Red Planet

When Red Planet was released on Jungle Records in 2004, it was credited to Sky Saxon and The Seeds and promoted as the first Seeds album in 30 years. The music on Red Planet may be very Seeds-esque, but Sky Saxon is in fact the only original member of The Seeds to appear on Red Planet. Still, it’s a killer of a garage-psych album.

The musicians on Red Planet

The band is listed on the back cover of the album in most obscure hippie fashion — our hero is Sunlight, predictably enough, and the other four musicians are Crusader, Branch, Leaf, and Thunder.

In fact, the main personnel were:
Vocals — Sky “Sunlight” Saxon
Bass, vocals — Rick Collins
Keyboards, drums — David Klein
Guitar, vocals — Mark Bellgraph
Drums, percussion — Norman Cabrera

Other guests appear scattered throughout the album’s eleven tracks as well. The original Seeds collectively, and Jan Savage by name, are thanked in the album’s liner notes but we’re not sure why Red Planet was credited to The Seeds. Somehow, we imagine, someone figured that it would be legally permissible and commercially beneficial. Fair enough.

The music on Red Planet

In keeping with the groovy psychedelic sci-fi cover art (which came in different colors and with minor differences in design on various releases), the songs are referred to as “The Visitors”.

Sky Saxon and his new Seeds band achieve a simplistic sound that resembles 1960s-era garage rock with impressive accuracy. From the opening track, "101 Colorized Bottles", Red Planet is noisy and abrasive. That performance hurtles along with fuzz guitar and a punchy 1960s organ; Sky slurs and rages passionately.

The second song is "Let Her Sting" (written “Let Here Sing” on the British Jungle CD version – whoops). It’s an ultra-peppy number, actually a retitled old Seeds song called "She's Wrong", now with an electronically-distorted Sky Saxon growling about a girl who is “as right as rain” and ought to be left to “fly around like a flying bee”.

The third track is "Fools On Capital Hill", again with a misspelling (it should be Capitol Hill, i.e., the nickname for the American Congress). It castigates hypocrites and plutocrats in the government, deriding them for arriving to work in big limousines while the citizens don’t even have clean water to drink.

"Uncertainty" follows with its ultra-dirty fuzz guitar, sounding more like 1970’s "Did He Die" than the original 1960s Seeds. Over busy drums and swirling garage punk Sky Saxon wails repeatedly about the “uncertainty in my [sometimes your] head”. "Sweet Fragrant Melodies" is a slower, bluesier song, sort of like a mixture of "Painted Doll" and something from A Full Spoon Of Seedy Blues.

"Cracking Ice" is a fantastic and fun fuzz-rocker with Sky Saxon sympathizing lyrically with the downtrodden and a lover who needs to be “saved” over a dramatic, organ-dominated musical landscape. "Coo Coo" is another fast-paced garage rock song, with a saucier-than-usual Sky Saxon.

"Cynical Watcher Mr. Peep" is one of the most interesting songs on Red Planet, with its quick waltz-time structure and accordion-led ethnic feel (thanks to guest Ryan “Schmed” Maynes). It is also unusually melodic, and Sky’s weary (as ever) voice has no trouble with the song’s high-soaring ambitions.

The spooky, minor-key "Cynical Watcher Mr. Peep" is followed by "Violet Ray", a swirling demand for peace with rat-a-tat drumming and a partying, surf-rock feel. "Judge With A Bomb" follows, sounding like a stranger, psychedelic cousin to "Cynical Watcher Mr. Peep". "Judge With A Bomb" is also in 3/4 time but this time a shimmering guitar (by Nels Cline, credited as contributing “cosmic guitar”) forms the backbone. Sky Saxon’s vocals, about a drug-crazed protagonist who “lost all his bananas”, are wan and distant on this song, an effect that works well with the addled feel of the performance overall.

The final song on Red Planet is "Coming Home", over eight minutes of relaxed, acoustic guitar-led countrified music that stands in stark contrast to the fierce garage fuzz that precedes it. The unremarkable chord pattern, the handclaps, and Sky’s lyrics about the sun in the west and coming home to his “baby” contrast with the burned-out vocals.

Red Planet Cover art

Beautifully psychedelic, the screen-printed cover design of Red Planet has been altered in various ways on different releases. With different colors and with the image sometimes flipped, there is no standard version. You can take your pick as to which one looks the nicest.

On all versions, Sky and his new “Seeds” bandmates lurk together in the bottom corner, in various states of mind. Behind them stretches a vast Calvin & Hobbes-like Martian landscape, where lightning bolts and a big flying saucer shoot through the lysergic sky.

Availability of Red Planet

Red Planet remains a favorite album from Sky Saxon’s twenty-first century revival. It was the first in a series of albums that reflected a renewed creativity and drive. The album is available on vinyl LP, CD, and as an online download. It’s recommended to Sky fans, of course, and to anyone who wants to see how soulless modern technology can be ignored in the service of something real, vital, and honest.

Track listing

1. "101 Colorized Bottles"
2. "Let Her Sting"
   Actually The Seeds’ "She's Wrong"; misspelled “Let Here Sing” on the British CD version
3. "Fools On Capital Hill"
4. "Uncertainty"
5. "Sweet Fragrant Melodies"
6. "Cracking Ice"
7. "Coo Coo"
8. "Cynical Watcher Mr. Peep"
9. "Violet Ray"
10. "Judge With A Bomb"
11. "Coming Home"

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