Son of JayJamJah

Seeing as how good things come in threes, two more mid-1960's Rock debuts are in order and we'll start with a Seed, or four of them rather Daryl Hooper (keyboards), Jan Savage (Lead Guitar) Rick Andridge (Drums) and front man\bass player Sky Saxon (Obviously his real name), The Seeds, the band dubbed by Muddy Waters as "America's own Rolling Stones"...that's why Muddy wrote music and not reviews. This is their 1966 debut "The Seeds", I have no idea where I got it and only recognize the name of one track on this album. I thought the Seeds were a psych-rock band, and eventualy they would be, but didn't know I had their LP or that it was more of a R&B on steroids or pre-punk then anything. This should be easier to chew on since I already stuffed myself with Vanilla Fudge, here goes the nothin' ...


The album opens with a song that we (the royal we of course) didn't even know how much we liked. "I can't seem to make you mine" is a fun, simple song that is actually pretty disciplined musically. This was a major rarity for the majority of the mid-late 60's acid bands. The next three tracks are pretty bland, we'll evil hoodoo is not bland, it's just bad. Sounds like someone is playing a sort of early 70's Super Mario brother beta and keeps eating the mushroom and getting shrunk. (There may have been some Mushroom eating going on while this album was made)

After all that comes the biggest "hit" the Seeds ever had, "Pushin' too Hard" is sort of the lone ranger on acid south of the border. It's a fine time, but don't make a habit of it. "Nobody Spoil My Fun" is a song that's almost there but leaves you disappointed. "It's a Hard Life" is another solid effort, sounds like a song 10 years ahead of it's time. The bands carries that momentum and finds a nice rhythm with the next three tracks including "Falling in Love" a laid back simple blues diddy that irresistible to a blues-rock guy.

Mr. Farmer is next and keeps the train rolling, this is starting to feel like a 70's punk album got kicked in the nuts by the mule of the Blues. The album continues to surprise and evolve as it starts to learn psychedelic with far out beats and ambiguous lyrics. "I Tell myself" is the first miss or near miss in a while. "A Faded Picture" is a slow and "Rolling Machine" up tempo and both thinly veiled references to LSD. It's like this band got more stoned as the Album went on. The final track is the fifteen minute jam "Up in her room" and starts out pretty solid. It's repetitive to no end, but it's a jam and kudos to them for tossing in the end of the album, more bands should follow this lead. Even if it ain't much, lets see what you got, this song answers the bell for that challenge.

This band stuck to their strengths on this album and while no one is going to accuse them of being musical prodigies they produced a quality 19 track album spanning genres from the popular of the time to those that were not even invented yet. Maybe it's the Pilsner talking but I really enjoyed the shit out of this album. I gotta give it high praise

Three and a Half Crazy Tim Leary's and a presumptuous Muddy Waters to be shown later.

1/2