Recorded in the midst of 1966, naturally after the spring release of their debut but before "Pushin' Too Hard" climbed into the national charts in the spring of 1967,
A Web of Sound finds
the Seeds pushing their sound into new dimensions, happily keeping pace with their Los Angeles contemporaries
Love and
the Doors. That
the Seeds never received the respect accorded to their peers, either then or now, may be partially due to their lack of lyrical ambition, or it could be due to the Hollywood teenage sleaze that seeped out of this quartet led by garage rock icon
Sky Saxon. Whatever
the Seeds did, it sounded somewhat dirty, a maxim that applies to
A Web of Sound even if it lacks singles as hard and filthy as "Pushin' Too Hard." Instead, this is a proto-psychedelic trip, kicked off by the cheerful, swirling "Mr. Farmer" --
the Kinks transplanted to a Middle American fable as refracted through the prism of the West Coast -- and "Pictures & Designs," which falls into the "Pushin' Too Hard" progression by its chorus. Thing is,
A Web of Sound was cut long before that single turned into a hit, so neither "Pictures & Designs" in specific or the album as a whole functions as a cash-in. Rather, it's an expansion, downplaying grit and grunge in favor of expansive organ-fueled pop fantasias, minor-chord stomps, an elastic blues burner ("A Faded Picture"), and veiled odes to drugs and sex, all wrapped up via the monumental live-in-the-studio workout "Up in Her Room," nearly 15 minutes of sneering tension and release. "Up in Her Room" compares favorably to
Love, and
Saxon and
Arthur Lee did run in the same circles, but decades later
Saxon's downscale aspirations are blindingly apparent; he wasn't seeking transcendence, he was exploiting the moment. As such,
A Web of Sound feels more thoroughly tied to 1966 than most of the Los Angeles rock of that year and that's both its blessing and its curse: it brings the era rushing back but it doesn't suggest any of the future. And yet, that transience is precisely why the album is so enjoyable. All the organs, all the minor-key riffs, all the desperate desire to be a star coalesce into a quintessentially L.A. trip, a harbinger of all the wasted good times that could be found on the Sunset Strip.
Ace's wonderful deluxe double-disc 2013 reissue contains both the stereo and mono mixes of
A Web of Sound, plus a host of bonus tracks, including the entirety of
A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues, a
Seeds side project also recorded in 1966 and billed to
the Sky Saxon Blues Band.
A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues isn't as baldly psychedelic as
A Web of Sound but it's hardly pure blues either, despite the bizarre endorsement of
Muddy Waters, who
Sky Saxon met through
Arthur Lee and not only lends his band for a couple of cuts, but also gave
the Seeds "Plain Spoken," a song he wrote but did not record. "Plain Spoken" isn't a great song but its very existence is evidence of
Sky Saxon's hustling charm; it was prominent enough that
Muddy took a shine to him, and it's hard for you not to succumb to it too.
A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues is thoroughly inauthentic blues --
Saxon writes some silly, sleazy 12-bars and sneers his lines as if he were the frontman for
the Hollywood Argyles -- but that's its appeal because
the Seeds weren't attempting authenticity, they were making a quick buck with what was popular. The paper-thin sound, the lazy grooves, the insouciant vocals, the nonexistent solos all add up to a blues-rock throwaway that's truly seedy; from one vantage it's truly awful, from another it's awfully wonderful. It's a nice addition to this double-disc set, as are the four bonus tracks, all original unreleased outtakes from the
Web of Sound sessions, all just a shade lesser than the proper album and all enjoyable. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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