Garage Rockers the Sonics Return With New Rager 'Bad Betty'

Decades after the release of their last album, garage rockers the Sonics are returning with a new LP, This Is the Sonics. The group, best known lately for their raucous 1965 recording of "Have Love Will Travel," heralded the news with a gritty, sax-powered single, "Bad Betty." Previously, the This Is the Sonics track appeared in a different version on a split seven-inch single with Mudhoney that came out on Record Store Day last year.

Three of the band's original members – vocalist-keyboardist Jerry Roslie, guitarist-vocalist Larry Parypa and multi-instrumentalist Rob Lind, who plays sax, harmonica and sings – recorded the new album in "earth-shaking mono" with a rhythm section that has played with the Kingsmen and Dick Dale. Producer Jim Diamond recorded the band in Seattle, less than an hour's drive from the band's hometown of Tacoma. The album is due out on March 31st.

In addition to putting out a new album, the group will be hitting the road for a North American spring headlining trek. Mudhoney will be joining them at their record release party on April 2nd at Seattle's Moore Theater, along with other as-yet-unannounced guests, and the band will receive support from Barrence Whitfield and the Savages from their New York City date until the end of the tour.

The Sonics were most active in the mid-Sixties, when they put out their influential 1965 LP Here Are the Sonics and 1966 record Boom, putting their own unique stamp on revved-up garage rock. They reunited briefly in the Seventies and, in 1980, released Sinderella. In recent years, "Have Love Will Travel" appeared in a Modelo beer commercial and in a promo for Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown. The group was also featured in the Seattle episode of Foo Fighters' HBO docu-series, Sonic Highways.

The Sonics Tour Dates:

4/2 - Seattle, WA @ Moore Theater

4/4 - Las Vegas, NV @ Viva Las Vegas Weekender

4/5 - Las Vegas, NV @ Viva Las Vegas Weekender

4/8 - New York, NY @ Irving Plaza

4/9 - Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony

4/10 - Allston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall

4/11 - Providence, RI @ Columbus Theater

4/12 - Philadelphia, PA @ Theater of Living Arts

4/23 - Cincinnati, OH @ Woodward Theater

4/24 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall

4/25 - Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick

4/26 - Toronto, ON @ Lee's Palace