BOWL CUTS, FUZZ AND POINTY BOOTS

Man, I gotta say. Lenny Kaye did us a solid so many years ago. He put together the first Nuggets compilation, at the time a two record set. It was the first compilation of garage bands when compilations were a rarity and "garage band" a term only used by total music fiends. Released way back in '72 before he was playing in Patti Smith's band, when he was a writer that worked in a record store. It was followed by single LPs compilations of more nuggets and by the time the late seventies punk rock thing happened, a lot of the bands had added covers taken from the compilations. The cool thing was that the original 45s, recorded from 1963-68, were still to be found in thrift stores and dusty record racks.

All the Nuggets compilations would soon be followed by Crypt Records' Back From the Grave series. While drawing from the same idea, Back From the Grave compilations leaned towards the more obscure bands, most regional releases, like Nuggets mid-sixties garage bands every bit as wild, in most cases wilder, and as a result none drawn from hits. There was also a series of Pebbles compilations and Sundazed Records' Garage Beat '66 series which narrowed it down to a single year, 1966 being about the peak of garage snottiness.

Here's a handful I was buggin' out too back in the day, from the earliest Nuggets compilations. I think four of these charted, so, yeah, it's really like a beginners course. Most of you know these well but if they're new to you, this is really basic shit you should know. If you dig them, a heads up. It is a very deep rabbit hole. I'd start with the first Nuggets and then the first Back From the Grave and go from there. It's slippery. Beware the jingle jangle.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~ 

Listen:
Music Machine - Talk Talk mp3 at Internet Archive
The Sonics - Strychnine mp3 at Internet Archive
The Barbarians - Are You A Boy or Are You A Girl mp3 at Internet Archive
Love - Seven and Seven Is mp3 at Internet Archive
The Seeds - Pushin' Too Hard mp3 at Internet Archive
The Count Five - Psychotic Reaction mp3 at Internet Archive
Chocolate Watch Band - Let's Talk About Girls mp3 at Internet Archive

WGASA NIGHT SPECIAL

Don't know wgasa? The story goes like this. The San Diego Zoological Society already had the "World Famous" San Diego Zoo (it is a good zoo) and were getting ready to either open, or add an attraction to, the San Diego Wild Animal Park (now called Safari Park"), which isn't in San Diego proper but about thirty miles North. The attraction was a tram that would zip you around the park which was like a zoo but with way more open space to give the illusion of natural habitats. Anyway, according to the story, prior to the debut, the suits were having meetings, decisions had to be made. One of the things that had yet to be decided: they had to think of a name for this tram. Someone, bold and bored, said, "Who Gives A Shit Anyway?" There you have it. WGASA. That's what tonight is. I'll just post some random crap, because this Jeff the Brotherhood video has me more interested in a fuckin' summertime nature party. Good times. Who gives a shit anyway?

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
King Khan - Suffragette City mp3 at Rollo and Grady
Pack - Nobody Can Tell Us mp3 at Rising Storm
The Oblivians - I'm Not a Sicko, There's a Plate in my Head mp3 at Internet Archive
Video:
The Seeds - Mr. Farmer at YouTube

HOWDY NEIGHBOR. WHO'S SKY SAXON?

My neighbor Tony just moved out and I'm a little bummed. Tony moved here from England, shit, about seven or eight years (maybe ten?) having bought a bar a few blocks away. Him and his business partner turned it into some sort of Irish bar that had bands, none of which played Irish music or had any noticeable signs of being Irish, except maybe on their Mom's side of the family, but the place was painted all green, called The Harp, played all the soccer games and had a bunch of beer company mirrors.

But that wasn't the Tony I knew (and will hopefully still know for years to come). Tony was the one guy who lived in my apartment complex that knew the music I did. He was about my age and despite growing up in the UK had tastes remarkably like mine. Punk rock, reggae, rockabilly, all sorts of shit. One conversation that stuck with me for some reason was one that we had when John Holt died about three years ago. Tony mentioned Holt's LP 1,000 Volts of Holt as a favorite and I concurred. When it's been a while since you last connected over a particular artist with someone outside of your little like minded musical clique, shit like that stands out. Just as one of my last conversations with Tony did. When I was lamenting the fact that there wouldn't be anyone around the complex to talk music with, he assured me there would. Yeah, I said, that might be the case, but only to a certain degree. He said that I would know their depth by asking one question, if they knew who Sky Saxon was. And that right there is what I'll miss.

Sky Saxon, litmus test.

Here's some assorted John Holt cuts. Finding stuff on the Seeds (Sky Saxon's band) is nearly impossible outside of streaming media. At least hard enough that I'm throwing in the towel for the night.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
John Holt - Ali Baba at ATumblr (?)
John Holt - Strange Things mp3 at Secretargot (?)
Holt with the Paragons
The Paragons - Silver Bird mp3 at Pixie Radio
The Paragons - Man Next Door mp3 at Bass Shaka Backing Horace Andy
The Paragons - Wear You to the Ball mp3 at Kazo's Marley Discography
Sky Saxon:
The Seeds - Pushin' Too Hard (streaming) at YouTube
The Seeds - Out of the Question (streaming) at YouTube

STILL ON YOUR FEET?

You're almost there. I know, I thought it would never end. I'm still kind of in the thick of it, but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to give you a little booster shot. So, make like the runner that crawls over the finish line; and to help you out, here's a baker's dozen of standbys. Thanks for being patient while I placated the holiday freaks.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

The Music Machine - Talk Talk mp3 at The Bomarr Blog
The Chocolate Watch Band - Let's Talk About Girls mp3 at Planet Mondo
Flash & the Memphis Casuals - Uptight Tonight mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Seeds - Pushin' Too Hard mp3 at Listen Before You Buy
The Sonics - Have Love Will Travel mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Pretty Things - Buzz the Jerk mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Love - 7 & 7 Is mp3 at Siblingshot on the Bleachers
Outsiders - Touch mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Groupies - Primitive mp3 at A Barrel of Nails
The Wailers - Out of Our Tree mp3 at Beware of the Blog
13th Floor Elevators - You're Gonna Miss Me mp3 at A Barrel of Nails
Them - Just a Little Bit mp3 at Beware of the Blog
? and the Mysterians - 96 Tears mp3 at Plain or Pan

SKY SAXON: THE SEEDS, THE ZEROS AND THE LEGACY OF REBELLION

Last Thursday morning, on the Zeros' Javier Escovedo's Facebook page there was a simple one line tribute "I got the Seeds on the stereo", a line lifted from the Zeros song "Wild Weekend", one he wrote thirty years ago. To anyone who knows the Zeros and the Seeds, the message was apparent, and there was perhaps no more fitting tribute. When "Wild Weekend" was originally released, that simple nod to the Seeds added much to the Zeros' pedigree. While a lot of punk bands at the time cited the New York Dolls, the Stooges, the MC5 and other post-garage bands (which the Zeros did too), few mentioned the Seeds, the Standells, and others from the first garage era. It was clear that the Zeros were not jumping on some sort of bandwagon, this was pure lineage.

Unlike the "destroy (something)", "anarchy (something or other)" prevalent in '77 era punk lyrics, the Zeros, like the bands of the garage band era, touched on the pulse of teen angst. They didn't have to scare parents, they just reminded us not-quite-adults that parents were the opposing team. Nowhere did they convey it better than their in-your-face second single "Wild Weekend". We enter the scene, with the parents gone, a girl on the way over, and a six-pack procured:

Baby, baby, I can't let go,

I got the Seeds on the stereo,

If they walked in now,

Man, I'd get get hung,

but I don't care,

Fuck them, I'm young,

.

It gonna be a wild weekend,

and I just know it,

I'm feelin' crazy,

and I gotta show it.

The fact that Javier chose that for his Facebook header on Thursday says volumes. It was the same day the original Zeros line-up was reuniting for a hometown gig, for the first time in years. He could have plugged the show, or the recently released "Zeros Live in Madrid" DVD, but he didn't. The tip of the hat did not go not unnoticed. It was, in fact, how I figured something in the Sky Saxon Seeds camp had happened.

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[7/4/09: The LA Times July 4th account of the Zeros' reunion show concludes with "Earlier in the day came news of Michael Jackson's death, yet the Zeros have another musical icon in mind. The final encore song is "Pushin' Too Hard," a garage rock classic and anthem of romantic angst by the Seeds, whose singer Sky Saxon also had passed away that day."]

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You've no doubt heard that Sky Saxon, lead singer of the Seeds, sneered his last on Thursday. With him, a piece of our team passed. Unlike most of his contemporaries, he never really crossed over to the other side. To wit: most middle-aged people would feel comfortable, even honored, to sit down and dine with Mick Jagger. But you put a sixty-something Sky Saxon in front of them and they would run. On the other hand, twenty-somethings would look at him and instantly know that he had something going on, at least enough to know that he wasn't like their parents. The phrase "cool old dude" comes to mind.

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"I ran out of gas one day, so I took Michael Jackson's album in, and all I could get was a dollar" - Sky Saxon, 'Rolling Stone' #456

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Back in 1976, Lester Bangs, wrote an excellent essay "Protopunk: The Garage Bands," in which he described the Seeds appeal:

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"For my money, the Seeds best epitomized the allure L.A. had then: there was real smog in Daryl Hooper's organ melodica and Sky Saxon's Mick Jagger routine seemed somewhat more convincing, though every bit as trashy as all the others of the era. Perhaps it was because Sky Saxon really believed every moronic word that he was singing in their rattling little songs, each sounding the same as their one big hit, 'Pushin' Too Hard.'"

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"All the bikers around San Diego thought the Seeds were the apocalypse, then. I recall one hog-ridin' couple, Candy and Smacker, who didn't take the Seeds first album off their turntable for three solid months."

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Take it from Candy and Smacker...and Lester Bangs...and the Zeros. No further endorsement is neccesary.

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The Seeds - Pushin' Too Hard mp3 at For the Sake of the Song

The Seeds - Can't Seem to Make You Mine mp3 at For the Sake of the Song

The Seeds - No Escape mp3 at For the Sake of the Song

The Seeds - Mr. Farmer video on YouTube

The Seeds - Pushin' Too Hard video on YouTube

The Seeds - Can't Seem to Make You Mind video on YouTube

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The Zeros - Wild Weekend mp3 at Last Days of Man On Earth

The Zeros - Beat Your Heart Out mp3 at Last Days of Man On Earth

Zeros Reunite for Summer Shows at the L.A.Times

Lengthy Zeros bio at Che Underground

Sky Saxon photo by Mark Berry