The Seeds @ C2 On Wed 18th June 2003
Published 14th May 2003 by Concorde2

Best known for their rock & roll standard ?Pushin? Too Hard?, The Seeds combined the raw appeal of garage rock with a fondness for psychedelia. They were the creation of the charismatic Sky Saxon (vocals), who recruited Jan Savage (guitar), Daryl Hooper (keyboards) and Rick Andridge (drums) and made a deal with a local LA label, which was home to several other legendary garage punksters, for a debut 45, ?Can?t Seem To Make you Mine? (1965). This was a slow, driven piece that highlighted Saxon?s unique vocal style. ?Pushin? Too Hard? (1966), the ultimate Seeds song, reached number 36 in the Billboard chart.

During the mid 60?s, suburban garages across America rocked to the fuzz ? drenched frenzy created by kids hoping to emulate The Seeds who were one of the biggest and best bands to emerge from the garage-band phenomenon. Their style was undeniably simple but nonetheless brilliantly original. Muddy Waters once called The Seeds ?America?s own Rolling Stones?.

The Seeds? debut album arrived in April 1966. Their lyrics were infected by a wondrous charm, while the blend of British and blues influences served notice that The Seeds were developing a sound quite distinct from that of their ?Louie Louie? based rivals. ?Evil Hoodoo? is a piece of high-octane freak-beat that was as much a genuine slice of punk as anything the 70?s threw up.

A second, more adventurous LP, A Web Of Sound, appeared in October 1966. The album brimmed with rockin? mid-60?s classics, including the 14-minute ?Up In Her Room? and the tight groover ?Mr. Farmer, which provided the Seeds with another smash into the charts. ?Mr. Farmer? was recently included on the soundtrack to the film Almost Famous directed by Cameron Crowe and winning a grammy for best film soundtrack.

The band then changed their garage style and threw the lot in with the emergent flower-power movement. The Seeds coined the term ?flower power? only to watch it crumble in commercial media hype. The result was Future (1967). Saxon?s compositions now contained a strong element of acid-tinged horticultural playful whimsy while the band, like the Beatles, were innovators with Eastern style instrumentation.

Success seemed just around the corner, especially when the band cameoed in Jack Nicholson?s Psych Out film and were regularly headlining above The Doors, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, Vanilla Fudge and the Kinks. Then came a Spoonful Of Seedy Blues (1967), released under the moniker of Sky Saxon?s Blues band and featuring sleeve notes by Muddy Waters. The Seeds were back, however, with the 1968 album Raw And Alive: Merlin?s Music Box, which featured powerful live versions of all the bands best known material and a new stormer, ?Satisfy You?.

After a tremendously long break, Saxon reformed The Seeds to perform the Summer Of Love tour in 1989 that featured Love, Big Brother & The Holding Company and Strawberry Alarm Clock and in 2002 Saxon put together a new band of seasoned LA pros along with Jan Savage, the original guitarist, to perform The Seeds classic songs.

The Seeds finally come to the UK and Europe in June 2003?

The Seeds are: Sky Saxon (vocals) / Jan Savage (guitar) / Rick Collins (bass) / Dave Klein (keyboards) / Justin Palami (guitar) / (Mark Bellgraph (guitar)

4404 Views