Sean Bonniwell of Music Machine dies

Sean Bonniwell, leader of the dark-edged 1960s band the Music Machine, has died. He was 71.

The Music Machine had one hit single — 1966′s blazing “Talk Talk” — and produced only one album with its classic lineup. Still, the fuzz-and-Farfisa band is remembered as a vanguard act — an important link from garage rock to moody psychedelic rock and then the proto-punk bands.

Bonniwell wrote most of the Music Machine’s songs and fronted the L.A. band, which was known for wearing all black on stage — the garb including a single leather glove.

Rolling Stone headlined its appreciation of Sean Bonniwell: “The Dark Prince of Garage Rock.”

Bonniwell, a born-again Christian, left the music business as the 1960s faded away. He died Dec. 20, 2011, of lung cancer, in Visalia, Calif., various sources said.

“(Turn On) The Music Machine,” the first album, featured a half-dozen Bonniwell originals, notably “Masculine Intuition” and “The People in Me.” The songs appeared to be part self-therapy as Bonniwell inventoried his demons on vinyl. (Note: The first album appears in various forms, but seems to be best represented on Ultimate Turn On per Bonniwell’s web site.)

Routinely lumped in with garage bands, the Music Machine produced a more ambitious sound that brought to mind L.A. contemporaries Love — and anticipated bands-to-be such as Iron Butterfly and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Bonniwell sang in “Masculine Intuition”: “I’ve got a masculine intuition/And it/Do/Not/Never be wrong,” right in line with vintage Arthur Lee.

Unfortunately, the first album (on the dinky Original Sound label) was filled out with cover versions (“Cherry Cherry” and a great “Hey Joe”), leaving a stunning but skimpy record of Bonniwell at his peak. Band members reportedly quit over Bonniwell’s auteur approach, some of them forming the group Millennium.

Bonniwell signed with Warners and released a second album, called “The Bonniwell Music Machine.” Much of the material was recorded previously and it produced no hits. The Warner recordings can be found on Sundazed’s 1996 collection Beyond the Garage.

Bonniwell published his memoirs in 1996, also titled “Talk Talk.” He recorded a couple of solo albums and performed his Music Machine material on occasion, sometimes doctoring the lyrics to reflect his Christian bearings. Bonniwell recently marketed a Music Machine video documentary on his web site. (text continues)

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Personal note: My first band, the Pack, popped up in 1966. Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. We stole the name from Terry Knight and the Pack. We copped the look from the Music Machine — black on black. We played “Talk Talk” and “Masculine Intuition,” and the rest of the songs came from the Yardbirds. Chris Campbell played drums. I sang and played bass. Wish I could remember the guitarist’s name, think it was Jerry.

Sky Saxon of the Seeds dies; garage guru

Garage band icon Sky Saxon has died after a long career that included pop stardom with the Seeds and psychedelic explorations as a solo act. He was sixtysomething.

Saxon died Thursday in his new home of Austin, Texas, as he was preparing for a ’60s tour with the Electric Prunes and Love. The cause of death was not disclosed.

Saxon’s latest group was called Shapes Have Fangs, reflecting the singer’s eccentricity as well as his love of oddly titled songs and curious band names. He adopted the name Sky Sunlight Saxon in the years after the Seeds disbanded. Richard Marsh, his real name, was born in Utah.

The Seeds’ two albums remain a powerful influence on rock music, ranging from the jukebox hits “Pushin’ Too Hard” and “Can’t Seem to Make You Mine” to the sex saga “Up in Her Room,” clocking in at 15 minutes. The song “Mr. Farmer” has become another signature song over the years and was heard in the rock movie “Almost Famous.”

Saxon and his L.A.-based Seeds obviously influenced Jim Morrison and the Doors, who had supported them on tour. “The End,” for example, appears to be a direct cop of Saxon’s spooky baritone narration. In turn, Saxon explored some Doors-like directions after the original Seeds disbanded.

The Seeds provided a bridge between some of the original three-chord attitude rockers such as the Kingsmen and the edgier psychedelic bands. Later, the Seeds’ brand of garage rock reverberated throughout the punk rock movement. Generations of rockers have covered Saxon’s songs.

The bands’ two albums, “The Seeds” and “A Web of Sound,” are available as a two-fer CD, as are the Saxon albums “The Future” and “A Full Spoon of Speedy Blues”. (continued)

The Seeds reunited in 2004 for the album “Red Planet,” which retained the fuzz tone guitars and Farfisa organ sound of their mid-’60s recordings.

Several of Saxon’s post-Seeds records are out of print or only available as imports. “Transparency” (2005) is available via Amazon. Other recordings such as the original release of “Future” with the Seeds go for as much as $100. He was big in Japan. (View the Sky Saxon discography.)

Saxon recorded with the Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan last year and appeared in one of that band’s psychedelically influenced music videos.

Saxon was a member of the famed L.A. commune the Source Family and performed with its psychedelic jam band the YaHoWha.

Saxon’s wife, Sabrina, announced the death on her Facebook page: “Sky has passed over and YaHoWha is waiting for him at the gate. He will soon be home with his Father. I’m so sorry I couldn’t keep him here with us. More later. I’m sorry.”

Update: A tribute to Sky Saxon at the EchoPlex in L.A. featured Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins, the surviving members of the Seeds, the Strawberry Alarm Clock and the Electric Prunes. Here’s an outstanding video of Corgan and a one-time band (including Smashing Pumpkin Mark Byrne and SAC organist Mark Weitz) working out to Saxon’s “900 Million People Daily (All Making Love).”

Prunes, Love, Saxon head East

The “California ’66 Revue” brings together three key acts from that pivotal year in rock history: the Electric Prunes, Love and the Seeds (repped by singer Sky Saxon).

(Update: Sky Saxon died June 25. He was replaced on part of the tour by Moby Grape guitarist Jerry Miller.)

Update of Aug. 6: The tour now appears down to Love, Miller (on some dates) and “special guests.” The tour web site announced the Electric Prunes would only play the WPKN benefit on Aug. 6 in Fairfield, Ct. That show also reportedly will feature a Blues Magoos reunion. Love (Baby Lemonade) plan to continue the California ’66 tour in venues that want to keep the booking, the web site said. This version of Love is well worth seeing and includes original member Johnny Echols.

Recalling the heady days of the Sunset Strip, the package tour in August makes a run up the East Coast, into Canada and over into into the Midwest.

The Prunes founders James Lowe and Mark Tulin came up with the concept of touring behind the year 1966, which saw garage rock and folk rock merge into early strains of psychedelia.

Love, one of the greatest bands of the psychedelic era, carries on after the death of founder Arthur Lee. Original Love guitarist Johnny Echols is at the helm, at least figuratively. This is no exploitation act — the new Love, in reality L.A.’s Baby Lemonade, were Lee’s band in the years of his post-prison comeback. They perform Lee’s masterworks from “Forever Changes” with precision and verve. Love’s songs and albums are solid citizens on this web site’s lists of the best psychedelic albums and best psychedelic songs.

The Electric Prunes scored one of psychedelia’s first radio hits, “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night).” Their “Mass in F Minor”” concept album was among the most ambitious of the era, despite its somber bloat. One of the movements of this rock Catholic Mass was used in “Easy Rider”

Sky “Sunlight” Saxon led L.A.’s the Seeds in the mid-’60s, defining garage rock with the howling hits “Pushin’ Too Hard” and “Can’t Seem to Make You Mine.” Their second album, “A Web of Sound,” featured one of the first long rock workouts, “Up in Her Room,” clocking in at 15 minutes. While the Seeds found immortality as a garage band, Saxon moved on to psychedelic explorations in following years. The Seeds appeared in the hippie movie “Psych Out” with Jack Nicholson. Saxon moved to Austin recently and had a new band, Shapes Have Fangs.

Tour promoter Patrick Hand said he wanted to see how the revue was received in “intimate venues”: “If the public is as enthusiastic in attending the shows as the clubs have been in booking, then I have no doubt we’ll be back on the road later in the year.”

California ’66 tour dates include Philadelphia (Aug. 4), Montreal (Aug. 8), New York (Aug. 9), Chicago (Aug. 12), Detriot (Aug. 15) and Cleveland (Aug. 16).

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