Weekly Artist Overview: The Seeds - Page 4

While under their influence, he recorded with the cult-related band, which went by various names including Source, The Savage Sons of Yahowha, Yodship, Fire Water Air, Spirit of 76. The band's records have an extreme psychedelic sound, employed tribal drums and distorted guitars in a deliberately childish manner, all unrehearsed live and with no overdubs, editing or design. The core musicians were always the same: Djin Aquarian on guitar, Octavious Aquarian on drums, Sunflower Aquarian on bass, and frequently, Sky Sunlight Saxon. After Father Yod died in 1974, Sky Sunlight Saxon retreated from society entirely, moving to Hawaii, where he busied himself as a guru himself.

Saxon returned to making his own music in 1976, with a homemade disc, Sunlight & The New Seeds. A few more hermit-like recordings appeared, which were usually available only by mail order, if at all. He stopped in 1978, and for all intents and purposes seemed gone and forgotten; one of the more famed acid casualties of the 60's. By the 80's however, a whole new generation had discovered the raw punky joys of the Seeds, and the U.K. label Psycho sought him out in 1984. The album Starry Ride, reunited him with Mars Bonfire, and also featured members of Iron Butterfly and Fraternity of Man. Saxon and Bonfire became songwriting partners, and together they formed a group called Firewall in 1986, whose two albums and shows had guests from neo-psychedelic and 60's revival L.A. bands like the Dream Syndicate and The Plimsouls. Saxon's renaissance continued until 1991, when he returned to Hawaii. He made sporadic appearances with various versions of the Seeds in the late 90's, but there had been no further releases from him until Red Planet, credited to Sky Saxon and the Seeds, appeared in 2004.

With the Seeds, the novice needs to know what they're getting into. If you already like 60's garage band music, pick up The Seeds/A Web Of Sound, now sold as a cheap two-fer. Future is worth it for fans of psychedelia, Summer of Love historians, and fans of the first two albums. GNP Crescendo, for whom the Seeds are their only real meal ticket to this day, have stubbornly refused to licence their work for compilation, so it's hard to find a good best-of. Evil Hoodoo, a 1988 compilation on Drop Out records is the best, if you can find it. For Sky Sunlight Saxon's solo stuff, you might as well just visit Sky himself.

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