Like many other early-'60s Minneapolis teenaged combos, including Gregory Dee & the Avanties and the Underbeats, who were armed with the knowledge that the bird was the word, the Ready Men plied their trade at the local Kay Bank studio and emerged with their lone 45, a go-for-broke demented version of "Shortnin' Bread" and the cool instrumental "Surfer's Blues." Now, with the release of this decidedly lo-fi CD, we get the rest of the story on this largely unsung Twin Cities rock & roll band. And great stuff it is, largely taken from home-taped rehearsals, radio broadcasts, and a couple of extra tracks from their only excursion into a real studio. Plenty of wildly reverbed takes of "Jack the Ripper," "Pipeline," "Miserlou" and "Kuk," making this a small slice of teen band history well worth owning. ~ Cub Koda