Garage rock is some of the rawest, loudest, purest rock n' roll out there. It has its roots planted in the rockabilly style of the 1950's but has grown to include varying styles from across the map, including punk rock, alt-country, lo-fi, blues, grunge and many others.

The genre is known for its amateurish style of playing and low sound quality. When recording, garage rock bands often purposely overdrive amplifiers and use minimalistic mic techniques. This blatant lowering of standards gives the music a very organic, raw sound.

Garage rock experienced it's heyday in the early to mid '60s just after the start of the British Invasion. Bands took the new R&B-influenced sounds of the British bands they were hearing and mixed in their own influences of bubble gum pop, surf music and early rock artists like Little Richard.

The genre's main appeal was in the fact that fans could easily start groups themselves and get involved.

The style lasted until about 1967 when it fell out of popular fashion. In the '70s, garage rock's influence could be heard in the D.I.Y. style of punk rock and was sighted by many punk pioneers as a major source of inspiration.

More recently, the style has regained notoriety due to the number of "new wave garage" acts like The Strokes and The White Stripes.

As an introduction to this fascinating genre, here's a list of five garage rock tracks from the past, present and somewhere in between:

"Veni Vidi Vici," The Black Lips

(from the album "Good Bad Not Evil")

The Black Lips are a contemporary revivalist garage rock group from Atlanta.. The Lips are one of the most exciting bands around today and are know for their unpredictable onstage antics. This track sounds as if it could have been released in 1963.It's rolling, relaxed style invokes images of smoke-filled rooms speckled with psychedelic lights.

"Servo," The Brian Jonestown Massacre

(originally from the album "Give it Back," also on "Tepid Peppermint Wonderland: A Retrospective")

The Brain Jonestown Massacre is a classic example of how bands' influences show up in their work. This California band -- led by front man, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, paranoid schizophrenic and heroin addict Anton Newcombe -- is an explosion of '60s rock and garage sounds. The band's tragic rise and fall is captured in the 2004 documentary "Dig!," a must see film for all fans of alternative music.

"Bad Little Women," The Shadows of Knight

(originally from the album "Back Door Men," also on "Dark Sides: The Best of Shadows of Knight")

This classic track is a garage rock gem. It was originally recorded by this little know band in the early '60s. It charted in the band's home state of Ohio but never went on to much success. Then Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye unearthed the song when he was assembling his garage rock collection: "Nuggets: Artifacts From The First Psychedelic Era: 1965-1968."

"Land Of The Freak," King Khan and The Shrines

(from the album "Supreme Genius of King Khan")

King Khan (known as Blacksnake while in Canadian indie outfit The Spaceshits) is a garage rock purist. He cites garage legend The Mighty Hannibal as a personal friend, mentor and main influence. His newest band, The Shrines, sound as if James Brown on acid was fronting The Stooges.

"Rumble," Link Wray

(from the album "Rumble! The Best of Link Wray")

This classic surf rock track was original recorded by legendary guitarist Link Wray in 1956. This barely two-minute instrumental is one of the first uses of the power cord, one of the mainstays of punk and hard rock. This song was Wray's only hit, but it has been noted as an influence by everyone from Bob Dylan to Pete Townsend.