‘Not dead yet,’ Tacoma’s Sonics set to rock again

The Sonics are Tacoma’s most mysterious and perhaps most influential garage rock band. After decades, original members return to the stage this weekend for a pair of shows in New York.

ERNEST A. JASMIN; The News Tribune

Published: November 2nd, 2007 01:00 AM

Forty years. That’s how long it’s been since Gerald “Jerry” Roslie left Tacoma’s most cryptic – and some wou ld argue most influential – garage rock band.

So it was understandable when the 63-year-old rocker – the sole Sonic who still lives in Tacoma – admitted to having butterflies about this weekend’s comeback gigs.

The reunited Sonics will play New York’s Cavestomp festival tonight and Sunday, with Roslie rekindling the fiery howl that powered “The Witch,” “Boss Hoss” and other oft-imitated garage classics. And during a recent phone interview, the reclusive singer sounded just a tad apprehensive.

“Oh man, you have no idea,” he said, chuckling heartily. “You know, it’s been a long time, and you just don’t know how people are gonna take it. Maybe after we do the first few songs some of the butterflies will leave.”

Roslie will be joined at Brooklyn’s Warsaw music venue by guitarist Larry Parypa, sax player Rob Lind and possibly drummer Bob Bennett from his band’s original lineup. Northwest journeymen Ricky Lynn Johnson and Don Wilhelm will play drums and bass, respectively. But original bassist Andy Parypa – a teacher who lives in Seattle – will not participate because of carpal tunnel problems, according to brother Larry.

This weekend’s shows will be the first Sonics performances since a benefit concert that band members say they played at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre in the early ’70s. The band will commemorate the occasion with a live album and DVD, the latter an especially big deal since it’s unclear whether any Sonics concert footage exists.

“Well, I’m not dead yet,” Roslie joked about his motivation for coming out of retirement (a bit of gallows humor since the singer has had a heart transplant and fought cancer.) “There’s still a little life in the old boy. But our attitude is the same way. We just wanna … play with the same attitude, and the same volume and the same guts that we had then.”

He added, “And we’re so much better looking now.”

DELAYED SONIC BOOM

You might have heard the Sonics’ music in Land Rover commercials, or their name dropped by some A-list rocker. But the Sonics weren’t even the most popular band live band in Tacoma back in their heyday, from 1963 to 1967. That was probably the Wailers. And they didn’t have any big radio hits to speak of, since some program directors felt their songs a bit raw and abrasive for the airwaves.

“Back then very few people outside of the Northwest had even heard of the Sonics,” said Neal Skok, a Redmond-based rock ’n’ roll collector and historian who helped set up the Cavestomp shows. “But now people all over the world love the Sonics.”

Going AWOL was a great if not exactly calculated move. The band’s mystique has grown to near mythic proportions in its absence, bolstered by its acknowledged influence on bands that range from the Stooges to the Hives.

Some feel their raunchy riffs, surly mod demeanor and shocking lyrics about psychos, the devil and chugging strychnine paved the way for punk.

“They really were this kind of proto-punk rock band,” said Experience Music Project curator Jacob McMurray. “I can imagine at the time (their music) came out, parents of kids that were fans of the Sonics being scared of the Sonics.”

McMurray sees an even more blatant connection to grunge.

“You could listen to (Mudhoney’s) ‘Touch Me, I’m Sick,’ and you compare it to ‘The Witch’ and you know – wow – this could be the same band,” he said.

Still, it took years for the Sonics themselves to realize just how much influence they had.

“We just started seeing stuff a long time ago – Patti Smith and then the Sex Pistols and then Nirvana,” he said. “All these major Seattle groups that are millionaires – and we’re not – they all said that one of their primers of rock ’n’ roll was listening to the Sonics.”

Roslie said he gets a kick out of checking his royalty statements and seeing where Sonics music is being played – increasingly, places like England, Germany, France and Japan.

“The whole thing has just blown our minds,” he said. “When we quit I thought, ‘Well, that’s it, and (we’ll) go do other things.’ It is really mind blowing because it’s such a rare thing that somebody’s been out of business for 40 years. So needless to say we’re really pleased, and we realize what a lucky break that is.”

SWEET TALKING THE SONICS

So why has a reunion taken so long? Many a promoter, and even a few high-profile rockers, have tried and failed to lure the Sonics out of retirement.

“Maybe five years ago, I get a call from Steven Van Zandt,” said Parypa, recalling his chat with the Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band and “The Sopranos” cast member.

“He called me at work, and we talked for a long time. I think he was shaving or something, because you could hear it sounded like he was in the bathroom getting ready. … He was trying to convince us that we should get out there and do stuff.”

But the Sonics remained reluctant to rush into anything and possibly tarnish their image.

“About every year (festival organizers) make a pretty sizable offer,” Parypa said. “But it was the same thing. What do we do? Get up there unpracticed? You know, Jerry and Rob, they haven’t even played anything for 40 years.”

Roslie was especially hard to convince, since he’d long ago lost his taste for the spotlight.

“I’m basically shy, you know,” the singer said. “So I kind of went off and lived amongst the trees. I never wanted to have people lookin’ at me, you know. But if I get behind a microphone and get a big Hammond organ in front of me, I have a good place to hide in case they start throwin’ stuff.”

But something clicked this year.

“I’m not sure exactly what the difference was this time,” Parypa said. “I know we had a long time to prepare for it. I know that was the key.”

But while it’s all well and good to play the Big Apple, what about their hometown?

“If we come back with our tails between our legs, I’m not goin’ out of my house,” Parypa joked. “But if it goes as good as I hope that it does ... I would like to (play locally) if there’s a venue that we agree to. We want to do it in a prominent (place). We don’t want to play some local tavern or anything.”

Ernest A. Jasmin: ernest.jasmin@thenewstribune.com

Where are they now?

Singer Jerry Roslie is the only Sonics member still living in Tacoma. And here’s what he says his departed band mates have been up to:

Rob Lind (sax) is an airline pilot and lives in North Carolina. “He’s been doing that for a long time – pretty much since the band days.”

Andy Parypa (bass) teaches and lives in Seattle.

Larry Parypa (guitar) lives in Bellevue and works for Safeco.

Bob Bennett (drums) sells cars and lives in Hawaii. “He’s been there for about 35 years.”