Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Here Are The Sonics

There are some records that we call Desert Island Discs - we can't get enough of them, they're coming with us wherever we go, and there are other albums that might not make the Desert Island Discs list but they mean just as much, maybe more. You might not wHere Are The Sonicsant to listen to them for all eternity, all the time, but every time you listen to them they provide a joy, emotion, something personal to you - or maybe it's a universal experience, you play the music with certain friends or in social situations.

I'm not sure if it's a Desert Island Disc for me - and I'm not sure that that matters at any rate - but Here Are The Sonics is an album that floors me whenever I listen to it. It's crude, it's simple, it's elementary; rudimentary. And I love it. It reminds me of the fun and joy of rock'n'roll - it's people in a room bashing out a sound. You hear that when you hear the record. That's all there is to hear.

Flying into Queenstown nearly five years ago - for one of the best holidays I've ever had - I had Here Are The Sonics blasting, that beautiful vista as the plane circled and descended. And all around my ears it was a fuzz of organ and guitar and quick-stepping drums. It seemed perfect to me.

Just the other day I'm walking around town and Here Are The Sonics is blasting in my ears - it made the day seem a lot better than it was. And this was on a good day.

The Sonics never meant a lot to me - beyond that album. But that album means so much.

I read about Here Are The Sonics, so I imported a copy when it was re-released in 1999.

The American garage band formed in 1960. Here Are The Sonics was released in 1965. The Sonics were part of a sound, along with Paul Revere & The Raiders, The Kingsmen and The Regents (to name just a few). Bands that combined rock'n'roll and primitive R'n'B covers with their own material. A race-you-to-the-end feel spills over the songs collected on Here Are The Sonics. So many great songs. Have Love, Will Travel - which many people will know from its updated Black Keys cover, perhaps. And then other covers. Roll Over Beethoven, Walking the Dog, Night Time Is the Right Time, Do You Love Me, Money and Good Golly Miss Molly. Fabulous stuff.

Then there were the originals - Psycho, Strychnine, Boss Hoss, The Witch.

So I wanted to tell you all about Here Are The Sonics - a simple record to love, but an album that gives me great joy every time I rediscover it - and then the perfect opportunity arrived. News that The Sonics - well, the new re-formed version (featuring original members Gerry Roslie, Larry Parypa and Rob Lind) - would be playing Auckland, one show only. The gig is tomorrow night.

I had some time on the phone with lead vocalist and organist Gerry Roslie.

"I never thought I'd get that far," Roslie says about his first trip to New Zealand. "I mean, whoa, no way, I never thought I'd get that far at all - never thought I'd leave the country."

There were two very specific reasons for forming The Sonics. Roslie laughs as he blurts out, all too quickly, "for kicks. And girls". There's just enough of a pause between the two reasons - enough to let you know that much as the reasons might be specific they were never really distinct.
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"It was the magic thing to be doing, you know," Roslie says, sounding eager down the line. He's all kid-in-candy-store now that he has a reason to relive the band days. He even gets to relive them on the stage. The Sonics broke up - officially - some 40 years ago. There were troubles as soon as the records were released though: members changed, the feeling was gone. From 1966-1968 it was troubled times. The fun was going, going, gone.

"When you go out on the road you are stuck hanging with each other," Roslie lets another chuckle creep in. "We loved playing, but started missing home. And started hating each other with time. It really is that simple. I'm sure it's the curse for a lot of musicians. It's not even that you hate the person but you hate being in just each other's space all the time. We couldn't breathe without being around one another. It was just the band all the time. That's the best and the worst for any musician."

There had been a couple of occasions for ad hoc reunions but The Sonics were, for most of the past 40 years, history. Gerry "played with friends" and lost contact with the others. He kept his instruments but it was the day-job life for Roslie, an occasional gig to spark the spirit. "I bought a new amp!" He all but bounds into the conversation with this, mid-point, almost void of context - but it's another reminder that rock'n'roll is a spirit, it's as much about how it makes people feel and Roslie feels good for being able to play music again.

"I was really proud of The Witch," he tells me, deciding at that point that he'll pick our conversational paths. "It was the first song we came up with and it's just great. I just liked it a whole lot, you know. People said that it came from the devil." He then deadpans, "but I don't think that that's true. Do you?"

I decide I'll start another question. I want to know how the reunion eventuated.

"A New York promoter asked if we'd play. It was out of the blue, really. I didn't think so - my first reaction was that we hadn't been a band for, you know, 40 years or something. But we put together a band and it came back, we'd kept our hands in enough with playing. And we found a drummer who had played our material and other songs from the time and we decided to give it a go. It was a special show. I thought it would be a one-off."

From there the gigs continued to seep into Roslie's life; The Sonics as a reformation - something more definite - took shape.Now

I wonder how that first time back on the horse was.

"I was extremely nervous before our performance." Roslie leaves a long silence. Then he returns - sounding a bit like Fred Willard, adding with great gusto, "I had to have a beer or two!"

So how has that famous scream held up?

"I think it's doing okay",,Roslie reckons. "There was this one time in Europe where I just lost my voice - and that wasn't so good. But mostly I just get up there and we all hit it and really it sounds about as good as I ever remember it sounding. It's a blast. And when I don't know what to do next, well, then I just let out that scream. I just whip it out and belt out a scream. And it sounds pretty good, I reckon. And people seem to like it."

He's flabbergasted, still, at the enduring influence of The Sonics.

"Well, that's just been amazing, doing this, playing these shows again. I like hearing people's stories about how they've played our songs or listened to our records. It's really amazing. I was a teenager captivated by music and I feel like a teenager when I play music again now. And that's been a wonderful feeling after not playing for 40 years. We got into this because it was the magic thing to be doing, it really was. We were just playing the songs we heard on the radio, the songs we loved. And now we hear about people that are covering our songs - the ones we covered and the ones we wrote. It can't get much more special than that, can it?"

And though he poses that as a question Roslie answers it himself.

"We were invited to perform at the Meltdown Festival that Ray Davies curated. So there we are on the bill because of his insistence and we toured with The Kinks way back - so that was very special for me. And Ray's still got it - he's out there doing it. And he can still do it. And wow, to see him again and to meet old friends in this way. It's a blessing really - it's been a very special thing."

I told Gerry Roslie that I loved Here Are The Sonics. That I played it often. That I'd been playing it across 15 years or so. That it gave me joy. It felt like people having fun.

"That's it!" I could almost see him beaming through the phone. "That's exactly it. It was fun. And it is fun. And that's the secret. Don't ever let anyone tell you it's anything more than that. That's how you play rock'n'roll."Sonics

The Sonics play Auckland's Kings Arms Tavern, tomorrow, Wednesday April 18.

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