''The Seeds'' is the debut album by American

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock music that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is ...

band

the Seeds The Seeds are an American psychedelic garage rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965, best known for their highest-charting single " Pushin' Too Hard". The band's classic lineup featured frontman Sky Saxon, guitarist Jan Sava ...

. It was released in April 1966 through

GNP Crescendo Records GNP Crescendo Record Co. is an independent record label founded in 1954 by Gene Norman ''(né'' Eugene Abraham Nabatoff; 1922–2015). It started as a producer of jazz, then expanded into many other genres, including comedy, rock, and ''Star Trek' ...

and produced by

Sky Saxon Sky "Sunlight" Saxon (born Richard Elvern Marsh; August 20, 1937 – June 25, 2009) was an American rock and roll musician best known as the leader and singer of the 1960s Los Angeles Psychedelic rock, psychedelic garage rock band The Seeds. ...

. After the release of two singles in 1965, " Can't Seem to Make You Mine" and " Pushin' Too Hard", the album was released and charted in the United States where it peaked at No. 132 on the ''Billboard'' Top LPs & Tapes chart. Modern reception of the album is positive, with Malcolm Russel noting the band's influence on

CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in the East Village, Manhattan, East Village in Manhattan, New York City. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for ''Cou ...

musicians a decade later.

Release

The Seeds released two singles ahead of the album: " Can't Seem to Make You Mine" in June 1965 and " Pushin' Too Hard" in November. ''The Seeds'' was released in April 1966 and charted in the United States, peaking at No. 132 on the ''Billboard'' Top LPs & Tapes chart. The first single to follow up the album's release was "Try to Understand", which failed to chart in the US. "Pushin' Too Hard" was re-issued in October 1966 and peaked at No. 36 in the US in February 1967. ''The Seeds'' has been re-issued several times in the United Kingdom on

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

and CD. Several re-issues contain bonus tracks while the album itself has also been re-released as a

double album A double album (or double record) is an audio album that spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically either records or compact disc. A double album is usually, though not always, released as such because the recording ...

on compact disc with the Seeds' second album, ''

A Web of Sound ''A Web of Sound'' is the second album by the American garage rock band the Seeds. Produced by Marcus Tybalt (aka Sky Saxon) and released in October 1966, it contained the single " Mr. Farmer" and the 14-minute closing song "Up In Her Room". The ...

''. In 2012, Big Beat Records re-released the Seeds' debut album as a deluxe edition, with the album in remastered mono form, plus ten new bonus tracks of previously unreleased material.

Music

Like many

bands, lead singer

's vocal style was influenced by the vocals of

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

front man

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician. He is known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of The Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; Jagge ...

, but have also received comparisons to the vocals of

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...

acts such as

Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who was a central and pioneering figure of rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texa ...

and

Eddie Cochran Ray Edward Cochran ( ; October 3, 1938 – April 17, 1960) was an American rock and roll musician. His songs, such as " Twenty Flight Rock", " Summertime Blues", " C'mon Everybody" and " Somethin' Else", captured teenage frustration and desire in ...

. Garrett Martin of ''

Paste Magazine ''Paste'' is an American monthly music and entertainment digital magazine, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with studios in Atlanta and Manhattan, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publi ...

'' said: "With ' Can’t Seem to Make You Mine' and ' Pushin’ Too Hard,' songwriter Sky Saxon turns the tension and frustration of teenage

lust Lust is an intense desire for something. Lust can take any form such as the lust for sexuality (see libido), money, or power. It can take such mundane forms as the lust for food (see gluttony) as distinct from the need for food or lust for red ...

and

rebellion Rebellion is an uprising that resists and is organized against one's government. A rebel is a person who engages in a rebellion. A rebel group is a consciously coordinated group that seeks to gain political control over an entire state or a ...

into two ..

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

songs. The first is a slow burn of unrequited desire, the second a manic, twitchy screed against everything pressuring the then-18-year-old Saxon to grow up. These songs, and the rest of The Seeds’ first self-titled album, foreshadow the rise of punk as much as

the Sonics The Sonics are an American garage rock band from Tacoma, Washington, that formed in 1960. Their aggressive, hard-edged sound has been a major influence on Punk rock, punk and Garage rock, garage music worldwide, and they have been named inspir ...

the Monks The Monks, referred to by the name monks on record sleeves, were an American rock band formed in Gelnhausen, West Germany, in 1964. Assembled by five American GIs stationed in the country, the group grew tired of the traditional format of ro ...

or anything else in the garage canon."

Reception and legacy

Modern reception of the album has been generally positive. In their review for the double disc re-issue,

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

gave the album a positive rating of four and a half stars out of five, writing "The Seeds is probably the best album by any of the original American garage bands, without the usual time-filling cover versions and elongated jams, and of course it features the immortal 'Pushin' Too Hard' and the even better 'Can't Seem to Make You Mine', two classics of the '' Nuggets'' era." The British music magazine '' Uncut'' gave the compilation a positive rating of four and half stars out of five, describing the album as "...A brilliantly simple, headlong surge of fuzz-drenched guitar, bubbling organ riffs and Saxon's raw, throat-tearing vocals..." Many of the tracks are featured in The Seeds biopic documentary "Pushin' Too Hard" which had a sold out premiere in London in 2019. Garrett Martin of ''

'' said: "Garage rock wasn’t about albums, especially in the ’60s. As with pop in general, singles were the dominant format. The first album from The Seeds can’t be denied in part because it houses two of the very best singles in the history of rock ’n’ roll."

Track listing

Personnel

; Musical personnel *

–

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

, vocals, producer, concept, cover art, liner notes * Rick Andridge –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Chuck Britz Charles Dean Britz (November 7, 1927 – August 21, 2000) was a recording engineer who worked with Jan and Dean, Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, P.F. Sloan and The Grass Roots on numerous albums between 1962 and 1967. Biography Britz was b ...

–

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

* Cooker –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

bottleneck guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that ...

* Daryl Hooper –

melodica The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usu ...

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, keyboards,

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

* Jan Savage – guitar,

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...

, vocals ; Production personnel * Mike Durrough – engineering, remixing, mixing * David Hassinger – engineering * Lanky Linstrot – engineering * Stan Ross – remixing * Doc Siegel – remixing * Rafael O. Valentin – engineering *

Alec Palao Alejandro "Alec" Palao (born 1962) is a British musician, music historian, writer, and reissue producer. In addition to his musical output with groups like the Sting-rays, the Sneetches (band), the Sneetches, and Mushroom (band), Mushroom, his wo ...

– executive producer * Neil Norman – executive producer

Notes

References

* * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Seeds, The (album) 1966 debut albums The Seeds albums GNP Crescendo Records albums