The Sonics - Strychnine

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 Drastics, The Dynamics, The Regents, and Paul Revere & the Raiders. This movement is credited with founding Seattle's well-known music scene which survives to the present.

The Sonics' sound is more harder and rougher and even more brutal than their other similar musical acts from that time. The band sometimes regarded as the first punk rock group, though well before the punk movement took off in the late 1970s.

The songs they 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 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

The Sonics is out touring and yesterday they visit Stockholm and Debaser for a sold out show, the opening act is The Most and The Nomads.



Todays tune "Strychnine", The Sonics Live Halloween 31 October 2008 at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle.



August 23, 2009 in Los Angeles. Shot on Hi-8 on a mono-pod over the heads of the audience.



More info @ The Sonics at the AMG or The Official Sonics fan Website



Other nice to know stuff:

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".

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

Quotes about The Sonics

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."

"Oh, dude, you gotta go get the Sonics! First off, you’re gonna see exactly where the Hives' 'Veni Vidi Vicious' was directly ripped off from. But you’re going to get it at the source. It’s basically the dudes that inspired the Stooges. From ’64 to about ’69, they put out two great records, 'Here Come the Sonics' and 'Sonics Boom'…it’s actually a toss-up between them…probably 'Sonics Boom' (is the better one), because it’s got "Shot Down" on it. But it’s white dudes obsessed with Little Richard, and they create something called punk rock." - Jesse Hughes, Eagles of Death Metal

"They're the missing link between Little Richards and MC5" - The leader of "The Nomads" (80's Swedish garage rock band)