Saturday 9 April 2011

"If You're Gonna Play It Out Of Tune, Play It Out Of Tune Properly" pt 6



Mark Smith's love of mid to late 60's American garage bands is well documented and it comes as no surprise that he choose to cover a few classic tracks from this period including Strychnine by The Sonics.

The Sonics were formed in Tacoma, Washington in late 1960. Their first single The Witch was released in November 1964 on the Etiquette label, which was owned by another local garage band the Wailers. Between 1964 and 1966 when they left the label eight singles and two albums. Strychnine was included on the first album but was never released as a single while the band was in existence.

The band left the Etiquette label in 1966 and moved to Hollywood to record for the Jerden label but the band were not happy with the new more civilised sound that was produced and the band slowly disintegrated over the next couple of years, only to reform in 1972 to perform a live show. The band like so many others reformed again in the late noughties and as far as I am aware are still touring but don't know about recording.

The Sonics - Strychnine

The Fall covered the track for their sixteenth Peel Session broadcast on 13/03/1993 and has been known to be included in their live sets over the years.

The Fall - Strychnine

1 comment:

vashrave said...

interesting. ill have to read up on these bands.