Here Are The Sonics (1965)

Here Are the Sonics is the debut album by American garage rock band the Sonics, released in March 1965. The album features the original songs "The Witch" (a minor regional hit), "Psycho", "Boss Hoss" and "Strychnine", along with an assortment of rock and roll and R&B covers.

Release

Here Are the Sonics was released in 1965 by record label Etiquette. It was re-released in 1999 by Norton Records.

Music

According to Loren DiBlasi of Paste, the album "scraped off whatever polish rock 'n' roll had accumulated and jammed a distorted boogie into the mix behind the deranged squawking of Gerry Roslie."

Reception

Cub Koda of AllMusic wrote that the album "show a live band at the peak of its power, ready to mow down the competition without even blinking twice", calling it "Another important chunk of Seattle rock and roll history."

Loren DiBlasi of Paste Magazine said: "The Sonics didn't just point the way toward a louder, more chaotic rock sound with their debut; they also helped define how a garage rock album was made, with limited mics and lots of bleed congealing into a primordial stew of barely controlled commotion. It added up to a pre-cursor to just about every style of late 20th-century rock 'n' roll, including punk, post-punk and grunge."

The album was included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Personnel

• The Sonics
• Gerry Roslie – organ, piano, lead vocals
• Andy Parypa – bass guitar, vocals
• Larry Parypa – lead guitar, vocals
• Rob Lind – saxophone, vocals, harmonica
• Bob Bennett – drums
• Technical
• Buck Ormsby – production
• Kent Morrill – production
• Kearney Barton – engineering
• John L. Vlahovich – sleeve design
• Pete Ciccone/Immaculate Concepts – sleeve layout
• Jini Dellaccio – cover photography