Brian
I've found that old Cowabunga post. If you have an hour or so you can read it here.

There is some good info about playing Mar Gaya live and opening for the Stones but the rest are just some funny and scary stories about moving to California with no money.

awesome read! thanks Brian.

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I've found that old Cowabunga post. If you have an hour or so you can read it here.

Brian, great read, got any more on Randy Holden. Fender IV is my favorite first wave surf band. Body of work may be limited but the quality is way up there. Randy Holden lives somewhere in the coastline of SoCal from what I hear. It would be so cool for him to show up to one of shows and we can pay him tribute to three of our favorite songs. Everybody Up, Mar Gaya and Malibu Run. We will even crank up our Showmans for him.

http://www.outerwavesurfband.com

Brian
He seemed to be totally unaware of surf music continuing past the first wave. About the same time as we did this interview, I remember Ivan sent him some music, including a CD-R of some 90's surf. Perhaps Ivan can chime in with what he remembers Randy's reaction was.

I exchanged several emails with Randy back in, oh, gosh, 2002? Sometime around then, maybe 2003. He was very polite, and very interested. As Brian said, he had no idea that surf music was still being played in its traditional form. I offered to send him some stuff, and he said he'd love to hear it. I sent him some Space Cossacks stuff, and a CD-R compiling the best of the '90s surf. In fact, I still have a copy of that CD-R. Here's what I put on there:

1. Mar Gaya - The Treblemakers
   
2. Everybody Up! - Fifty Foot Combo
   
3. Mar Gaya - The Treble Spankers
   
4. Everybody Up! - The Phantom Surfers
   
5. Dilmohammed - The Treble Spankers
   
6. Magic Wand - The Ultras
   
7. Death Tube - The Ultras
   
8. Creature Feature - Satan's Pilgrims
   
9. Scorpio 6 - Satan's Pilgrims
   
10. The Swami - The Woodies
    
11. Spanish Word - The Woodies
    
12. Waiting For The Apocalypse - The Treblemakers
    
13. Ebola - The Treblemakers
    
14. Countdown At Ground Zero - The Treblemakers
    
15. The Dentures In Space - The Treblemakers
    
16. Avalanche - The Volcanos
    
17. Riverside Run - The Volcanos
    
18. War Of the Satellites - The Bomboras
    
19. Mystery Planet - The Bomboras
    
20. Black Hole - The Surf Coasters
    
21. Last Train - The Surf Coasters
    
22. Mad Soldier - The Surf Coasters
    
23. It's Alive - Fifty Foot Combo
    
24. SL 54 Automatic - Fifty Foot Combo
    
25. Coffin Closer - Slacktone
    
26. Aspiracion - Langhorns
    
27. Araban - The Treble Spankers
    

I tried to put together tracks that I thought share some of the power and mystery and spirit of the Fender IV stuff. And I also wanted him to hear many different bands and get an idea of their different approaches.

I tried to find the email I received from him after he got the CDs, but I can't now. Anyway, basically he said - and I remember this very clearly - that based on the quality of the tracks on this CD, nineties surf music is better than the sixties stuff. He was very impressed, and was quite honored by the covers of his songs. That's basically all I can remember. He didn't say much more than this, anyway.

That was a very cool exchange. Randy was very down-to-earth, no big ego, just one musician talking to another. Maybe eventually I'll be able to find that email from him....

Ivan

Ivan
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I remembered that I sent Randy a second CD-R (not manufactured CDs) of a collection of the Fathoms and Space Cossacks stuff. I forgot about the Fathoms before. There might have been something else on that CD, but I can't remember.

Yeah, the dark times before gmail.... How did we live???

Thanks for setting my dates straight, Brian.

Ivan

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

IronMaiden
That 'Mar Gaya' song is cool as shite though, kind of creepy, haunting, and I love the drop D.

a) Cool as shite, definitely.

b) Re drop d, for the Flamenco fans:

I Altered Tunings in the Traditional Style
The guitar is tuned in E ; this gives it its native tonality. With two open strings in E, including the bass, the fingerings are naturally made easier, whether in Major, minor or Phrygian mode. The soleá , often called "madre del cante" is traditionally played in E, which we might, in turn, call the “mother tonality” of the guitar.
...

1. The first excursion out of the original system appeared with the D tuning: the 6th string is lowered by one tone, and the instrument now has 2 open strings in D (4th and 6th). The first and obvious reason for this tuning is to use the six strings in the D tonality and mechanics, making available positions and fingerings for which the guitar is not well suited in the E tuning. Lowering the sixth string has another effect which is to reinforce the bass seating and extend the register of the instrument. Subjectively the guitar changes its dimensions, is expanded. Beyond this increase in space, the guitar has access to new harmonies, unexpected chords to the flamenco ear.
   

The D tuning came to flamenco through the instrumental guitar –unconnected with cante accompaniment. It seems that Ramón Montoya was the pioneer, with one of his early guajiras, but the D tuning was really popularized in the danzas moras, mostly those of Sabicas. In this case the choice for the sixth string in D was an attempt to imitate the Arabic lute with its deep ostinato bass. One can say that since Sabicas –with such compositions as "Amanecer arabe" - nobody has done it better. He signed other outstanding compositions in this tuning such as the Guajira melodica (partly inspired by Montoya’s version), his Zapateado and Seguiriya in D. This last, which escaped notice within his repertoire, was already preparing for the future : for the first time the D tuning appears in the phrygian mode.

I suppose the shared practice is just a matter of functionality - no historical connection.

Ah, you are the same Wavy! Excellent! Nice work on that posting.

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Last edited: Sep 27, 2009 20:27:40

One more item here. Sons Of Adam drummer Michael Stuart was considered by rock music writers as one of the most influential drummers in the 60's. Mostly with his work with Love. Randy and Michael have an ongoing project going.

Hey cool thread, the interview with him is pretty good. Here's some "Fender IV" pics from his site. Dig the nice gear....

So a couple of weeks ago I was talking to Ben while listening to the Fender IV, and we wher listening to "MarGaya" and he brought up the idea that this song could possibly be Thee first heaviest song ever. What do you guys think about that? Could MarGaya possibly be thee first headbanger ever? This song is pretty damn' crazy, so it is possible, but maybe not...

The Deadbeats

Yup, it definitely is Intense. I just can't think of anything earlier or even a little later that is as heavy as this song. Maybe ther is maybe not. I just haven't heard it. BTW I think it would be cool to hear a band cover "Everybody Up/MarGaya", you could sort of transition into it, maybe it could work(sorry for the randomness of this last comment, ha).

The Deadbeats