The Sonics (Garage Sixties)

From time to time, Still in Rock’s anachronique section takes an interest in a legend recognized as such. The (supposed) legitimacy of this series depends on it. Today, Still in Rock has therefore decided to honor one of the first – and also one of the best – Garage bands of all time: The Sonics, formed in Tacoma (out west, Washington State). It’s one of two things: (i) you are die-hard Sonics fans and so won’t hold it against me for devoting this week’s anachronique article to this Garage star, (ii) or else you have never spent the 3 minutes needed to realize the band’s genius, and I can already see your smile at the idea of going home tonight and listening to this out-of-control music.

Once the band was chosen, it was impossible not to opt for reviewing Here Are The Sonics!!!, the band’s first album, released in 1965. This opus, made up of 16 tracks, every one of them pharaonic, is one of the pioneers of Garage Rock. Here Are The Sonics!!! gives off an energy never matched since. Without going as far as the exuberance of the Mummies, the Sonics always knew how to play a psycho with ingenuity. Only four tracks are originals: “The Witch“, “Boss Hoss“, “Psycho“, and “Strychnine“. I would nonetheless be tempted to point out that the others are just as original, so disruptive is the Sonics’ interpretation. Recorded with the speakers at full blast, pencils stuck into them to saturate everything, the Sonics stand out for that unheard-of violence that would later inspire every Garage band. On that account, and considering Still in Rock’s line, The Sonics is probably the most important band in the whole anachronique series.

Asked about the Sonics, Kurt Cobain himself admitted “they still got the most amazing drum sound I ever heart. Still to this day, it’s my favorite drum sound. It sound like he is hiting harder than everyone I ever know“. That is indeed one of the Sonics’ main characteristics. But let’s not forget to mention Gerry Roslie’s voice, just as hard-hitting as the drums.

“The Witch“, the first track and already the first hit, fogs up the mind with 5 notes repeated all the way through. You can already hear the guitar sound that would make the band’s success. And how could you not already mention Gerry Roslie’s voice again, whose vocal cords seem made for attack. “Do You Love Me” represents the era’s obligatory stop at love songs. The Sonics make a totally legit version of it, a kind of Power Garage that never lets up in intensity. And then the band takes on fifties rock’n’roll with “Roll Over Beethoven“. A song written by Chuck Berry, it is one of the rare Sonics tracks where the vocals are arranged in chorus. “Dirty Robber” goes in a similar style.

Then comes the great, the immense “Have Love Will Travel“. The Sonics’ ultimate hit, along with the one that follows, this is without question what you call an immortal song. Not only timeless, it also serves as a barometer: someone who doesn’t see in it the sixties power in all its splendor is a bad person. The second half sweeps us right into the world of a Tarantino. You find the same pleasure of delight in it. And then, as I said, “Psycho” comes next to reinject two minutes of Garage. When I told you the band is unmatched. This song is the most emblematic in this group’s entire history, one of the 20 best Garage songs in history.

“Money” suffers from its place in the tracklist, even though it knocks granny’s socks off too. “Strychnine” is not to be outdone. The Sonics find a new drive there, the one that would inspire the Blues Rock scene many years later. The early Black Keys and Jon Spencer owe everything to this kind of track. “Don’t Believe In Christmas“, already featured in Still in Rock’s Christmas is Cancelled mixtape, is definitely one of the best Christmas songs in history. No less. The band then went on with “Santa Claus“, to finish on the sound of Santa’s sleigh with “The Village Idiot“. It’s true that the big mustachioed man well deserved Gerry Roslie’s last screams. A song for the birth of ironic-n’roll.

Never shy of a contrast, Here Are The Sonics!!! plays heavily on very classic rock’n’roll structures. Yet at a time when every haircut was a bowl cut, the band did not hesitate to deliver a sound whose dust we are still struggling to vacuum up. From a technical point of view, the Sonics created, in my view, one of the very best sounds in history. In short, The Sonics is one of the greatest post-modern groups (it is still a step ahead of the current scene, by the way) that worked with the codes of its time. Disruptive and avant-garde, the Sonics’ music presents a paradox that few have managed to exploit. Perhaps you could name the Velvet, the Ramones, Pavement and Big Star, but who else, really?

50 years later, the Sonics’ music still never stops surprising us. The band would never repeat the same feat. It must be said that Here Are The Sonics!!! is a notch below everything else that came out that year (I know, Rubber Soul is also from 1965). So, Psycho?

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