Heated Garage – Toasty Treasures from Minnesota’s Key Bank Studio

Some garage rock compilations are more special than others. In a sense, garage rock records are the definition of limited edition – but this one is actually numbered! This was a Record Store Day pickup from Forever Changes back in April (2024), and is just a spectacular example of the genre.

This one’s unusual because it collects records from one recording service: Kay Bank Recording Corp. of Minneapolis, which started, according to the nice little brochure included with this record, as a side hustle recording “church choirs, weddings, and such.” This collection comes from “a vast archive of Kay Bank master tapes rescued from destruction by a local collector and eventually obtained by Sundazed Music.” Well, thanks again, Sundazed!

I mean, it opens with an absolute banger about Baba Yaga, a legend I only recently became acquainted with. Then, a repeated vamp on “go, go, go go, go go gorilla!”Then it’s just one determined, slightly off-kilter romp after another, including a mandatory (in my view) cover of “Palisades Park.”

So I just hope Sundazed keeps going through that vast archive!

I’m never really sure what to do with my compilations – until I can finally reorganize my collection into genres, I’m stuck with alphabetical, so I tend to put these where I’m most likely to remember they’ll be. This one’s going under H for “Heated Garage,” though I could just as easily just stick it under G.