Track of the Week: The Seeds "Pushin' Too Hard"

There are certain styles of music that have a sound that I just can't resist, a sound and feel that sometimes supersedes the songs and artists themselves.  After seeing that famed 60s underground Seattle band The Sonics had reunited and put out their first album in almost fifty years, I did a deep re-dive into sixties garage rock during my morning commutes this week.  Fuzzy guitars, caveman rhythms, bright organs, and sneering vocals make a helluva combination, one that always keeps bringing me back.

If I had to go back to the old days before iPods and make a mix CD of garage rock that could fit into a 77 minute box, "Pushin' Too Hard" by The Seeds would be one of a handful of songs that would make the cut, no questions asked.  The song starts with a demented organ line and frantic pace, putting the listener right into the damaged mind of singer and principal songwriter Sky Saxon.  (And no, that's not his real name.)  He rants and sneers about others "pushin' him too hard" in a way that captures the teenage psyche perfectly.  Before the song gets very far it jumps right into an organ solo that sounds like spinning plates about to crash and a basic, plunking guitar solo that despite its almost comic simplicity, comes across just as sinister as Saxon's voice.  I wish I had known about this song when I was sixteen, since it would have well complimented my theatrical defiance and over-inflated sense of individuality.

Garage rock was the ultimate teenage music made by young men who wanted to imitate their British Invasion heroes but were unable to match their musical virtuosity.  It is simplistic, often to the point of ineptitude, but when lightning strikes in just the right place, like on "Pushin' Too Hard," the result is so stirring that you don't notice the absence of even a third chord.

Track of the Week: The Chocolate Watch Band "Dark Side of the Mushroom"

Sometime early in the year 2000 I picked up a used copy of the first volume of the original Nuggets compilation, mostly out of curiosity.  I was quickly blown away, and bought the four disc Rhino box set and started tracking down albums by The Standells and The Electric Prunes.  In case you don't know, the Nuggets series compiles "garage rock" 45s from the period between 1965 and 1968, an era when thousands of young men inspired by the Beatles and Stones picked up guitars and did their best imitations with fuzzy guitars and brash organs.  They were usually less adept, but louder and full of energy.  While they couldn't necessarily put out an album's worth of quality stuff (except for maybe The Sonics), almost all of these groups had a great 45 in them.  Nobody really remembers Mouse and the Traps, but "Maid of Sugar, Maid of Spice" is one helluva barn burner.

Around that same time I really started getting into classic soul music, another genre where great singles are prized more than albums.  I began to think that as I much as I liked albums, that they were overrated  and focusing too much on album artists had caused me to miss the embarrassment of riches that was sixties garage rock.

The Chocolate Watch Band from California derived their name from a joke referencing the The Strawberry Alarm Clock, whose "Incense and Peppermints" was one of the breakout psychedelic hits.  The CWB had a brutal sound, and lead singer Dave Aguilar sounded like a more menacing version of Mick Jagger.  (Take a listen to "Are You Gonna Be There At The Love In?" for proof.)  He doesn't sing on "Dark Side of the Mushroom," a gloomy instrumental that sounds like a hangover after the love in, and one I like to listen to on the train into work on days when I am feeling particularly tired.