Wild Guitar (1962)


Trailer

I used to hang out with Rowland back in the days, in the 80s I guess, friends and partners in crime. Yes, he was a great guitarist but I remember Rowland as one of the nicest guys around. Sure, there was some freaky shit happening, but he was modest, humble, intelligent and sharp as a razor. Rowland dying is pretty fuckin' sad, especially under the circumstances. I'm glad he is remembered on this forum...

I bought the single 'Release the bats'.

They were great...Tracy Pew (RIP) had a great bass guitar sound, especially on "Six Inch Gold Blade". The screamin' Soul Preacher said:

I still can't realize this...and I still haven't got the "strength" to get and listen to his last record, "Pop crimes"...
Has anyone did ?

Andy Seven says : "I remember seeing The Birthday Party live at The Roxy (Sunset Strip) right after "The Bad Seed" was released"
Wow !!! How I wish I could have seen them ! Must have been a great moment !

I still can't realize this...and I still haven't got the "strength" to get and listen to his last record, "Pop crimes"...
Has anyone did ?

Andy Seven says : "I remember seeing The Birthday Party live at The Roxy (Sunset Strip) right after "The Bad Seed" was released"
Wow !!! How I wish I could have seen them ! Must have been a great moment !

You can never really go back to where you came from Rod! You gotta keep moving forward. I think that is why the Sonics resisted reuniting for such a long time (that and some personal BS between them all) Still they are a heckuva band nonetheless. Rockin Rod Strychnine said:

I thought they sounded more like their 72 reunion show at the Paramount then they did their records, but that's OK because even in 72, they didn't sound contemporary, in fact they sounded more like what retro bands would sound like in the late 70s and early to mid 80s, even early 90s. I'm really just glad that they didn't feel the need to update like the Wailers and the Kingsmen have.

I thought they sounded more like their 72 reunion show at the Paramount then they did their records, but that's OK because even in 72, they didn't sound contemporary, in fact they sounded more like what retro bands would sound like in the late 70s and early to mid 80s, even early 90s. I'm really just glad that they didn't feel the need to update like the Wailers and the Kingsmen have.

I was at the Halloween Reunion show in Seattle in 2008! I had a friend give me a Front Row Center Seat. I was so close I got to see Larry Parypa's hands on the fretboard of his guitar! That night he was using a Fender amp, but the sound was still like the record. As I said before, they used different gear at different times. On the cover of "For Fanz Only!" they are using Vox Amps. Once they started playing larger venues they had to get amps that would do the job better. They used small amps in the studio. I have interviewed Kearney Barton several times about how and where he recorded the Sonics and other PacNW bands. It depends on the date that certain tracks were done too. Kearney Barton's studio was "Audio Recording Inc." and is still in operation today with almost all the same mic and console. Kearney used a different console and was in different location in 1964 when "The Witch" and "Psycho" as well as other tracks from "Here Are the Sonics" LP were recorded. He moved to 5th Ave (under the Monorail which is now the Chillhuly Glass Studio) in 1965. I know the date of this because I know the person who built his (still current) console Glenn D. White. There was an imperfection on some of the metal scribework on part of that console because it was on the engraving machine when the 1965 Seattle Quake hit. Kearney pointed this out to me as well. If you want to read more about that stuff go here; http://www.vagrantrecords.com/other/news/vgNews4.html It is another article I wrote about Glenn D. White for Tape Op Magazine and talks about Glenn's Career, but there are some cool photos I have posted there too. Lastly, nobody but the Sonics really knows how they got their sound in the studio and even they don't know why their fans still like them. They are just Happy that they all are still appreciated by a new generation of fans. They don't want to re-create the 60s in there shows, they just want to play good Music. Jamie said:

Here's an interesting quote from this website:
"Parypa's Lonnie Mack-after-40-cups-of-coffee sound came from playing his Jazzmaster (with the low E string turned down to D) through the keyboardist's Magnatone amp." and from the official myspace: "Roslie nails the take on the second try, once he gets his vintage Magnatone amp to work correctly. “That’s the secret to our sound,” Roslie jokes." Looks like this is the answer then! Thanks Joe.

Here's an interesting quote from this website: "Parypa's Lonnie Mack-after-40-cups-of-coffee sound came from playing his Jazzmaster (with the low E string turned down to D) through the keyboardist's Magnatone amp." and from the official myspace: "Roslie nails the take on the second try, once he gets his vintage Magnatone amp to work correctly. “That’s the secret to our sound,” Roslie jokes." Looks like this is the answer then! Thanks Joe.

i heard the sonics used magnatone amps.

Here's a picture that has what looks like a Fender Bandmaster. But if you scroll through you'll see that amp in several pics, so maybe it belonged to the venue?

I started with easy songs like Elvis and Jerry lee Lewis tunes, and things like Louie Louie, What I Like About You. I had a little bit of theory but really got into writing after learning stuff off of Young Fresh Fellows and Smithereens. I got back into covers after a couple of years of that, stuff like Action Woman and Try It. But that diagram above, I think I would have gotten lost and gave up.

Well I think that play "with" and "off" the records it's the better way to learn,and that sound is not less important that what you play.I remember when I did this with a cassette player pushin' for thousands times RWD and PLAY.. Now there are many ways pratical,faster and cheap (free).But if you like to compose your own stuff,i think it is necessary to learn about theory of music just a little.So everyone can choose the way he prefers,software,books,private lessons,but of course you can't be aware of what you want to do in music just listening to it,and "playing wih heart". Most thinks that there's no need to know notes ,chords ,theory to play garage punk music,but it's not so obvious as could it seems.Almost every band we know consider this.Maybe,not at their first records ,but at the second or third album you see the difference.(..and the first one remains the best for several bands..)

I'd be gentle...except that I didn't have "software" to help me. I had one of those Mel Bay guitar books, learned the chords, identified the sounds, and learned which chords went together. Learned songs by listening to the records. What you do is listen to the bottom bass note, whatever is dominant is usually the key the band is playing in. I don't bother learning songs out of song books because they are usually wrong done by some fancy pants who tries to make them harder usually for piano players who hate basic keys.

Here's our incredibly long band link on the podsafe music network:

http://www.musicalley.com/music/listeners/artistdetails.php?BandHash=83999488834b33bc55e2d46382d583fe

Thanks!
The Nevermores
St. Louis

I subscribed. Stick with it. And always link to your previous pieces, so you get multiple page views from people who discover the column later. Good luck! Oh, and kids, if you like weird old movies, I'm the Austin Classic Movies Examiner. So subscribe to both Kopper's and my columns, and click the shit out of 'em! We get paid by the page view...

Great review of Cococoma, nothing wrong with getting paid for something you are doing in some way or form. You have just realized teh many dreams of most of this community. Keep posting your article links over here so we don't forget about it...

Hey folks,

I just got a gig as the "Garage Punk Examiner" at Examiner.com, but now I need some stuff to write about. So contact me if you'd like for me to review your record or write about an upcoming garage fest or something. I'll even review or write about videos, movies, books, magazines... whatever. Basically anything related to this crazy music.

By the way, thanks to Mal Thursday for the lead! :)

Thanks!

it's amazing...

Is that Mike with the guitar and plunger on the cover? Sectmaniac said:

I think it was written primarily by Mike Lucas, but he said they all contributed. I agree. It's a FANTASTIC book and everyone should own a copy!!

I think it was written primarily by Mike Lucas, but he said they all contributed. I agree. It's a FANTASTIC book and everyone should own a copy!!

Just started reading this and I thought I'd post the link to the book on Amazon.com. Get it! It's hilarious. Written by Mel Bergman (well, technically his entire band - The Phantom Surfers - contributed to it). Here's the description from the publisher's website:

keep on rockin' and surfin' on clouds Jay

Here you can read the eulogy by Eric Oblivian with some funny anecdotes: http://www.memphisflyer.com/SingAllKinds/archives/2010/01/17/rock-in-peace-friends-and-family-say-goodbye-to-jay-reatard I'm still wondering what the hell happened. That homicide investigation turned out to be a bullshit story.