Show notes
"GERMINATING IN THE SOIL"THE WEB OF SOUND by The Seeds (GNP Crescendo, 1966)1966 was probably the high water mark year for Garage Rock: There was Gloria by Shadows of Knight; Psychotic Reaction by Count V; Talk Talk by the Music Machine; We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet by The Blues Magoos, and the Eldorado of the genre: 96 Tears by ? And the Mysterians - just imagine all that Fuzz -Farfisa ripeness! Even yours truly at age 13 had his band The Full House covering all those tunes at the Princeton Hospital Fete that summer.But the undisputed King of Garage Rock was Sky Saxon of The Seeds (one of the house bands at Bido Lito’s in Hollywood - also home of Love), and this recording The Web of Sound has all the elements of what one critic called “snotty aggression with some heavier psychedelic flourishes” that made garage rock the indelible statement that it was. The 14 minute “Up in her Room” , with its penetrating bottleneck guitar work by Cooker, has been compared to The Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray”, and the influence of The Seeds, like their east coast counterparts, the Velvets, was enormous. Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper and many other credit Sky and his band to be their inspirations.Sky, born Richard Elven Marsh to a Mormon family in 1937, had traveled a long distance spiritually when he joined the Yahowha vegetarian cult following Father Yod, taking the additional name of “Sunlight.” Enroute, he masterminded some of the most infectiously growling proto- punk ever, and on this set he leads us through its many mansions with slimy yet sinuous renditions of Tripmaker, Farmer John, and Rolling Machine.Interesting note: this cartridge is not an 8, but a 4 track - the format that preceded the 8. The carts have no pinch roller, and the tape is engaged by a lever on the player. Ancient technology for the most primitive of wonderments.Side One:1. | "Mr. Farmer" | Sky Saxon | 2:522. | "Pictures and Designs" | Daryl Hooper, Saxon | 2:443. | "Tripmaker" | Hooper, Marcus Tybalt | 2:484. | "I Tell Myself" | Tybalt | 2:315. | "A Faded Picture" | Hooper, Saxon | 5:206. | "Rollin' Machine" | Saxon, Tybalt | 2:32Side Two:1. | "Just Let Go" | Hooper, Jan Savage, Saxon | 4:212. | "Up in Her Room" | Saxon | 14:45