REMIXES: I know we all hope summertime gets here fucking soon. This winter has been miserable and especially for people down south who have never seen snow! I remember a summertime many moons ago where I was working at the Warped Tour in Asbury Park in 1996 or so. There were bands playing all over the place and our jobs was to cart them to their show from the hotel and back to the stage, take them to get their laundry done; really glamourous work but was a job in the sun. One of the bands that I carted around was SUBLIME. The kids went nuts for them and their dog was pretty chill too. They pilled into my VW fox station wagon and away we went; watching what was left of the sunset. This tune of theirs always reminds me of that chance encounter. Here’s a bunch of remixes or bootlegs by various artists. Was originally released as a single in 1997 after the singer died; The alt version with Wyclef Jean and The Pharcyde is what has promoted so many remixes. The tune now is called Summertime because of the chorus but the feeling of cheating girlfriend is still in tack. This song heavily samples a cover of “Summertime” by jazz flautist Herbie Mann. At the top of the heap is the latest from VooDoo Farm checking in with this classic.
RIYL: Southern California, Fish Tacos, Pot, Beach Babes, corona’s and waves (Not in any particular order)
DOWNLOADS: VOODOO FARM – Doin’ Time(Remix VOODOO FARM ) MP3 Sublime Remix – Samples include marvin gaye, four tops, supremes, aaron neville, j dilla, snoop, and the jackson 5. Also live sax, guitars, bass & vocals. Give Voodoo Farm a like on FB and a Follow on Twitter. It’s a heavy remix that you may hear at the club tonight.
The listening process is painful and sometimes it’s amazing. AMAZING. We don’t like being the curmudgeon that has heard it all. We’re not a bearded music historians yipster either but when we hear music that reminds of some cool things from the past and has a actual hook. Meaning a discernable verse and chorus that is not muddled. Our ears perk-up a little. We don’t know why but either so here’s some tunes that stood out this week. Don’t be shy about stalking us back on the bookface and titters. (Made you look)
Beauty Queen Autopsy – Good, Giving, Game MP3 Check-out from their Roughest Cuts- the demos. I don’t know when you make electronic music on a computer it’s hard to sound demo-ish. This reminds us the simplicity of Trio and the stranglers. Get the rest of this release on their bandcamp page.
Bad Suns – Transpose MP3 – This is the title track from their EP on Vagrant Records. It’s got noodley guitars like The Strokes and much better players than those guys were when they started. You will probably here this tune at the fall someday soon.
By Passers – How Do You Feel When Nothing Is Real MP3 Check these guys out by way of Finland and who have recently moved to London which I guess is the equivalent of somebody moving from Canada to Brooklyn. Morisseeeey like length pop song titles and a underlying clean guitar part that sounds like mission of burma (that’s when i reach for my revolver) except a lot cleaner over-all. Good stuff. Band site.
RIYL: Mitch Easter, We were scientists
A Million Billion Dying Suns – “True Reality Lies Beyond the Cosmic Horizon” – My mom made a quit that looks like this one back in the 70’s when I was a child. This tune has distorted bass riff akin to some Hendrix/Psych rock so it’s no surprise they are from San Fran. You may had heard this riff in a GoPro Commercial too with Shaun White snowboarding. Check out their strawberry EP for more. (Sorry DL so go support them)
The Rebel Set – Monster MP3 straight from their new surf punk and reverb drenched release How To Make A Monster! here’s a band from Arizona on Burger Records. This is super fun rock-n-roll. Don’t be scared of something new which is something new. Bandcamp | Facebook
RIYL: Link Wray, Gene Vincent, The Sonics, The Monks
West Coast Tour Dates:
01.24 • The Rogue Bar (Scottsdale, AZ)
01.31 • The District Tavern (Tucson, AZ)
02.07 • Blackbird Bouvette (Albuquerque, NM)
02.08 • Dive Bar (Las Vegas, NV)
02.14 • Yucca Tap Room (Tempe, AZ)
02.20 • Burger Records (Fullerton, CA)
02.21 • Billy O’s (Ventura, CA)
02.22 • The Redwood (Los Angeles, CA)
03.01 • Ice House Tavern (Phoenix, AZ)
ALBUM REVIEW: If you’re going to name your record Space Jam there is no way of getting around the fact I’ll think of Space Balls. Thanks John Candy; but if you made a statement like it’s a speed amp test that seems to use different flavors of reverb and a bunch of spastic guitar moves it would be a whole other thing. Oh wait! That’s my job music fans. While I’m not going to re-name this record by The Trashies they are personified in their name. So where do you go from here? In this experiment you’d put a mic a in a metal dumpster and bang it erratically with a bat and it will give you an idea of what this Seattle basement band sounds like. Maybe for an element of danger you’d stand in a puddle but somewhere between you may realize this surf music has had it’s polarity switched and that maybe you’ve been saved from electrocution by pure chance. Lead by a singer who’s falsetto vocals somehow land you in what is the relentless song world of The Fall – you’ll quickly realize you’re good with these risks. They deviate a little with the sleigh bells on “sippin on a coolie” (I collect these by the way so send me some – coolies not sleigh-bells) with something sounding like it was hatched in Ethiopia but then they bring you quickly back with something sharper and bo-diddle-esque where the beat is humpin’ on “i wanna destroy”. While they won’t win the award for the tightest band in the world this psyche pastiche is about being a sloppy work in progress that uses reverb as an instrument. You ought to love The Trashies because they just don’t fuckin’ care.
schultz mask MP3 by The Trashies from Space Jam (2011)
This psychedelic trash punk music is also like: Terry Waite Sez MP3 by The Fall from Bend Sinister (1986) Bad News MP3 from The Great Lost Trashmen Album D.W.I. MP3 by The Ribeye Brothers from If I A Horse
I’m not a huge fanatic of Surf Music genre but there are a bunch of great bands that have kept this type of homage alive to 60’s nostalgia, drive-in movies and the Hawaiian shirt. Ok a lot of images come to mind when you think of tunes drenched in fender reverb, fast guitar picking instrumentals and hot babes. Crap they’ll write a song about anything. The greatest thing is the music is devoid of pretense and rarely a is there a vocal melody to be had. The guitars do the talking in it’s purest of white-bread Americana.
Drag Strip by Link Ray w/ The Fenders Benders from Some Kine of Nut Vol.3. Yeah, this guy single-handedly pretty much defines quality control for Surf Music having recorded probably more than any other or even lent his gear to folks recording his kind of music. Frederick Lincoln AKA “Link” Wray Jr.(1929 – 2005) was first known for his song “Rumble.”
Fathom This! by The Fathoms from Boston, Mass. Are you noticing a theme with all the water related names? Noticeable pun perhaps or just good surf marketing? Is there such a thing as bad surf music marketing? Some of these bands brought back the genre in 1990’s and others are just some of the originators, which there are 100’s of.
Six Pack by The Phantom Surfers. Yeah a cool a song about beer. What kind of beer? Does it even fucking matter? I could and will some day write a whole blog post about beer. From San Francisco according to their MS page and
“Better than Most Surf Bands, Not as good as Some”. Have put out records on Estrus, Look-out you name it. Crap i don’t even think the artwork is right but whatever…
Psychotronic by The Insect Surfers from the compilation Rock Don’t Run Vol.3. A lot of great stuff on here. One song or band is more brilliantly titled after the next. Also features tracks by Los Straightjackets, Boss Martians, and The Tiki-Tones. Coming up with the kookie surf band names is a fun drinking game. TIS claim to be the longest running “modern” surf band.
Wave by Satan’s Pilgrams from Around The World With Satan’s Pilgrims. I was introduced to this band by Empty Records back in 94-95 and I loved them ever since. They took their name from 60’s B-flick Satan’s Sadists. Great shit. [Buy]
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