The Ugly Ducklings - Somewhere Outside (1966) (1997)

The Ugly Ducklings were probably the best-known Canadian garage rock group of the mid-'60s. Formed in Toronto's famed Yorkville area in 1965, the band flourished in the many coffeehouses around the Yorkville district as a Rolling Stones cover band before becoming the Ugly Ducklings and attracting the attention of the local independent Yorktown Records label. The band recorded a single, "Nothin'," which became a Canadian hit, and opened for the Rolling Stones in 1966 when the Stones played Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens. The bandmembers were quickly becoming local heroes, and in 1967 the album Somewhere Outside was released on Yorktown. The album contained nine original compositions as well as two cover songs. The band drew heavily from the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the Pretty Things style with a raunchy R&B/rock sound. The album sold well in the Toronto area, but due to a lack of national distribution the band failed to break out across the rest of the country. It wasn't until many years later, after the band broke up, that the album became a collector's item, and original pressings of Somewhere Outside on the Yorktown label fetched hundreds of dollars among collectors. The popularity of the album has led to it being bootlegged in many European countries over the years, but most versions suffer from poor sound. This legitimate reissue, complete with the original album graphics, by Unidisc has been digitally mastered for superb sound quality and is available at a budget price.