The Sonics

For the basketball team, see Seattle SuperSonics.

The Sonics

The Sonics are an American garage rock band from Tacoma, Washington, originating from the early and mid-1960s. Among The Sonics' contemporaries were The Kingsmen, The Wailers, The Dynamics, The Regents, and Paul Revere & the Raiders. This movement is credited with founding Seattle's music scene which survives to the present.

The songs that the band played were a mixture of garage rock standards ("Louie, Louie", "Have Love, Will Travel"), early rock and roll ("Jenny, Jenny", "Skinny Minnie") and original compositions such as "Strychnine", "Psycho", and "The Witch", all based upon simple chord sequences, played hard and fast.

The lyrics of The Sonics' original material dealt with early '60s teenage culture: cars, guitars, surfing, and girls (in songs like "The Hustler", "Boss Hoss" and "Maintaining My Cool") alongside darker subject matter such as drinking strychnine for kicks, witches, psychopaths, and Satan (in the songs "Strychnine", "The Witch", "Psycho", and "He's Waitin'", respectively).

Band members

The classic Sonics lineup, as recorded on Here Are The Sonics and Boom:

• Gerry Roslie — organ, piano, lead vocals
• Andy Parypa — bass guitar
• Larry Parypa — lead guitar, vocals
• Rob Lind — saxophone, vocals, harmonica
• Bob Bennett — drums

Current lineup:

• Gerry Roslie — organ, piano, lead vocals
• Freddie Dennis - bass guitar, vocals
• Larry Parypa — lead guitar, vocals
• Rob Lind — saxophone, harp, vocals
• Ricky Lynn Johnson - drums

Bennett and A. Parypa, unable to travel, were replaced by Johnson and Dennis.

Career

The history of The Sonics began in 1960 in Tacoma, Washington. Larry Parypa played the guitar at that time with a drummer, Mitch Jaber, another guitarist named Stuart Turner, plus a saxophonist and an acoustic bassist. In 1961, Parypa's older brother Andy replaced the bass player and Tony Mabin took over as their new saxophone player.

Turner left for the army and Rich Koch (who had previously played with The Wailers) joined as new lead guitarist and Marilyn Lodge joined as the band's first singer—they had been an instrumental combo until this point. A new drummer, Bill Dean, then replaced Jaber.

Koch and Lodge left the band in 1963. Local star Ray Michelsen became the band's singer after having sung with a handful of other popular bands on the local scene. Larry began looking for a drummer to replace Dean, whom he felt was uncommitted to the band, and found Bob Bennett playing in a band called The Searchers with Gerry Roslie and Rob Lind. Ray Michelsen was looking to leave the band, so the Parypas hired Bennett, Roslie, and Lind and let their previous saxophonist Mabin go.

The well-known lineup was in place, but the Sonics' career as loved by their continuing cult following did not begin until 1964, when Gerry Roslie started singing lead vocals.

With Roslie as lead singer the band started playing gigs at local halls, at such venues as the Red Carpet, Olympia's Skateland, the Evergreen Ballroom, Pearl's, the Spanish Castle Ballroom and St. Mary's Parish Hall.

They were soon scouted by Buck Ormsby, bassist for The Wailers, and signed to The Wailers' own label Etiquette Records. The first single they cut was "The Witch" (with Little Richard's "Keep A-Knockin'" as the B-side), in November 1964. This was immensely popular with local kids, and went on to become the biggest selling local single in the history of the northwest, despite its radio airplay being restricted because of its bizarre subject matter.

Early in 1965, The Sonics began recording an LP, Here Are The Sonics was recorded at Audio Recording in Seattle, WA by famed Pacific Northwest recording engineer Kearney Barton. It was recorded on a two-track tape recorder, with only one microphone to pick up the whole drum kit. It was here that they began to pioneer some of their infamously reckless recording techniques. The next album, Boom followed in February 1966. During the recording, The Sonics ripped the soundproofing off the walls at the country and western-oriented Wiley/Griffith studio in Tacoma, WA, to "get a live-er sound."

This heyday began to wane when the band transferred to Jerden Records in late 1966, and headed to Hollywood to record the poorly selling album Introducing The Sonics with Larry Levine in the Gold Star studios. Although it has been rumoured that Jerden executives pushed The Sonics into a more polished sound, the band had decided to follow new influences in modern music, resulting in songs that were quite different from their raucous early recordings. However, the band wasn't satisfied with the material on Introducing The Sonics, calling the cleaner, slicker recordings "the worst garbage."

The original band fell apart between 1966 and 1968, with members leaving to go to university or to join other bands; Saxophonist Rob Lind became a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War. Eventually, all of the original members left, with new members continuing on with the name Sonics, even though it was a completely different band. During this time the band's sound changed, incorporating string and horn sections.

The original Sonics reunited briefly in 1972 for a Seattle Paramount live show, with the recording of this show released as Live Fanz Only by Etiquette. In 1980, a new Sonics band fronted by Gerry Roslie recorded an album called Sinderella, which featured versions of the original band's material.

In 2007, The Sonics reunited again, this time for the Cavestomp garage rock festival in Brooklyn (November 2–4, 2007). The line up featured original members Gerry Roslie on vocals/keyboards, Larry Parypa on guitar and Rob Lind on tenor sax; with Ricky Lynn Johnson (of The Wailers) on drums and Don Wilhelm (of The Daily Flash) on bass and vocals.

In 2008, The Sonics recorded a live session for Mark Lamarr's BBC Radio 2 show God's Jukebox on March 22. They played their first ever shows in London on Friday March 21 and Sunday March 23.

Since then, they have played the Primavera Festival in Barcelona, followed by Bilbao, then the Sjock Festival in Belgium, Norway, and the Azkena Rock Festival in Vitoria in the Basque Country.

Their first show in their home region since their last Seattle reunion in 1972 was on Halloween 31 October 2008 at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, where they were introduced and joined onstage for a couple numbers by Steven Van Zandt. Kent Morrill (front man of the Wailers) made a surprise appearance to help sing his signature song "Dirty Robber". Bob Bennett was also present to sit in on drums albeit only for a few songs and only while Ricky Lynn Johnson played in unison.

Influence

The Sonics are often-cited contenders for the title of "the first punk/grunge band", due to their wild and unconventional style. The band also have a clearly marked influence on American punk bands such as The Dead Boys in their brash, masculine style and posturing, and on the nineties grunge bands (who originated in the same area), especially Mudhoney, who adopted some of the darker themes from Sonics music, and a lot of their techniques on over-driving and distorting electric guitars. Their reach stretched beyond the U.S.; influential Manchester post-punk group The Fall covered "Strychnine" during a session for the late John Peel's programme in 1993 and they repeatedly performed the song live around this time. As well as all these, there have been whole generations of garage rock revival bands (such as The Thingz) who make no bones of plagiarizing The Sonics and their ilk. The early 21st century saw the arrival of another garage rock band that lists the Sonics as a major influence, Eagles of Death Metal. New Zealand power-punk band Cut Off Your Hands have covered "The Witch" several times in concert.

Japandroids have repeatedly cited The Sonics, one of the few acts that both members could agree on, as a basis for their way of recording and performing.

The White Stripes named The Sonics as one of the bands that influenced them the most, calling them "the epitome of '60s punk" and claiming they were "harder than the Kinks, and punk long before punk".

Nicholaus Arson of The Hives cites The Sonics' version of "Have Love, Will Travel" as a favorite; his band's song "Main Offender" is essentially a rewrite. In addition, members of The Hives played with the reunited Sonics on one occasion.

The Cramps covered "Strychnine" on their debut album "Songs The Lord Taught Us."

The Flaming Lips also covered "Strychnine" on their album "The Day They Shot a Hole in the Jesus Egg."

The Fuzztones made a tribute to them The Fuzztones Boom in 2006.

The electronic media artist Blair Spotswood Dowd featured "The Witch" in her video piece with the same title from 2008.

The Fleshtones, in their "American Beat '84," paid tribute to "The Raiders and the Wailers and the Kingsmen and the Sonics."

The Sword covered "He's Waitin'" as a bonus track in the Japanese edition of their second album, Gods of the Earth.

LCD Soundsystem's seminal release "Losing My Edge" (2002) features a long list of important 20th century musical bands. The litany ends with singer James Murphy repeating 'The Sonics' four times, emphasizing how important the band was.

Kurt Cobain of Nirvana said in an interview with Nardwuar the Human Serviette on CITR-FM, discussing drum sounds,"I, I have to admit... The Sonics recorded very, very cheaply on a two track you know, and they just used one microphone over the drums, and they got the most amazing drum sound I've ever heard. Still to this day, it's still my favorite drum sound. It sounds like he's hitting harder than anyone I've ever known."

A 1993 tribute album entitled Here Ain't The Sonics was released on Popllama Records, featuring contributions from Mudhoney, Mono Men, Screaming Trees, Thee Headcoats, The Cynics, Mojo Nixon and The Original Sins.

Discography

Albums

• Here Are the Sonics (Etiquette Records, 1965)
• Boom (Etiquette, 1966)
• Merry Christmas (Various Artists album, Etiquette, 1966)
• Introducing The Sonics (Jerden, 1967)
• Explosives (Buckshot, 1973)
• The Sonics (SRT, 1978)
• Sinderella (Compilation, Bomp, 1980)
• Fire and Ice (Compilation, First American, 1983; re-released as Fire & Ice: Lost Tapes Vols. 1 & 2 in 1996)
• Full Force! (Compilation, Line, 1984; re-released as Full Force! The Best of The Sonics in 1987)
• Live Fanz Only (Etiquette, 1986)
• The Ultimate Sonics (Compilation, Etiquette, 1991)
• Maintaining My Cool (Compilation, Jerden, Munster Records, 1991)
• Psycho-Sonic (Compilation, Big Beat, 1993)
• This Is... The Savage Young Sonics (Compilation, Norton, 2001)
• The Jerden Years 1966-69 (Compilation, Munster, 2004)
• Busy Body!!! Live in Tacoma 1964 (Live, Norton, 2007)
• 8 (EP,The Sonics Record Co., 2010)

Singles

• "The Witch"/"Keep A-Knockin'" (Etiquette, 1964)
• "The Witch"/"Psycho" (Etiquette, 1965)
• "Psycho"/"Keep A-Knockin'" (Etiquette, 1965)
• "Boss Hoss"/"The Hustler" (Etiquette, 1965)
• "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark"/"Shot Down" (Etiquette, 1965)
• The Sonics' "Don't Believe In Christmas"/The Wailers' "Christmas Spirit" (Etiquette, 1965)
• "Cinderella"/"Louie Louie" (Etiquette, 1965)
• "You Got Your Head On Backwards"/"Love Light" (Jerden, 1966)
• "Like No Other Man"/"Love Light" (Jerden, 1966)
• "The Witch"/"Like No Other Man" (Jerden, 1966)
• "Psycho"/"Maintaining My Cool" (Jerden, 1966)
• "Love-itis"/"You're In Love" (Jerden, 1967)
• "Lost Love"/"Any Way The Wind Blows" (Piccadilly, 1967)
• "Any Way The Wind Blows"/"Lost Love" (UNI, 1967)
• "Dirty Old Man"/"Bama Lama Bama Loo" (Burdette, 1975)
• "The Witch"/"Bama Lama Bama Loo" (Great Northwest, 1979)
• "The Witch"/"Keep A-Knockin'" (Norton, 1998)
• "Psycho"/"Have Love Will Travel" (Norton, 1998)
• "Cinderella"/"He's Waitin'" (Norton, 1998)
• "Boss Hoss"/"The Hustler" (Norton, 1998)
• "Strychnine"/"Shot Down" (Norton, 1998)
• The Sonics' "Louie Louie"/The Wailers' "Louie Louie" (Norton, 1998)
• "Don't Believe In Christmas"/"Santa Claus" (Norton, 1998)

External links

• The Sonics at Allmusic
• Sonics licensing