The Seeds

AMG Review of The Seeds

Peter Kurtz
All Music Guide

As mid-'60s L.A. garage bands go, the Seeds were perhaps the most primitive, which isn't necessarily a virtue. Whereas the Standells had good lyrics, the Leaves could write pop, and Love was gifted beyond comparison, Sky Saxon and company had to settle for attitude and an unintended comicalness. Their debut record is just that. It's comprised of snotty boy-girl songs and teeters on the edge of musical ineptness, though it does contain the garage classic "Pushin' Too Hard" (whose arrangement is recycled at least once here). The other significant tune is "Can't Seem to Make You Mine," which features a repetitive, haunted-house guitar riff. The rest of the record, though fairly forgettable, still reinforces the truth that pure punk appeared long before the Sex Pistols.