Three Takes: Favorite Sonics Songs
The Sonics are coming to First Avenue tomorrow night (Sat)! We’re pretty excited about it and you should be too (that is, if you like Garage Rock and/or Punk, both of which this band had a huge influence on). To get ourselves in the mood for the show we are each contributing our favorite Sonics song, as well as a little piece about why:
Josh
I could have picked any song off of Here Are The Sonics, as it is one of those albums I can listen to start to finish over and over again, but side two opener “Pyscho” is hard to beat. A more deranged and scuzzy take on the same melody as “Twist and Shout,” it is classic Sonics. Equally bubblegum melodies and barbed wire distortion, it is both commanding and catchy. They are legends of garage rock and grandfathers to punk. They threaded the needle in a way few, in any, have done before or since. “Pyscho” is amazing, but so is just about every song on their classic 1965 debut. Long live The Sonics.
Adam
While The Sonics wrote and covered all the popular rock n roll topics of the time (girls, cars, etc) they came out of the gate pretty hard with a few dark singles in the mid 60s. A haunting little melody starts “Strychnine” before things kick into the finest fuzzed out garage rock song about drinking pesticide for fun. Add in a completely fuzzed out guitar solo and you’ve got yourself a good time.
Jon
The raucous guitar riff at the center of “The Witch” is one of rock and roll’s grittiest, most dangerous sounding riffs ever. I would put it up there with Link Wray’s “Rumble” as perhaps being the most immediately evocative of all the things I associate with rock and roll: danger, sex, effortless cool, and a rollicking good time. listening to it makes me want to put on shades, light up a smoke, and pocket a switchblade. I wouldn’t advise doing any of those things at First Avenue tomorrow night though – leave rock to the pros.
