Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Seeds - Web of Sound


The second Seeds album shows the group still has its garage chops, but is also not afraid to experiment, even if it doesn’t always work.

Opening with a local single that didn’t break nationwide (though no good reason why it didn’t), “Mr. Farmer”, the Seeds show that they are as good as ever! Hooper has a dominant fuzz-keyboard sound (not unlike what the Velvets used on “Sister Ray”) on this psych-garage number that expounds on the idea of the band name.

One of their freakier tunes is “Pictures & Designs” which is a little oft-kilter and even reminds me a bit of the Mothers of Invention’s “Help I’m a Rock”. This is still a garage rocker though, despite its psychedelic moments and its reverb-crashing ending. A wild whistle introduces the almost one chord repetitive rock of “Tripmaker” which the group does its best to build into another “Pushin’ Too Hard”, which they don’t quite attain.

More disjointed is “I Tell Myself”, which just doesn’t work rhythmic-ly or melodically – Sky even sounds off key and a little too stoned on this one. They follow this with a psychedelic ballad titled “A Faded Picture”, not a highlight for me, especially as it drags on a little too long. A much better achievement is “Rollin’ Machine” with its bouncy rhythm and slide guitar accents.

Side two’s two numbers don’t quite live up to the Seeds potential, though “Just Let Go” is a pretty good rocker in the Seeds’ mold with a cool rave-up tacked onto the end. The last song is a 14+ minute long exploration called “Up In Her Room” that has a good beat and some cool licks here and there but not enough variation to warrant the length. Nice build up of intensity, though.
Nowhere near as strong as their debut, but still quality Seeds!