The best thing Sunset Junction did this year was book The Sonics and that’s the complete truth. Although the headlining act, Built to Spill, was coming up, I was beginning to think the Tacoma-Washington-based band would hold the the largest crowd of the night. With all ages and fans of every sort, The Sonics played a fantastic set. One young fan even shouted “Turn that fucker up!”among the excitement.
They played everything from “Louie, Louie” to “Psycho” to “The Witch,” and the crowd was just eating it up. Their dirty raw lyrics mixed in with their incredible musicianship on stage was almost too much to handle. After nearly four decades, The Sonics still had it.
Saxophone, keys and harmonicas were put to their best use and it’s no wonder why they are considered to be one of the first punk rock groups to come out from the Pacific Northwest. With girls wanting to climb over the barricade, The Sonics proved they had right to be loved in the music community – for probably as long as they live.
Concert review | Screams for the scary good Sonics at Halloween Paramount show
Concert review by Patrick MacDonald: Seattle Times music critic
The Sonics, the classic Northwest rock band, returned from the dead on Halloween night for a concert at Seattle's Paramount Theatre with Girl Trouble and Kate Tucker & the Sons of Sweden.
"The Witch" came out Halloween night. So did that nut-case "Psycho." And somebody spiked the punch with "Strychnine."
Bloodcurdling screams echoed through the packed Paramount Friday night as the Sonics rose again, like a ghost garage band from 45 years ago. Just like they used to do at long-gone dance halls like the Spanish Castle, Parker's and the Evergreen Ballroom, the legendary, slightly mad quintet from Tacoma once again electrified fans young and old.
The screams came from Jerry Roslie, the great lead singer/keyboardist, whose dark lyrics gave the Sonics an edgy sound that immediately set them apart. They created a Northwest rock tradition that continued on through grunge and beyond. The Sonics are revered by early rock fans around the world. The show here was part of a tour that started in Europe.
One of their most famous fans, Little Steve Van Zandt of the Bruce Springsteen Band and "The Sopranos," and host of the internationally syndicated "Underground Garage" radio show, introduced the band and joined them on guitar for "Have Love Will Travel" and "Louie Louie." He said the Sonics "define garage rock" and are "an American treasure."
The scariest thing, for me, is that I was a teenager when the Sonics were new, all those years ago. They sent a shock wave through Northwest rock back then. You can't imagine how powerfully subversive their wild sound was in those innocent times. They brilliantly captured the dark side of being young, the fear and uncertainity, especially in that postwar/atomic bomb/Communist-scare era.
At the Paramount, the band was more polished, and certainly louder, than they were back then. In addition to Roslie, the lineup also included original members Larry Parypa on guitar and Rob Lind on sax, with Don Wilhelm on bass and Ricky Lynn Johnson on drums. Kent Morrill of the Wailers, another legendary Northwest band of the same era, joined them to sing "Dirty Robber."
Among other Sonics classics in the set: "You Got Your Head On Backwards," "Boss Hoss," "Cinderella," "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," "The Hustler" and "Don't Believe in Christmas." Covers included "Money," "Keep A Knockin'," "Walkin' the Dog" and "Werewolves of London."
Kate Tucker & the Sons of Sweden, from Ballard, opened with smart, somewhat icy ballads, followed by the dissolute, slightly tawdry Tacoma band, Girl Trouble.
Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312 or pmacdonald@seattletimes.com
Sounds Like
Nothing anyone had ever heard before!!!!
Have Love Will Travel in Athens, Greece 2009
Louie Louie at The Paramount in Seattle 2008
Have Love Will Travel - Cavestomp 2007- NYC
The Witch - The Forum, London 2008
Psycho-A-Go-Go
Cinderella - Sjock Festival 2008
City Arts Magazine - May/June 2008 Issue
Cover – “MEET THE SONICS”
“The Greatest Rock Band Ever!”
“The Beatles, by the way, were also fans of the Sonics, along with the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana.” “…their songs have been covered by Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, the Fall, Mudhoney, the Nomads and countless others.” Ann and Nancy Wilson (Heart)
….by Charles Cross (Author, Jimi Hendrix – Room Full Of Mirrors;
Kurt Cobain – Heavier Than Heaven)
The Independent, UK March 25 2008 - Review
The Sonics/The Horrors, The Forum, LONDON
“Rocks demonic upstarts are given a lesson in the dark arts”
“Their brutal version of “Louie Louie” wipes the floor with the hundreds of other versions. “The Witch”, their first single, is, if that were possible, cruder, rougher, wilder still.” …by Pierre Perrone, Monday, 24 March 2008
The Guardian UK - March 24, 2008
4 STARS, the forum London
“The Sonics’ first British gig is a sell-out”
“they still sound more savage than you might expect”
“Anyone seeking evidence of the Sonics’ wide-ranging appeal need look no further than the queue for the bar: mods alongside rockers, balding record collectors, even evidence of the continued existence of the psychobilly, a punk/teddy-boy hybrid presumed extinct since the mid-1980’s. …by Alexis Petrids Monday March 24, 2008
UNDER THE INFLUENCE
“THE Sonics are by far the hardest-sounding ‘60’s band- it’s super-American music, about cars and girls and the basic pleasures of being a teenager, but to the 10th power. Like Chuck Berry, but even more intense” …Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, The Hives
Y! Music UK & Ireland
The Sonics – Forum, London
“when they deliver a scorching version of “Louie Louie” that pretty much invents the Stooges and MC5 on the spot, you know you’re in the presence of true greatness. Roll over Beethoven and tell Jack White the news: The Sonics still boom.”
…by Ian Watson, Thursday March 27, 2008
Evening Standard - thisislondon UK
4 STARS – The Forum – Review
“the simple madness which inspired them is undimmed. This is the sound of planet rock in the early stages of creation” …by Pete Clark, March 25, 2008
Baby Shambles – London
“In Baby Shambles we all like different music, but the one band we all agree on unanimously are the Sonics” …Shambles’ bassist – Drew McConnell
LCD Soundsystems
James Murphy (chanting….”The Sonics, The Sonics, The Sonics…” in the middle of his band’s song “Losing My Edge”) …excerpt quote – Pete Clark – Evening Standard 3/25/08
“They’ve got the most amazing drum sound I’ve ever heard” – Kurt Cobain
Eagles of Death Metal - Magnet Magazine 79
Jesse Hughes Picks His Heaviest Albums - 1 Sonics BOOM (1966)
“In my opinion, the Sonics are really the fathers of punk rock. They inspired the Stooges, the Hives directly lifted their riffs for Veri Vidi Vicious from the Sonics.” “Shot down” – “one of the greatest songs ever made” …Jesse Hughes School Of Rock – Magnet Mag 79
SONICS in New York Warsaw Hall – November 2007
A Blog Review by Alex Scordelis
“the Sonics who showed up at Cavestomp! turned out to be just as earth-shaking, bone-rattlin’, and eardrum-splitting as they were back when they were laying waste to dance halls across the Pacific Northwest in the 1960’s.” “Seeing the Sonics open with “He’s waitin’” ranks with my all-time favorite concert moments. It was a moment I had dreamed about for so long, that finally witnessing it gave me some wicked chills.” …Warsaw eye witness review - Alex Scordelis
Here (again) are The Sonics
by Charles R. Cross (courtesy of City Arts Magazine, 2008)
When the Greatest Rock Band Ever goes back into the studio after forty years, the raw, eardrum-splitting sound is, astoundingly . . . the same.
On a quiet Sunday in the first months of 2008, I walked into a Seattle recording studio and heard a live guitar solo that I thought I’d never live to hear. Though forty years old, the riff sounded so fresh it was hard to recall that for several decades music critics had argued — perhaps none more adamantly than I — that it represented the prehistoric birth of grunge. The Rosetta Stone of Northwest garage rock, the song I was hearing had been passed back and forth on import albums, tapes and CD burns by the cognoscenti. But rarely, if ever, was it heard on the radio.
The song was “The Witch” and the band was the Sonics and if you’ve never heard of them you’ve missed the world’s greatest rock band. The group formed in Tacoma in 1960 with a couple members still in Wilson High but broke up by 1967. Their historic impact was further diminished by two misfortunes: They sold their name (and PA system) to a show band that dragged the moniker through cocktail lounges for another twenty years. Plus, the year the band called it quits, an NBA franchise picked the name. Consequently, even the question “Have you heard of the Sonics?” came with a paragraph of explanation, a fate that also befell the Fabulous Wailers — Tacoma’s other great band — who had no idea Bob Marley would foul up Internet searches decades later.
Whatever confusion their name caused, however, the Sonics’ place in rock history has been solid. The real band only put out two classic garage albums, but their songs have been covered by Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, the Fall, Mudhoney, the Nomads and countless others.
Though the original albums were regional successes, it wasn’t until 2004 that the Sonics earned the kind of national attention they deserved back in the sixties. That break came when Land Rover decided to use “Have Love, Will Travel” in commercials. The ad agency originally suggested a modern band re-record the song, since so few people had heard the Sonics version. “We weren’t going to have any of that,” says Buck Ormsby, who has long managed the Sonics’ interests. “Anyway, no one could make it sound better than the Sonics.” The commercial went with the original track and it brought the Sonics’ raw garage rock sound to countless new listeners.
The renewed interest helped reignite the band and this past fall, in what some Internet posters called a “miracle,” the Sonics reunited for two shows in New York at the Cavestomp Festival. Those November concerts represented the first Sonics gigs since a 1972 one-off reunion show. The wait was worth it: The concerts drew packed houses and rave press notices. One reviewer wrote the band “was just as earth-shaking, bone-rattling and eardrum-splitting as they were” in their day. “It was like the second coming,” observed Neal Skok, who helped put on the reunion. “The crowd was just crazy — it was Beatlemania all over again.”
The Beatles, by the way, were also fans of the Sonics, along with the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana. Kurt Cobain once told an interviewer that the Sonics’ early recordings were his “favorite drum sound” of all time. And for those who thought the Led Zeppelin reunion was the biggest musical event of 2007, consider that when one journalist went to speak with Robert Plant after their London concert, all Plant wanted to talk about was how upset he was that he’d missed the Sonics reunion show.
I was born too late to have seen the Sonics in their day and, like Robert Plant, I missed their reunion show because of a prior commitment. So walking into the studio and hearing the live solo from “The Witch” for the first time felt like a watershed. No journalist had ever before been invited to a Sonics recording session; their last studio session was back in 1966, when I was in second grade.
I walked in as Larry Parypa, the Sonics’ lead guitar, was warming up, laying down riffs. The session was booked to clean up a few tapes from a DVD and live CD of the New York shows. In the studio was famed Seattle engineer Stuart Hallerman, Sonics manager Buck Ormsby and record producer Skok. There was no entourage, no hangers-on. Other than a grey-haired fellow in Levi’s and a sweater, I was the only fly on the wall.
Parypa was playing loud; the Sonics did everything loud. When he stopped the grey-haired fellow came over to me and put out a hand: “I’m Jerry Roslie. Nice to meet you,” he said. He was friendly and open and as we chatted throughout the day, surprisingly modest and humble.
To call Jerry Roslie a rock ’n’ roll legend is the kind of understatement one rarely finds in rock criticism. As the lead singer and keyboard player for the Sonics, his trademark scream on “The Witch” and “Psycho” helped give the band its badass reputation. With a sneering attitude and a low-fi sensibility, he was “punk” before that word had yet been applied to rock ’n’ roll.
Roslie is also one of the most reclusive musicians, which is why the recent reunion of the band is so extraordinary. After the Sonics broke up in the late sixties, Roslie played in another bar band briefly, but by the early seventies he became a phantom. Not only did he retreat from the spotlight, even his fellow Sonics didn’t stay in touch with him. Even as interest in the band revived again in the eighties, he never spoke with any journalists or made any public appearances. He became the Howard Hughes of punk rock.
I found this out firsthand when I wrote a retrospective on the Sonics for The Rocket in 1985. I managed to track down the four other original members of the band (in addition to Larry Parypa: Andy Parypa, bass; Rob Lind, saxophone; and Bob Bennett, drums) and interview them all. But no one in the group was willing to give out Roslie’s number. Or they claimed not to have it. Roslie was described by all as a Colonel Kurtz–type character (from Apocalypse Now), holed away and missing.
After my story ran, I did get evidence that Roslie actually existed: he wrote me a letter thanking me for covering the band. There was no return address, which wasn’t much of a surprise. I stuck it on my wall in the Rocket office, alongside many other pieces of rare music memorabilia, including platinum albums and autographs of superstars. To any musician who ever toured the Rocket office, though, it was always the letter from Roslie that was most unexpected.
During a break in the Sonics recording session, Hallerman confirms the esteem Roslie and the band are held in. He talks about touring with Soundgarden. “Chris Cornell would always be listening to music on the tour bus and say that something sounded ‘Sonic,’” he recalls. “I was never sure what he meant. One day I asked him and he told me that he used the term to mean that the music met the standard set by the Sonics. It was as good as the Sonics.”
Back in the studio, it’s Roslie’s turn to add organ to “The Witch.” Parypa looks on and offers encouragement. “Make it bad,” he says, “real bad.” The two men have not been in the studio together for four decades but their camaraderie is strong. Roslie nails the take on the second try, once he gets his vintage Magnatone amp to work correctly. “That’s the secret to our sound,” Roslie jokes.
The other secret seems to be that Roslie and Parypa are playing in different tunings. When Parypa goes back into the booth to cut more guitar, Roslie observes, “I think he’s playing in D-minor and I’m playing in D-major.” One of Death Cab for Cutie’s guitar techs has stopped by to lend the Sonics some vintage equipment; he stands in awe watching Parypa play guitar. “Wow,” the twenty something guitar tech says. “I never realized that the Seattle sound came from Drop-d tuning.”
Roslie and Parypa are both amazed that Hallerman is cutting the session on a hard-drive digital recorder and that any mistake can be corrected. When an additional snare drum beat is required, Hallerman pulls it from a databank and seamlessly adds it to the song. “That’s what you should have marketed, Jerry,” Parypa jokes, “a music bank of your screams.” For a sixty-two-year-old man, Roslie still screams like a youngster but admits that he has more trouble hitting the high notes. “I’m so old,” Roslie laughs, “that when I did my first record, they used a wire recorder.”
He’s exaggerating, but it’s worth noting that the Sonics’ last session was done in two-track, before multi track recording had been invented. Both Parypa and Roslie are perfectionists and they argue that only now are they able to capture the sound they wanted to get down four decades ago.
I ask Roslie if he felt any vindication getting that attention after all these years. “I don’t know,” he says, sounding uncomfortable being in the spotlight. “They treated me like I was some kind of star.” Skok says, “They think you’re a god, Jerry.” “I wish,” Roslie quips. Following the second show the Sonics signed so many autographs the sun began to rise before they left the auditorium.
The New York reunion shows are already legendary on the Internet, and the band seems truly excited to be playing together again after such a long hiatus. Two of the original Sonics can’t tour now; Larry’s brother, Andy, has carpal tunnel and Bob Bennett is in Hawaii, so he’s unable to rehearse. The band has added Ricky Lynn Johnson on drums and Don Wilhelm on bass, both veterans of the Northwest scene. Original sax player Rob Lind is still rehearsing and touring with the band even though he lives in North Carolina, where he is a private pilot. Lind has flown many superstar musicians including Bruce Springsteen, who spent his entire trip asking Lind about the Sonics.
The Sonics are planning European dates for this summer and a Northwest show in the fall when the album and DVD are released. At sixty-one, Parypa looks spry, but there are questions about Roslie’s ability to handle long tours: the singer had a heart transplant just five years ago. Some of his friends say that the transplant played a role in the reunion by making him think about mortality.
In the studio, during a break, Parypa, who works as an insurance adjuster, says he might run up to Dick’s for a burger. Roslie, walking around with a new heart, ignores the idea. “I’m not eating that,” he says.
They decide instead to skip food and to go back to work, making their first day in the studio in forty years a lengthy one. When both original Sonics enter the sound room with Ormsby to reset their amps to cut “Strychnine,” Neal Skok states the obvious: “Do you realize you are watching history in the making?”
Skok gets much of the credit for the Sonics reunion: he and a partner fronted money to the band for the New York show and for cutting the DVD and new CD. At fifty-four years old, Skok was too young to see the band in their prime; he and Ormsby tried for years to get the band to reunite. “They needed to do this,” he says, “because it was an unfinished story.”
Parypa and Roslie start cranking on “Strychnine” and it gets so loud in the studio no one can talk. The two Sonics are playing with their eyes closed, showing the kind of raw power that made their early recordings so renowned.
When the song is over, the two men pause and there’s a smile on Roslie’s face that looks more like that of a teenager than of a senior citizen. “I always thought we sounded better live than on our albums,” he says, “but now I think we’ve got it."
Psycho Killers
By Falling James
Long before Mudhoney and Nirvana first plugged in their fuzz boxes, the Sonics built the foundation for guitar-based PacNorWest rock & roll. While other American bands were meekly imitating the Beatles in the mid-1960s, the Sonics were turning up their amps and churning out a harder and louder version of garage rock with such classic originals as "Strychnine" and "Psycho." Everyone from the Cramps and Bruce Springsteen to the Fall, the Things, Eddie Vedder and the Nomads has covered their songs, and Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and Led Zeppelin were among their many celebrity fans. Just about every modern garage-rock band has ripped them off (the Hives' entire career, for example, appears to be based on shamelessly lifting the Sonics' riffs and style). After breaking up in the late 1960s, they've stubbornly stayed out of the spotlight, particularly singer Jerry Roslie, who was once so reclusive, he made J.D. Salinger seem as ubiquitous as Paris Hilton. No one thought the Sonics would ever reunite, but they received a belated career boost when their version of "Have Love, Will Travel" was used in a recent Land Rover commercial, of all things. Now founding members Rob Lind, Larry Parypa and, yes, even Roslie are back, and they're reportedly as loud as ever. Don't dare miss 'em.
Cant send you any GEGAWS cuz you disable HTML Good to see you around. A 1958-1966 graduate of L.H.Bates Voc. Tec. Agape' Richard Welcome to The Dog House Musician and events photographer Member National Photographers at Musicians and Fine Artists for World Peace a network of musicians, artists and performers working to promote events & concerts focused on peace and raising global consciousness.
I spent one the most beautiful holidays of my life in Athens last weekend! Big fun, big emotions, cheap beer, nice people, lovely places and the best band of all time!!!
We thank you for the add. We’re just a small band, but we’d be delighted if you listened to our Garage Rock songs and you sent us any kind of comment!! If u couldn’t we’ll be happy if you just let this comment be shown, so that ur fans & friends get to know us. ☠
thanks for adding me as a friend i love your music sounds grant keep up the grate work glad that you or my friend like to meet new friend so keep in touch and have a wongerfull week god bless
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