The Sonics (US)

In the mid-60s, a gang of kids from the northwestern corner of the US laid down a new set of premises for raw rock’n’roll. They called themselves The Sonics and made a brutal and primitive kind of rock’n’roll of which the world had not heard the likes. The band played faster, harder, and more mercilessly than any of their contemporaries. And so, today, when the term garage rock is mentioned, the name The Sonics is the first one to pop up in many people’s heads. After the band fell apart during the last half of the 60s, the myth surrounding the five young rockers grew big and strong, and today they’re considered as one of the most important American cult bands of that decade. Numerous garage rock, punk, hard rock, and indie bands, as well as acts from other seditious genres, have confessed that they’re highly inspired by these guys. The band hit the bulls-eye with self-composed material such as “The Witch”, “Psycho”, “Boss Hoss”, “The Hustler”, “Don’t Be Afraid of The Dark”, “Shot Down”, “Cinderella”, and “Strychnine”. In addition, they delivered high-voltage, powerful cover versions of songs like “Do You Love Me”, “Money”, “Don’t You Just Know It”, “Have Love, Will Travel”, “Louie, Louie”, and “Jenny, Jenny”. The Sonics introduced punk rock long before it began making the headlines in British newspapers.

The Sonics were founded in the early 60s in Tacoma, Washington. They leaned heavily on Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and other heroes of the 50s, but played their own songs and those of others with an impressive energy and spirit. The two albums ‘Here Are The Sonics’ (1965) and ‘Boom’ (1966) are mandatory parts of any decent record collection. A while later, ‘Introducing The Sonics’ (1967) came out, but was a slight disappointment, as the sound was far too nice and neat, going by the Sonics standard. In their day, The Sonics were number one in the field of sweaty, horny, and dirty rock’n’roll. Their distinct sound was in a large part owed to singer Jerry Roslie’s primal screams and aggressive howls, as well as Larry Parypa’s guitar sound experiments, which involved almost breaking his equipment just to get the sound dirty and hard enough. In their heyday, they supposedly played support for The Beach Boys, The Kinks, and The Byrds. We can only imagine how the boys from Tacoma must have blown the minds of both the great stars and the unsuspecting audiences.

The Sonics reunited for a short while back in the 70s, but most people have yet to experience them live. This fall they played in New York in front of an audience that could hardly believe what they were witnessing. Today’s line-up includes original members Jerry Roslie (singer, songwriter, and keyboard player), Larry Parypa (guitar), and Rob Lind (saxophone), as well as drummer Ricky Lynn Johnson (who originally played in buddy-band The Wailers) and bass player Don Wilhelm. Their performance at the Øya Festival on Saturday Aug. 9 will be their first visit to Scandinavia ever. Make sure you’re there to see it.

www.myspace.com/sonicsthe