The Flamin' Groovies weren't the only band to embrace the joy of the first era of rock & roll during the psychedelic delirium of the late 1960s, but while acts like Sha Na Na and Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids approached vintage rock as a novelty item, the Flamin' Groovies played the stuff like it was their life's blood and with an energy and raw passion that few of their peers could match (not to mention the fact they could write great original songs, too). A powerhouse live act, the Groovies stumbled a bit with their first album, 1968's well-intentioned but overproduced Supersnazz, but two years later the band had jumped from Epic Records to Buddah Records and producer Richard Robinson gave the band a simpler and more sympathetic treatment in the studio. The results were the Flamin' Groovies' two most powerful albums, 1970's Flamingo and 1971's Teenage Head, and Rev-Ola has paired these two LP's on one superb CD. Flamingo feels like a reaction to the excess gloss imposed on Supersnazz, with the production straightforward to the point of non-existence and the engineering sounding as if the studio crew was struggling to keep up with the band. But the Groovies sound elated at the chance to wail at full power in the studio, and from the rave-up opener "Gonna Rock Tonight" to the speed-crazed conclusion "Road House," Flamingo rarely stops to take a breath and sounds like one gloriously rowdy rent party (except for the country-rock pastiche "Childhood's End" and the pseudo-psychedelic misfire "She's Falling Apart"). Teenage Head focuses more on the group's love of the blues, but there are no meandering 12-bar workouts here; "32-20" is acoustic blues with teeth, "Dr. Boogie" lives up to its name, "Yesterday's Numbers" showed the Groovies could get contemplative and still shake the house, and "Evil Hearted Ada" is an impressive re-creation of the Sun Records sound. And the title tune and a wailing cover of Randy Newman's "Have You Seen My Baby" gave the Flamin' Groovies two of their most solid rock & roll sides ever. After singer Roy Loney left the Flamin' Groovies in late 1971, the group moved into a Merseybeat-influenced direction,and while many cite 1976's Shake Some Action as their best album, they never rocked as hard as they did on Flamingo and Teenage Head, and together they make a compelling case for the greatness of the Roy Loney era of the group. Rev-Ola's reissue includes two bonus tracks (covers of "Rumble" and "Shakin' All Over" taken from a live-in-the-studio session) and good liner notes from Kris Needs, and if your Flamin' Groovies collection is lacking these two albums, this disc is little short of a necessity.