Unchained Mynds and their Sears portrait!
Listen/Download – Unchained Mynds – Going Back To Miami
Greetings all.
It’s a new week a-dawning here at the old leg of iron, and I have something cool for you (natch).
The tune in question is a cover of one of my favorite equal-opportunity soul records, Wayne Cochran’s ‘Going Back to Miami’, which taken in its original form is enough to blow the hair right out of your scalp and send you into what the old timers used to refer to as conniptions.
When I found the 45 that includes today’s selection, I had no idea who the Unchained Mynds were (though my 60s punk radar was set off instantly by the deliberate misspelling of the second half of their name). However this mattered not a whit since the combo of 60s punk and Wayne Cochran cover was too much to resist so I forked over the dough and took it home.
As it turns out, the Unchained Mynds were the pride of LaCrosse, WI. They recorded a couple of 45s for the local Teen Town and Trans Action labels, had one picked up (this one in fact) for national distribution by Buddah, and then released one more on that label (all between 1967 and 1969).
Their initial waxing was a cover of Traffic’s ‘Hole In My Shoe’, which you can scope out over at The Devil’s Music.
Today’s killer, their take on ‘Going Back to Miami’ is a raucous bit of teen lunacy that sounds like the bunch on that picture sleeve above got into some grain alcohol and a case of Sir Douglas Quintet 45s and the resulting explosion produced this record.
The flip side is a mawkish take on Teddy and the Pandas’ slightly less mawkish 1966 ‘We Can’t Go On This Way’ that sounds every bit like the band apologizing to their parents for the A-side.
It’s a nasty little banger and I hope you dig it.
I know I do.
See you next week.
Peace
Larry
Iron Leg 
Thanks as always for shining the light on a Wisconsin band.
Great post and great pic.
This was kind of “late” for a garage record and quite common around central IL so it must of gotten some airplay, but what a great tune/record.
Hate to break it to you but “We Can’t Go On This Way” was the “A” side of the record. Charted and everything. It was huge in the Midwest.
Wow, that’s too bad. It’s awful.