Various

The Rockbeat team dug up a treasure with this four-disc compilation of obscure, eerie, long-lost rock'n'roll, buried in vaults of forgotten 45s since the Eisenhower era. Most of the tracks had been originally released on now-defunct, small-scale, short-lived vanity labels. The songs on each disc are compiled thematically, while film trailers intended for radio broadcast are spliced in between to accentuate the themes (i.e., Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space and Ted V. Mikel's Astro-Zombies). Rock & Roll Invasion features songs about alien takeovers, while Teenage Rebels features gems such as "Jail Bait'' and "The Wild One," as well as a sassy sample from a sexual education instructional record. Most tracks on Voodoo Dolls have the word '"voodoo'" in the title, while last disc, 1960s Wild Guitar Instrumentals, is a collection of raw, multi-instrumental surf-rock and rockabilly/rock'n'roll anthems that could have very well have been extracted from the Ventures' lost tapes. Just as the content of the box set is surging with eccentric absurdity, the aesthetic of the art is brimming with quirky detail. Each disc is packaged as a mini-LP to celebrate the original vinyl era, making this Rockbeat box set a riot inside and out.