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The Sonics and Early Pacific Northwest Garage Rock

Poetic Wax | January 4, 2026



Before punk rock, there was proto punk. And today we’re looking at one of the earliest proto punk bands, The Sonics out of the Pacific Northwest. We’ll explore the origins of garage rock, The Sonics’ 1965 debut album Here Are The Sonics!!!, and now the band went on to influence not just punk rock, but other rock genres like grunge in the 1980s.

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CHAPTERS:
0:00 The Overlap of Garage Rock and Punk
2:11 The Birth of Punk Rock
4:43 The Pacific Northwest
7:11 The Sonics Boom
9:55 Pioneers of Punk

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Written by Poetic Wax

Comments

This post currently has 49 comments.

  2. @wighatsuperreggie

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    You’re really talking about the history of recordings. Before the Beatles showed up, there were all kinds of bands in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere playing what could be called Proto punk. It just so happens that the Sonics recordings happen to turn out really well. If you talk to people who saw the gigs, they say that they weren’t even that good compared to some other bands like the Wailers. Just because the band was the most influential because of their record recordings on subsequent generations doesn’t mean that they were necessarily leaders in their original context. And there’s just a ton of other material that is older that is just as punk: Hazel Atkins, the trashmen etc

  7. @AstroZombie1138

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    I just put together a run down of my favourite punk albums from Misfits Walk Among Us to Punk in Drublic by NOFX via London Calling by The Clash and Shock Troops by Cock Sparrer but as few agree where punk started I included Here are the Sonics 1965 as a possible starting point but when I do that I get reminded of Los Saicos – Demolicion which was 1964 who I had never heard of until about ten years ago but my main point is these are the roots of punk not 1974 for Ramones or 1975 Sex Pistols which is often argued. I was listening to an interview with professional musicians recently and one said when did punk start? The reply came back 1975 or 1976 which seems to be perceived wisdom. The Stooges did not form until 1967 so they are too late for a claim as Sonics, Velvets, MC5's had all been going a good few years by this point but MC5 were more heavy blues so they don't make it into my top 2 of Sonics and Velvets.

  10. @ugumbu

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    The Sonics are the Masters of rage and way more frantic than any other garage band ! Love them! In the same vein, the Litter album's distortions one of the finest proto punk album ever made! Pushing the boundaries of Sonic expérimentation in a rock format.

  11. @Unit8200-rl8ev

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    By calling the Sonics "proto-punk", you are skippimg over the more immediate influence of the Sonics. Jimi Hendrix said that he was influenced by the Sonics. You should also listen to Mitch Rider and the Detroit Wheels, who likewise made rock wilder and heavier.

  13. @rickyblackburn-n9e

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    I'm seventy years old. Believe me, "garage rock" sprung entirely from the British invasion and was from coast to coast. California and the pacific northwest didn't have a jump on the stuff.

  14. @ptooff

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    People who try to attribute a cultural movement to one single group don't understand how culture grows. All the wasted breath and stupid conversations about who's the first or who's the original… The vast majority of music gets lost in time. Most bands never recorded an album, most albums didn't make it on the radio…. It's not what survives in recorded format… it's all the people, including the listeners who were there making the scene happen. The Sonics are great, but they weren't the first, only or best. A lot of the music from those days simply is not available.

  15. @l.salisbury1253

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    The Sonics were kickass, no doubt, but there's a strong case for the Fugs being the first-ever proto-Punk. In fact, the Velvet Underground took their cue from the Fugs. So: without the Fugs they'd be no Velvet Underground. And without the VU 99% of today's bands would NOT exist…!

  17. @jonvelde5730

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    Seriously dude? Your going to do an entire video essay about a band WITHOUT INCLUDING ANY OF THEIR MUSIC? Talking about music is like dancing about literature.

  18. @Jim-cc3fs

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    Garage rock was never an intentional stripping down of polished rock or pop. That is the hubris of modern criticism. Garage rock was a phenomenon which was a response to the Beatles & other bands being on tv.
    It was a function of limited playing skill, relatively cheap equipment, rudimentary operation of same & most of all, just being 16. Impress your friends & the girls, harness the hormonal rebellion within & make a lot of noise. The goal was to have a 45 on somebody’s uncle’s label. To be a neighborhood star!
    Implying that garage rock knew it was a genre is akin to saying film noir directors knew they were a genre. Nooe.

  19. @mrpete4017

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    talk talk talk … gotta pay your rent hun? Wrong wrong wrong … proto poop, >>>> It all started with the Refuzors at The Seattle Yacht Club, when they borrowed their father's suits to rent the place. (The police response was the first of many entertaining after-show activities) Followed by The U-Men and a cascade of other bands at clubs such as the (always moving) Gorilla Gardens, and an upstairs warehouse on 12th and Yesler who's name I forgot (It had something to do with meat) and many more venues and bands… and cops shutting down shows. The "billboard" so to speak, the real "ground zero" of Seattle Punk wasn't a band, it was a punk rock clothing store located across the street from Roosevelt High School, and the original Cellophane records on 43rd, between Brooklyn and the Ave (when they had 2 pin-ball machines in the side room with a sidewalk view.) Tower Records was a corporate NO NO at the time. Their parking lot was better suited to piss and vomit in after going to Dick's Drive-In in Wallingford. Tower Records became a Peaches Records and then it was even more disgusting. There was the original band Cannibal (before the Fine Young Cannibals) featuring Dee (David.) I don't remember his surname, but Shannon was his girlfriend. Tommy Savage, Vexed, The Purdins, Room 9, and many many more.

  22. @dianepeel7154

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    The Gentrys "Wild" – typical California frat rock band in the early '60s. The Gentrys were from Burlingame near San Francisco. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17WQ1RZbH9g

    The Leaves "Hey Joe" recorded/released in '65 (not '66 as video says) but they played this heavy song in '64 long before Hendrix. The Sonics didn't develop their heavier sound until '64 or '65 although they leaned on the heavier side in '63. 

    The Leaves from LA "Hey Joe" – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPa2HzDV7-0

    Hundreds of other examples. There was also heavy rock n roll in the '50s and heavy rhythm & blues if we want to include those genres, in addition to rockabilly, surf music and garage.

  23. @dianepeel7154

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    Another safe take on music history similar the false narrative which claims MC5, Stooges, Iggy Pop, NY Dolls started punk, which is BS. There were hundreds if not thousands of other bands. There were countless proto punk bands predating the Sonics. But they never recorded as much as the Sonics did, or in many cases, at all. History is written by the victors. There were wild rockabilly bands in the '50s, testosterone-driven frat bands, and loud manic surf bands (in California) early '60s before the Sonics. If you're talking about albums and singles, then the Sonics are significant, but even then, dig deeper, and you will be surprised. It's safe to regurgitate a popular false narrative. I love the Sonics too but music history is more complicated if we're being honest. The Media loves reductionism because it allows advertisers to sell more. You Tube loves reductionism too.

  24. @michaelpond6386

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    You’re overthinking this. The Sonics were just a rock band with a NW vibe. Part of our culture. Frat house style. “It’s only rock n roll, but I like it”.
    There were literally thousands of bands. I was there and saw the entire thing unfold. Wouldn’t change a thing.

  25. @modeljetjuggernaut4864

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    Check out any V/a garage rock compilation album on YT. Usually mean, hungry and obscure bands that were around 1966.. a good many of those songs have that primitive raw sound so i think its hard to pinpoint the first band..

  29. @michaelgideon8944

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    Thanks for giving the Sonics their due. I grew up in the northwest and followed some of the bands of the 90s around. I worked with one of the members of Girl Trouble and they were big Sonics fans. Grunge was really the 2nd wave of what started with the great NW bands of the 60s, like the Sonics. One thing to mention is that Seattle in the 60s was really a remote outpost for recording music. One of the reasons the bands of the era have such a rough simple sound is that there just wasn't the gear to make more sophisticated recordings. I'm impressed that you know the Wailers, not many people outside of Tacoma remember them. Are the Sonics proto punk, I think so but many northwest bands were influenced by Richard Berry ( Louie Louie, Have Love Will Travel) so they are really more than just a punk band.

  33. @TheMerseySound1

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    While I don’t think they were necessarily a Punk band, I believe Los Saicos wrote the first Punk song, ‘Demolicion’.

    It fits all the criteria for Punk.
    A three chord song played on crude instruments with a gravelly shouty vocal advocating destruction, similar to Johnny Rotten 10 years later.

    The only elements it really lacks is shoutier backing vocals and distorted guitars, but everything else is clearly there

  45. @mrbag60

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    The Sonics were doing this kind of music in the early 60's even before they recorded their debut album in late-64. The Witch, Psycho, Strychnine, Boss Hoss, etc Love It!

  46. @chrisginsburg6611

    January 4, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    The Sonics were the first garage proto-punk rock band but IMO they drew heavily from Little Richard with his youthful and wild free-spirited recklessness. Of course every generation and genre has its 'punks'; unpolished but confident, challenging and aggressive artistic rebels. The Dadaists of the 1910's could even be considered as proto-punk.

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