As the late 60’s saw America fall into turmoil, popular music was very much a reflection of those times. One exception was the Sunshine Pop sound of the Association whose rich harmonies and cheery lyrics was a perfect distraction from the outside world. This would prove to be their greatest gift and curse as despite the talent they had, they would never be taken seriously by the musical establishment who seemed to crave only counter culture acts during that era. Their songs still have some legs to them but any band branded as lightweights have to have ABBA like success to make the Hall.

One of the first underground bands that gained attention, the Fugs played their brand of Rock and Roll ripped with satire and coarse language in an era where that was unheard of. In a sense, the Fugs were responsible for injecting a Proto Punk attitude and can be argued were a new type of “Shock Rockers”. Clearly ahead of their time, they helped to launch a series of innovative lyricists, though likely just as many bad ones.

They may have been classified as a Noise Rock band and band members themselves have thought have themselves as Punk Rockers, but in many ways they were a precursor to the Industrial scene that was about to follow. Singing about a myriad of disturbing topics (songs about mutilation were tame for them) they delivered with a blistering guitar attack pounded by loud drum machines. They never hit it big, but then again, they probably never tried to either.

From San Francisco the Quicksilver Messenger Service did not have hit albums or really even a hit to speak of, but they did have a reputation for having an excellent live act and were one of the first “Jam” bands of note. The latter could make them a potential entrant as the style that they helped to popularize was a respected one and the San Francisco connection does not hurt either.