April Birthdays 
There have actually been quite a number of bands called the Rumblers. Most are more recent, but there was a local band from inland Washington called the Rumblers that antedates the California band. The Californians are the ones of interest to surf music, and they were from Norwalk. Generally web sites interchange pictures of the two bands fairly freely and list their discography interchangeably in the usual clueless way music sites do. The California band always claimed to be playing r&b, but produced some material aimed at the surf market. They mixed vocals and instrumentals fairly freely, but they did do a lot of instrumentals and their lp was all instrumental. They are spoken of as early surf and early garage both. Their only hit was Boss, which came out (on Dot) a little before Pipeline. It's a version of The Caterpillar Crawl by the Titans (a studio crew, I believe).
The Rumblers are, of course, named for The Rumble.
The following is not so much a representative sample of the Rumblers work as what I could find on line. Modern posters seem to like their more experimental stuff.
The Rumblers - Boss* Covered by the Sunsets, the Cramps (as Garbage Man with vocals), Dave Alvin, and John Blair. (Alas, all separately.)
The Rumblers - I Don't Need You No More Vocal, flip side of Boss. This is where the garage folks come in.
The Strangers - Caterpillar Crawl In case you were wondering.
The Rumblers - It's a Gas - audio OK, these are all audios, but this one doesn't pretend to be a video.
Blockade Issued with several different names over time, including Roll Up.
Surf Rat With picture of the Washington band. 
The Rumblers - Destruction
The Rumblers - Angry Sea (Waimea)
The Rumblers - Bugged Vocalish in the sense of Move It, etc.
The Rumblers - Night Scene
Chuck Higgins et al. - Night Scene A cover by Higgins, who was a well known saxophonist in LA at the time and also recorded for Downey Records and apparently met them there. I am going to guess they were pretty thrilled with this at the time. I don't know if any of the Rumblers got to play on this. Maybe? Also since covered by the Fathoms, which is also a bit of a coup!
The Rumblers - Soulful Jerk
The original Rumblers material was issued as singles by Downey in California and Dot nationally. There was actually an LP on the same basis. The original LP was reissued (sort of - with revised content) as a CD in 1997. That is now out of print, but can be gotten used if you are willing to pay a slight premium (about 50%). Ace Records in the UK bought the Downey Records catalog after this CD came out and large parts of it including the Rumblers are available in nice collections with great notes by Brian Nevill. Recently a collection of Rumblers material was released called It's a Gas. Definitely. I think there may be plans to reissue the earlier CD, too, but I am not sure and it hasn't come out yet.
You can't mention the Rumblers without mentioning their first drummer, Adrian Lloyd, who left in a dispute over the usual sorts of things and started a group called the Sunsets which is also pretty decent. More garag-y. You can find their LP on line as a download and some of their material is available in YouTube video format, too.
Adrian Lloyd - Slippin'
Adrian Lloyd - Breakthrough
Adrian Lloyd - Justine A vocal. That Justine.
Adrian Lloyd - Got a Little Woman A vocal.
Adrian Lloyd - Lorna A vocal.
You also can't mention the Rumblers without saying that their last stuff was produced for Downey Records by Barry White. (See Brian Nevill's liner notes to the Ace compilations.) When the hodad (greaser) bands in LA called what they did r&b they weren't just imagining things. Anyway, they were serious about it. (But listen to the two Night Scenes for a hint of the differences that different markets and different people with different cultural backgrounds can produce - in the same studio.)
Some of the surviving members of the Rumblers are active on Facebook, including Rex de Long, Wayne Matteson, and Adrian Lloyd. They all love their old stuff and are proud to have been part of the band.
Exercise for the Reader: Find and play the YouTube video of Mike Kelishes' high school graduation. Other Rumblers appear in cameo roles.
- I've always liked this guy's description, since he cribbed it from a MySpace site I created and actually credited the site. It made me feel like I knew what I was talking about. And I did, but only because I got it all from John Blair, Bob Dalley, and Brian Nevill, who did all the hard work.
Last edited: Jun 26, 2011 16:18:15
