Michael Yonkers Band

The unearthing of long-lost musical gems continues to fascinate. Case in point: the Michael Yonkers Band’s Microminiature Love. Slated for release by Sire in 1968, the album was deemed too bizarre by label suits and then shelved. Sub Pop now gives Microminiature Love digital life with six strong bonus cuts. These Minneapolis cats churn bile like fellow ’60s garage rockers the Seeds and the Monks, but Yonkers’ pipes possess that Phil Ochs vibrato, which adds drama to every utterance. Further setting MYB apart from the era’s bowl-cut hordes is a unique, open-tuned guitar sound, which shrouds Yonkers’ exhilaratingly primal riffs in abrasive fuzz. He attacks the then-raging Vietnam War with more acuity than most protest singers, but what’s most striking about this album is its downcast aura, which evokes postpunk’s grim rancor more than it does the free-lovin’ American ’60s.