The Sonics: A Boom for Boomers

– by Mark Linstad

It is hard to find individuals who have not heard of the famous singer Kurt Cobain and harder still to find someone who has not heard of punk rock. Nirvana truly reached far, and it is a shame that one of their key inspirations had not reached as far. This inspiration was none other than the trail blazing garage punk rock band “The Sonics”. The Sonics were a huge success, but compared to Nirvana (Smells like teen spirit has 1.7 B views on youtube) they seemed to be a drop in the bucket. Well, that drop made quite a boom in the 60’s when the band first formed. The Sonics came about when the members were still teenagers which contributed to their unorthodox and punk rock sound.

The original band consisted of Larry Parypa (who first formed the band) on lead guitar and vocals, Andy Parypa (brother to Larry) on bass, Rob Lind on the saxophone, Gerry Roslie on the piano as well as lead vocals, and finally Bob Benette on drums. The band would go through a few other artists during The Sonics career and for the most part it was due to healthy and logical reasons. Some went off to the military or school and others went on to pursue the sounds of other bands or even start an entirely different career like Larry Parypa who went into insurance. Indeed, the members of the band were as lively as the upbeat and aggressive tunes they produced.

The Sonics really got ahold of the Northwest music scene when they released the hit single “The Witch” in 1964. This was only slightly after hiring the late Buck Ormsby, the bassist for The Fabulous Wailers, to be their manager as well as signing to Etiquette Records, a local record label. The success that they witnessed from that single propelled them to the for front of every Northwest based radio station, yet all was not well. It would not be known for many years, but The Witch experienced many roadblocks from disc jockeys. These DJ’s felt the lyrics and tonality of the song would disagree with the audiences of the time. Pat O’Day from KJR was one such DJ, but he did guide them to a place where they could play the single until it reached regional recognition and appreciation. Even after all those impressive accommodations, the song was only allowed to play after 3 pm.

The Sonics continued to impress the masses with their debut album “Here Are The Sonics” and their follow up album “Boom”. Sadly, they would switch labels from Etiquette Records to Jerden Records who dipped their hands heavily into the unpopular third album “Introducing The Sonics” in 1967. The record label was not a bad one, nor did have an unimpressive catalog of songs and artists, but it could not quite capture the hard hitting tunes and tones that captivated the Northwest just 3 years prior. Whether it was due to creative differences or the meddling of the record label the band consequently lost some members and eventually the ultimate disbanding of The Sonics.

The members had not realized at the time just how popular they were both nationally and overseas. Once it came to their attention, they took their performance overseas to Europe where they played in London and the United Kingdom in the 2000’s. It should be noted that their first reunion occurred in Seattle 1972 which was well received by their fans and spoke to the positive relationship that the band still shared. Though it is unclear if the reunions gained them more popularity, we can say that it only helped to keep them relevant and significant in the creative processes of other bands.

Kurt Cobain went so far as to say, in an interview with Nardwuar Serviette, “The Sonics recorded very, very cheaply on a two-track, you know, and they just used one microphone over the drums, and they got the most amazing drum sound I’ve ever heard. Still to this day, it’s still my favorite drum sound. It sounds like he’s hitting harder than anyone I’ve ever known.”  Even over in Sweden, the forerunner for garage rock bands “The Hive” remarked “What the Sonics did with this track was they took the original, which was by Richard Berry, and they turned it into a monster. Like Back in Black by AC/DC or Lust For Life by Iggy Pop, there is a huge beat behind the song, which is something that always attracts me to music. The Sonics take this quite cute song and make it rough and hard, and ultimately, more famous than the original.” All this to say that The Sonics might very well be the reason punk/grunge is what it is today.

In an interview between The Sonics and Nardwuar, I got to witness a brief but wholesome exchange between some of the band members that exemplified why they had such success. This exchange seemed so happy and joyful, even when Larry brought up the story of how a woman ripped out a patch of his bangs which never grew back. Even when they were shown an old album cover that brought up rather negative emotions, they laughed about it all. The cover sparked a memory of Larry’s who claims that the person distributing the records had not paid for a single royalty and that same person is proud of it. Unfortunately, I could not find the mystery crook. In addition to their positive attitudes, they describe some events at shows that most likely enticed audiences to return, like when Rob would climb onto the rafters (apparently at many different shows).One time he even got stuck up there and the band left him as a joke. Evidently, their cover of “any way the which blows” by Zappa was found by Jerry Roslie and it was his idea for the cover.

About the Author

Mark Linstad prepared this article as his final project for MUS 227: Musical History of Tacoma, at the University of Puget Sound. At the time he took the class in Summer 2023, he was a senior majoring in Biology.