The Seeds: Biography

• Overview
• Discography
• Biography
• Related Artists

• Videos
• Photos
• Groups/Boards
• Fan Sites

• The Chocolate Watchband
• Sky Saxon
• The Electric Prunes
• The Music Machine
• The Barbarians
• ? & the Mysterians
• Sky Saxon Blues Band

• The Doors
• The Rolling Stones
• James Brown/The JB's
• The Yardbirds
• The Beatles
• Howlin' Wolf
• The Mothers of Invention

• The Fall
• Naz Nomad
• The Fuzztones
• Mystic Eyes
• Crystal Antlers
• The Vines
• Lyres

• Jan Savage
• Kim Fowley
• Daryl Hooper
• Marcus Tybalt
• Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson

Formed:

Jan 1, 1965 in Los Angeles, CA

Disbanded:

Jan 1, 1970

Genres:

Rock Music, Psychedelic Oldies Music

Decades Active:

1960's|1970's

Artistic Quality

Medium

Cultural Impact

Medium

Popularity

Low

Ratings Guide

Best-known for their rock roll standard "Pushin' Too Hard," the Seeds combined the raw, Stonesy appeal of garage rock with a fondness for ragged, trashy psychedelia. And though they never quite matched the commercial peak of their first two singles, "Pushin' Too Hard" and "Can't Seem to Make You Mine," the band continued to record for the remainder of the '60s, eventually delving deep into post-Sgt. Pepper's psychedelia and art-rock. None of their new musical directions resulted in another hit single, and the group dsibanded at the turn of the decade.

Sky Saxon (b. Richard Marsh; vocals) and guitarist Jan Savage formed the Seeds with keyboardist Daryl Hooper and drummer Rick Andridge in Los Angles in 1965. By the end of 1966, they had secured a contract with GNP Crescendo, releasing "Pushin' Too Hard": as their first single. The song climbed into the Top 40 early in 1967, and the group immediately released two soundalike singles, "Mr. Farmer" and "Can't Seem to Make You Mine," in an attempt to replicate their success; the latter came the closest to being a hit, just missing the Top 40. While their singles were garage-punk, the Seeds attempted to branch out into improvisational blues-rock and psychedelia on their first two albums, The Seeds (1966) and Web of Sound (1966). With their third album, Future (1967), the band attempted a psychedelic concept album in the vein of Sgt. Pepper's. While the record reached the Top 100 and spawned the minor hit "A Thousand Shadows," it didn't become a hit. Two other albums -- Raw and Alive: Merlin's Music Box (1968) and A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues (1969), which was credited to the Sky Saxon Blues Band -- were released at the end of the decade, but both were ignored. the Seeds broke up shortly afterwards.

During the early '70s, Saxon led a number of bands before retreating from society and moving to Hawaii. Savage became a member of the Los Angeles Police Department. A collection of rarities and alternate takes, Fallin' off the Edge, was released in 1977.

- Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide