I was just listening to Fathomless by the Fathoms today (thanks Jeff), and was just reminded how damn good these guys were (are?). If you don't already have Fathomless and Overboard, please do yourself a favor and run out and buy them. Unfortunately, Fathomless is pretty hard to find, but I think Overboard is still widely available.

I know a few of you have seen them live, and they are playing out again (with only Frankie as the original member...?). Please post your thoughts and comments.

One of life's most difficult questions is: "Which CD is better, the first Fathoms or the second...?".

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Fathomless is right behind Fiberglass Rocket on my "must listen" rotation for treadmill duty. IOW, if you haven't heard anything by The Fathoms, then you haven't Reverb done properly since the Astronauts!

unlunf

MY RIGHT HAND IS FASTER THAN YOURS!
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It's funny that Brian brings this up now, as about two weeks ago I made a CD-R collecting my favorites from the two CDs, and that CD-R has been stuck in my car ever since! I haven't listened to either album for a while before this, and it reminded me what an incredible band they are. In fact, I can honestly say that the Fathoms were very influential in my evolution as a surf musician. It was after the first time I saw them live in the fall of '96 (the Space Cossacks played with them in Philly for MuSick's Instrumental Fire compilation CD launch party) that I 1) went out and bought a Jazzmaster and 2) rearranged Solaris Stomp into the version that we recorded soon after, including the very Fathoms-like intro (to my ears anyway), those heavily reverbed, muted opening notes that I played on my new Jazzmaster.

I actually still remember that Philly show with them very clearly (actually, I only really remember them, not our part of the show!). I had had their debut CD for a while before that, but seeing them live was an amazing experience. They were actually gigging a lot then, and were tight, tight, tight! The one song that I still remember them playing was "Shark Waves", which was unreleased at that point, and which of course ended up eventually on '98's Overboard. That one seriously blew my mind! The dynamics and urgency and tension were almost too much, especially live. Another thing I remember about that show is there were copies of Fathomless CD for sale EVERYWHERE! Seeing the high prices those go for today, I wish I would have bought a few extras back then! (We miss AVI - what a great label. RIP)

We were fortunate enough to play another two shows with them, both in '98, as we released Interstellar Stomp and they released Overboard (both on MuSick). We did a show in DC and a show in Boston. The DC show was taped and sold by MuSick for a while, so some of you may have seen it. As fun as both shows were, they were not as good at that point as they were in '96. They hadn't been playing live much, and Frankie wasn't as confident on lead. So, that '96 show will forever be very special in my memory.

Finally, on my CD-R, I included 14 songs from Fathomless but only 10 songs from Overboard. That reveals my preferences (though Overboard has several truly stunning songs as well...).

Ivan

Ivan
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As Brian Mentioned, they have started playing every 3 or 4 months.
And I have heard that they are going to finally be doin that 3rd cd .

Can't wait.
Jeff(bigtikidude)

Jeff(bigtikidude)

CaptainSpringfield
So which three did you leave off?

Let's see... Night Scene (a cover with the sax on the lead), the closing track Kwajalein, which is too repetative and doesn't really go anywhere, and Groovy Boots, which is a kind of a slow r&b-ish song without much melodic development. None of these suck by any stretch of imagination, but there's only 80 minutes on a CD-R and something had to go. Those were my choices.

I ordered "Fathomless" this afternoon. All these posts twisted my arm.

Oh yeah! You won't regret it! Damn, I'm kinda jealous actually - you get to hear that album for the first time! Post some thoughts when you get it, let us know how it hit you.

Ivan

Ivan
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Both are great - buy them both. Haven't seen them play Getaway Car since the reformation, but hopefully they'll pick it up again. I think it changes keys a bunch of times, but I'm a drummer so what do I know? I do know that no other band covers any of their stuff- at least as far as I know. I think you need 3 guitars to come close if you don't have a Frankie. Unlf is right - no band has done reverb like that since the Astronauts, except for maybe the Woodies.

If you go through Musick, buy it on vinyl (turquoise vinyl) and pick up the Cossacks stuff on vinyl too!

tfj

which ones?

RobbieReverb
I think both are tremendous CD's. I prefer "Fathomless",
but both are stellar. I wish I could say I've seen them.

I'm with you.

"Turn the knob to 10 and break it off!" -Baja Marty

Brian
All of them, man!

seeing the Fathoms back in '98 was great - "Overboard" had just come out (and "Fathomless" was only 2 years old) - both times I saw them were in big venues w/full PA, full 5-piece lineup and matching sharkskin suits. Needless to say, they were playing most of the material from those two albums with the lineup that recorded them. Great. Fast forward 7 years & Frankie had assembled a new lineup to play surf under the Fathoms moniker. New lineup was also very talented, but the overall feel was different - rhythm guitar player is excellent and extremely versatile, but that consistent low end chunk from the old Fathoms was missing. Also, in three full sets, they barely played 5 originals from the first two albums, possibly because the arrangements are so complicated - instead they played alot of covers - all executed extremely well of course, but it was not the same band - not better or worse, just different. I think they had the sax player come back for one show, but I missed that, so I can't comment - also I heard that they have incorporated some more Fathoms songs into their set + started writing new stuff. Bottom line its great to have Frankie out playing some surf again & we'll have to see what the new CD sounds like.

I wish I could have seen the Fathoms.

"Turn the knob to 10 and break it off!" -Baja Marty