SONICS - Here Are The Sonics LP

Highest recommendation.

The Sonics are basically the missing link between Little Richard and Iggy Pop; a handful of punks from the Pacific Northwest who picked up their instruments and, with seemingly little interest in reaching any kind of mass audience, devoted themselves to playing the loudest, most ferocious rock 'n roll they possibly could.

In their covers of Motown and 50s rock and roll, they more than matched their predecessors while putting their British contemporaries to absolute shame.

Their originals, wild tales of witches, motorcycles and drinking strychnine, would point the way for the Stooges, MC5 and everything that followed.

On this, their 1965 debut, they showcase the best of both. With no less than two sets of "!!!" on the album sleeve, screeching vocals, raucous guitars, thundering drums and a tempo that never lets up, it's the rawest half hour of rock music put to wax by 1965.

As the best examples of their own style and personality, the handful of originals are probably the highlight here, but the rest of the album, although consisting of covers, is just as essential for the simple reason that no one else was recording these songs like the Sonics were.

In effect, this is as consistent and rewarding as an LP in this genre and era could get, and while the production quality could stand to be better that's ultimately besides the point - a seminal record in rock history.