshell box that includes a heavily illustrated and annotated 80-page bound booklet, Heroes and Villains is a fascinating four-hour trip into the heart of the late '60s LA music goldmine. Heroes and Villains: The Sound of LA 1965-68 charts the entire cataclysmic scene, with classic hits from The Monkees, Paul Revere And The Raiders, The Association and The Grass Roots joined by vital cuts from Love, The Byrds, The Beach Boys, The Mothers Of Invention, Captain Beefheart, Buffalo Springfield and The Mamas And The Papas. Featuring enduring cult names (Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Seeds, Electric Prunes), the new breed of Singer-Songwriter (Tim Buckley, Nilsson), the emerging wave of Heavy bands (Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly), nascent Country-Rockers (Gene Clark, Stone Poneys, Gram Parsons' International Submarine Band) and studio-based, Beach Boys-inspired harmony Pop acts (Sagittarius, The Millennium, The Parade). In among the unreleased-at-the-time demos, alternative versions and first-time releases, there's a raft of hugely obscure Garage Punk 45s - many from bands now stepping forward to tell their story for the first time, including The Satans (the notorious 'Makin' Deals'), Somebody's Chyldren (Hollywood legend Mae West's backing band on her brace of 1966 albums), The Prophets of Old, The Heros and The Odds And Ends.