The Vipers: Outta The Nest! (1984)

There were a number of garage band revivalists competing for attention in the mid-80s. One of my personal favorites (and, alas, one of the toughest to track down these days) is New York's Vipers (not to be confused with various other bands called the Vipers). While mostly offering traditional guitar-driven late 60s-styled garage rock, they included more contemporary markings of jangly Paisley Underground psychedelic upstarts like the Rain Parade or the (also hard to find) Things, balancing their grungy retro stylings with some poppy melodies.

Opener "Nothing's From Today" nails that balance, sounding like something you'd find on a compilation of obscure off-label psychedelic singles, yet with a jangly shimmer that fit in with the 80s college radio vibe. "Now I Remember" ups the proto-punk gnarl a bit without losing the pop hooks. A few songs, like "Tellin' Those Lies" and the Byrdsy "Tears (Only Dry)" sound more like pre-Murmur R.E.M. covering some overlooked Nuggets tunes; elsewhere, you've got frenetically upbeat party songs, like the Troggs-like "We're Outta Here" and buzzsaw Sonics raver "Ain't Nothin' Like Her."

The ringer here is a faithful cover of the Standells' "Medication," with its hypnotic organ drone and bass riff; and, sure, it's a fail-safe garage rock classic, and they have the good sense not to fuck around with it other than to give it a (slightly) updated sound, but it's still a stunner.

Unfortunately, the album doesn't stream online, and while it was briefly re-released on CD with a ton of bonus tracks, it's out of print and tough to track down.

But here's a vinyl rip of the original LP on YouTube:

Here's a stand-alone audio rip of "Medication":

...and "Tears (Only Dry)":

How 'bout some grainy video footage of the band performing "Tellin' Those Lies" and a couple other tunes?