Five years ago in a cosmic garden, during the time before peace and love surrendered to the Dennis Wilson/David Crosby seedy Sunset Strip nights, the wheels were set in motion for the first RockTits mix ‘Heavy Cosmic Groove.’ During those heady times we started learning advanced techniques like tempo, phrasing, key clash, 2 beat pushes, warping and a bunch of other things that are not particularly relevant to being a Rock DJ. But, in the end, we had a ‘real’ mix that would let the people hear some of the records we’d been digging.

Fast forward to 2010. After four years of inner group turmoil, failed relationships between several of the group’s members, inflated egos, a bankrupt record label, several stints at Betty Ford, and the hemming of all the bells out of our jeans, it was time to get started on our follow-up venture.

In the end, this labor of love took everything we had. 1 full year, 300+ hours, 600 pulled tracks, 100 ripped vinyl tracks (Russ hates ripping songs), countless blackouts, compiling 200 minutes of actual finished material, then removing half of the 200 minutes of finished material. Exhausted to the point of collapse, we conquered this Titan of a mix in November of 2011.

We are stoked to introduce RockTits ‘In Rock’ as our pièce de résistance to this journey. It is, 102 minutes of Basement Bangers, Midnight Ramblers, Barabajanglers, Heavy Sounds, Canyon Sunsets, Cherry Bombs, and Good Vibrations.

We start out where the first mix left off, with a heavy concentration of Psych/Prog/Blues funkers:
Kicking it off, is a RockTits favorite Neil Merryweather who rarely made a bad track. We’ll always buy any Merryweather record on the spot. Next is Freddie King’s Kenny Powers anthem. We get into The Pie, PGnE, and Paul McCartney’s ‘Check My Machine,’ which was first heard being played at the RockTits weekly by JD Twitch. We freaked out when we heard it and asked who it was. At the end of the night he gave us the 45. Great dudes.
Neil Merryweather – “Are You Ready”
Freddie King – “Going Down”
Humble Pie – “Groovin with Jesus”
Pacific Gas and Electric – “Staggo Lee”
Paul McCartney – “Check My Machine”

After ‘Check’ we have the super group (Clapton, Dr. John, etc.) jam session Free Creek followed by a cover of ‘Neanderthal Man’ that Nez picked up while he was in Germany. The funky flute break of the track goes into a Steve Marriot’s solo track, ‘Cocaine’, Three Dog Night, RT edit of The James Gang, Stampeders, and Bread’s funkiest track, with a fantastic name. Next we have Dimitri’s ‘Muscle Hands,’ which wins the prize for best song title and lyrics. ‘I was born in a shark on a winter’s night and the year was 1999…It didn’t take long cause I caught on fire smoking…’ Perfect! Muscle Hands goes into Eric Burdon’s, ‘Magic Mountain’ into Jimi Green’s, ‘Robot.’ We’ve been obsessed with this track for several years.
Free Creek – “Getting Back to Molly”
Adam and Eve - “Neanderthal Man”
Steve Marriott – “Cocaine”
Three Dog Night – “I Can Hear You Calling”
James Gang – “Funk 49”
The Stampeders – “Sweet City Woman”
Bread – “Mother Freedom”
Dimitri – “Muscle Hands”
Eric Burdon – “Magic Mountain”
Jimi Green – “Do the Robot”

Next we get into some of the heavy hitters:
Marcus Hook Roll Band is pre-ACDC Malcolm & Angus boning-up their chops on this Neanderthal scumbag the Apeman . ‘Apeman’ goes into The Eagles, Billy Squire, and Easybeat’s front man Stevie Wright. Next is our friend’s and occasional DJ partner’s band from NYC, Strange Haze, who sound like many of the RT bands that we love. Primitive Man is up next and it is a track Steve found and one of our favorites. One of many songs from the era featuring a jungle sex theme. Prins Thomas follows with an edit of a track which none of us had ever heard before and it’s sick! Five shots of whiskey go to the person who slips us the name of the band, because with all our Google wisdom, we can’t figure it out!
Marcus Hook Roll Band – “Ape Man”
Eagles – “Victim of Love”
Billy Squier – “The Stroke”
Stevie Wright – “Evie”
Strange Haze – “Hang Loose”
Primitive Man – “Animal Love”
Prins Thomas – “Ooze”
Next we hit the ‘raerest’ triple bonzers of the mix. All former cover-ups:
Blue Oyster Cult – “Godzilla”
Aerosmith – “Sweet Emotion”
Led Zeppelin – “Ramble On”
Ace Frehley – “New York Groove”
George Baker Selection – “Little Green Bag”

Mellower territory:
Take a load off after that last section; it’s time to mellow out a bit. Joakim’s edit of JJ Cale’s mellow gold monster, ‘Ride Me High’ starts it off. Next is The Top into Spirit’s ‘Mr. Skin.’ Was that a Spinal Tap song I just heard? Is there none more black? Yes. Playing over Spinal Tap is an edit of the great Aussie band Tame Impala. Killer tone? Yep. The next two had to be hidden from Steve until after the mix was mastered. Canyon Sunsets are not his thing. We finish with the indefatigable Chief Dewey Terry and Bretheren’s Santana styled groover.
JJ Cale – “Ride ‘em High”
ZZ Top – “Cheap Sunglasses”
Gary Wright – “Love is Alive”
Spirit – “Mr. Skin”
Spinal Tap – “Big Bottoms”
Tame Impala – “Half Full Glass of Wine”
Ned Doheny – “Prove My Love”
Cliff Richard -“Devil Woman”
Chief Dewey Terry – “Do On My Feet”
Bretheren – “Success Brand Oil”

The next section starts out with some more classics and the best track on this thing:
Starting with ELO, it moves into The Doobie Bros, stepdad approved Steely Dan, Blues Image, Blue Cheer’s Saturday Night Live theme song on dope, ‘Love of a Woman,’ and ‘The Motivator’ by T. Rex. Next is another, Steve discovered, masterpiece, ‘Mustache In Your Face,’ by Pretty. This beats ‘Muscle Hands’ in both its song title and fantastic lyrical content. “I’m talkin’ to you girl about the end of my world…I stepped in my dreams and I broke my own heart. What a lie, what a lie. MUSTACHE IN YOUR FACE!”
ELO – “Don’t Bring Me Down”
Doobie Brothers – “Long Train Runnin’”
Steely Dan – “Do It Again”
Blues Image – “Ride Captain Ride”
Blue Cheer – “Love of a Woman”
T. Rex – “The Motivator”
Pretty – “Mustache in Your Face”

Finally:
A little percussive breakdown featuring Titanic, Santana, and Boney M takes us into the glitter-covered homestretch. Climaxing with the RT anthem ‘Whisky’ by, who appears to be, the biggest dirt bag ever, Whisky David mixed with the ultrapower of ‘Thunderstruck.’
Titanic – “Rain 2000”
Santana – “Jingo”
Boney M – “Rasputin”
Gary Glitter – “Do You Wanna Touch Me”
David Bowie – “The Jean Genie”
The Runaways – “Rock n’ Roll”
Shelby – “Guitar Man”
The Sweet – “Little Willy”
Shocking Blue – “Venus”
The Hollies – “Long Cool Woman”
Jimmy Jukebox – “Motor Boat”
Whisky David – “Whisky”
ACDC – “Thunderstruck”

History:
RockTits started out with Joel, 10 years ago. Soon Nez was added and a 3 year long weekly began. In 2004 Russell and Steve were added when we joined Making Time where you could see LCD Soundsystem, The Strokes, and about 100 other bands in the main room and people swinging off chandeliers, in the RockTits room. Having a beer bottle bounce off your head in the middle of the set was not uncommon.
Today we are still raging at Making Time and are in our fourth year of our weekly night at The Pope. Every Wednesday you can catch us playing records and drinking whiskey.

Thanks to Jeff Zeigler for the mastering, Avalon Clare for the artwork and Dave P. for the advice.