The Seeds - Self-Titled

Released 60 years ago: the self-titled debut album by L.A. band The Seeds. Fronted and produced by songwriter Sky Saxon (28), this LP reached just #132 Billboard but is now considered a psych-garage-rock classic, due partly to the inclusion of singles “Can’t Seem to Make You Mine” (#41 Billboard) + “Pushin’ Too Hard” (#36) both originally issued in 1965. Saxon also did the cover art and wrote its liner notes. More in Comments.

April 25 Birthdays: Earl Bostic b.1912; Bob Russell b.1914; Cliff Bruner b.1915; Ella Fitzgerald b.1917; Albert King b.1923; Jinny Osborn (The Chordettes) b.1927; Willis Jackson and Vassar Clements b.1928; Willis 'Gator' Jackson b.1932; Jerry Leiber (Leiber & Stoller) b.1933; Wizz Jones b.1939; Ron Gilbert (Blues Magoos) b.1946; Michael Brown (The Left Banke) b.1949; Jeff Austin (Yonder Mountain String Band) b.1974; Tony Christie is 83; Mike Kogel (Los Bravos) is 82; Björn Ulvaeus (ABBA) and Stu Cook (CCR) are 81; Rob Hyman (The Hooters) and Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) are 76; Ketil Bjørnstad is 74; Fish (Marillion) is 68; Brian Tatler (Diamond Head) is 66; Paul Wassif is 63; Andy Bell (Erasure) is 62; Eric Avery (Jane's Addiction / Garbage) and Simon Fowler (Ocean Colour Scene) are 61; Laura Stevenson is 42; Djo is 34; Maggie Rogers is 32.

Notice: B-Side is OPEN Mon-Thurs 10-6 / Fri+Sat 10-7 / Sunday 11-5. Thank you for shopping local!

Review by Mark Deming

Of the great garage punk bands of the 1960s, some were louder (the Sonics), some were angrier (the Music Machine), and some were trippier (the 13th Floor Elevators), but few seemed like a bad influence on so many levels as the Seeds. The Seeds had long hair, a gloriously lamentable fashion sense, an attitude that was at once petulant and lackadaisical, and music that sounded aimless, horny, agitated, and stoned all at once. Is it any wonder America's delinquent youth loved them? The Seeds' aural signature was as distinctive as any band of their era, and they got a bit fancier with their formula as they went along, but they never captured their essential seediness with more impressive concision than they did on their self-titled debut album from 1966. Dominated by the fierce, drawling yelp of Sky Saxon's vocals and Daryl Hooper's hypnotically repetitive keyboard patterns, and supported by the snarling report of Jan Savage's guitar and Rick Andridge's implacable drumming, the Seeds had a limited bag of melodic tricks, but they hardly seemed to care that roughly half their songs sounded identical, as Saxon bellowed about people who had done him wrong in some way or another (usually women) and the band locked into cyclical grooves that picked up impressive momentum when they gained enough traction (especially "Evil Hoodoo," "You Can't Be Trusted," and the Seeds' signature tune "Pushin' Too Hard"). On their second album, A Web of Sound, the Seeds would become more blatant in their celebrations of sex and drugs, but the glorious primitivism and narrower focus of their debut ultimately works to their advantage; there are few albums of the era that mirror the delicious arrogance of a beer-sodden teenage misfit with the effortless simplicity of the Seeds, and it's justly celebrated as a classic of first-wave garage punk.

If you enjoy our human-written (no AI) daily posts celebrating historic albums, songs & artist birthdays, please invite your friends to follow us!