Mankato's Finest

Back to the States for today.

Minnesota to be precise.

It's the Gestures!

Run Run Run (1964)

Released at the start of the so called British Invasion only much better than most of the crap flooding our shores from across the pond.
The Gestures hailed from Minneapolis suburb Mankato.

This wasn't some lame rehashed watered down British Invasion shit

If you listen to the music and musicianship underneath you can hear a solid underpinning of good old US Prime A Surf in all of it.

And these kids can play. It's tight as fuck and all American,baby

And the songs, Dale Menten (guitar, vocal) originals, are polished and performed perfectly.

I'll take this over just about anything contemporary to it.

Don't Mess Around (1965)

And then they do it again. "Don't Mess Around" is pure fucking genius. There's so much that happens in two minutes and twenty seconds. That bass line. The syncopation. Those guitar tones. All of it.

I love this tune.

B-side is another sweet 1-4-5 stomper.

Four sides of pure wonder.