The Endless Drummer story, Part 5
Track 3- “Seki Go Eleki”
Naotaka Seki has been a friend since I first met him when I went to Japan in 2003, and first saw the Surf Coasters. In 2004, the Surf Coasters came to America for their first tour and I got to spend a lot of time in a van with the band. Naotaka is very friendly and despite the huge language barrier, very funny and easy to get along with. He's always up for any gag and generally seems to enjoy his life. Naotaka was the first live drummer for Frankie and the Pool Boys, and came over from Japan in 2010 to play an eight show mini tour that took us through Las Vegas and finally to the Surf Guitar 101 Convention.
In 2022, Naotaka wrote and said he would like to come and stay for a week in the summer, and if possible play some shows but mostly just to hang out in California. Sure! We arranged an action packed week with lots of food, hikes, a few gigs and hanging out with friends. I can't remember if we had a recording session in the plans, but I definitely didn't have a song ready. So, I went into my room and came up with "Seki Go Eleki" in less than an hour, with Naotaka listening in and encouraging me. We went downstairs to work it out and Nao realized the main riff of the song was in 7/4 (I didn't notice!). Oh well. He was fine with it, but I remember what he said about doing an accented surf style drum roll over the riff: "It is difficult."
The next day, July 19,2022, I set up the mics and we recorded Seki Go Eleki. Danny Snyder came over later and we recorded two more songs, a cover of the Surf Coasters' swinger "Code Name SG7" and an original song of Danny's, "This Is All I Can Do" which you can hear on the 2023 Surf Guitar 101 compilation. After Nao went back to Japan, I recorded all my parts using a POD, and I put the song on the 2022 SG101 compilation, and then forgot about it until the Endless Drummer concept emerged. In early 2024, I re-recorded all my parts using Fender amps, a Surfy Bear. The two guitars are, on rhythm, a '62 Jazzmaster and for the lead a '00 Yamaha SGB 800. I played the keyboards on the Yamaha Reface and the bass is a '66 Fender Mustang. Nao played my Rogers kit with a Ludwig snare, and it looks like we borrowed Jonathan Rodriguez's nice cymbals. The overhead mics are the amazing Neumann KM56.

Danny Snyder, Jeff turner, Jonathan Rodriguez, Miss amber Waves, Frankie and Naotaka

Endless Drummers... Pieter Dedoncker, Dusty Watson, Naotaka Seki

Pool Boys by the pool inLas Vegas, 2010

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Last edited: May 10, 2025 11:47:28

The Endless Drummer story, Part 6
Track 4, Swamp Thing
Almost every instrumental song gets a working title, something generic like "Demo Swing" or "Skanky Groove," that gets changed later when a truly descriptive phrase pops up. Danny Snyder once presented a song to The TomorrowMen called "New Demo" which cleverly morphed into "New Democracy".
But "Swamp Thing" was always destined to be Swamp Thing, due to it's slow, tom heavy groove, and bluesy guitar. The title was solidified once the rhythm section was chosen.
The Greasy Gills made a huge impression from their very first gig at the Knockout in San Francisco, which I was lucky to attend. Jordan Steer is an amazing guitarist in the flatpicking style, and the bass and drum combo of Sam Benedetti and Gracie Malley swing like crazy for throughout the uptempo song list. It's challenging music that they give personality to, to keep it fun and accessible. Their mascot happens to be, dun dun dun, the swamp thing aka the creature from the black lagoon!

Sam has been the Pool Boys sub bass player for the last few years, and we love the energy she brings when she plays with us!

Swamp Thing took a while to write; I kept coming back to it, but the first recording of the riff dates to August 2020 while the wildfires were raging and the sky in Northern California was smoky orange. The first full demo was recorded in July 2021. As Jeff Turner will tell you, it's in the phrygian mode, which feels woeful and ominous.
I asked Gracie to play on the song, and sent her the Credence Clearwater Revival song "Run Through The Jungle" as a reference. Sam and Gracie are such a tight unit, so I asked Sam to play bass, and on July 6, 2024. Swamp Thing was recorded with Gracie, Sam, myself and Jono Jones in the room. They were well rehearsed and we got the song after a few takes, and the one with the slowest tempo was used. Gracie used the Rogers kit with her own snare and cymbals.
For the final touch, I asked Bryan Manzo from The Boss Martians, and his own dark-wave band Jupe Jupe, to play sax. Man, he has a fat tone and moves some air. He recorded his part in his home studio in Seattle, and it really gives the track a big flavor.

At our record release party last week, Gracie and sam sat in for "Swamp thing," and for the first time, there were more pool girls than pool boys!

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Last edited: May 11, 2025 14:34:18

Oh boy, I love those stories. Keep them coming!

Cheers,
Wellens

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For the daring... and lusty!

The Endless Drummer Story, Part 7
Track 6 – Moorea Mon Amour
(Listen on You Tube)
Moorea Mon Amour was written in August of 2019 while I was visiting the French Polynesian Island of… Mo’orea. It makes use of the melodic minor scale, like “Bali Hai.” I think if it was slowed down and featured vibes and bird calls, it could be an all out exotica song. The major key bridge is straight up power pop, so it packs a lot into its 2 minutes and 16 seconds of life. Jono Jones played that snappy rhythm guitar and Jeff Turner pops on bass, and Karen’s disco synthesizers with some crunchy leads on top makes for a real mashup. Ah, but the drums… with all that stuff going on, Jonathan Rodriguez chose to play it straight, 4 on the floor, commanding that everyone follow him.
Jonathan Rodriguez joined the Pool Boys around 2014. His Deadbeats battery mate Abraham Aguilar had already been in the band for a few years, and together, they form an airtight rhythm section. Together we recorded the Spin the Bottle album and had a great tour of Germany and Italy in 2018. In 2019, Jonathan joined a cumbia vocal group, and he and Abraham formed the Combo Tezeta, which turned into a really big deal. So, Abraham left the Pool Boys, but Jonathan stuck around until 2023. After the Spin the Bottle album, Jonathan played on eight or so more recordings including the Stargazers single and Beat It for the Michael Jackson tribute we did with Surfer Joe. Two other favorites of mine he played on were the Game of Thrones theme and Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight.) Jonathan never officially left the Pool Boys, so the door is always open, and we love playing with him!
Moorea Mon Amour was recorded sometime during the pandemic, along with a few other songs for our compilation The Wet Season. It’s not a new release, but deserves to be showcased in the context of brilliant drum performances.
Don't mess with Jonathan

Pandemic recording, 2021

Recording at Evan Foster's No Count Studio in Seattle, December 2022

On tour in Mexico, 2019

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Last edited: May 14, 2025 23:52:31

Amazing! Thanks for sharing!

Waikiki Makaki surf-rock band from Ukraine

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Lost Diver

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The Endless Drummer Story, Part 10
Ode to the Rogers Drum Kit
As we flip the LP from side A to Side B, let’s take a break to talk about that little black Rogers drum kit. It appears on 10 1/2 songs of the Endless Drummer album, the fraction coming from one drummer who wanted to use his own kick, but used the Rogers toms. As I’ve said before, nearly all the drummers who recorded at my house brought their own snare and cymbals.

The drum kit story starts with my half-brother Peter Brown, born some 12 years before me. He left home (with our mom’s blessing) at 15 to join a rock band called The Sidetrack in 1965. They were a blues band when they started out and got way more art rock as they progressed, compared to, perhaps, The Moody Blues. (They had two keyboards- a B3 and a harpsichord!) The Sidetrack had long residencies at The New Penelope in Toronto and then The Cafe Wha? in New York City. While in New York, they recorded a ridiculously ahead-of-its-time album called “Baby.” Elektra was looking to release the album, but another progressive keyboard based bands came along (The Doors) and the album was shelved. The album is widely bootlegged and you can hear it on YouTube. For that album, my brother bought his 1967 Rogers drum kit. I never asked him why he bought that brand.
After The Sidetrack broke up, Peter switched to guitar and was in and out of bands for the rest of his life. He was a ridiculously good musician, and my hero. All I ever wanted to do was play music, write songs and be as cool as Peter Brown. As far as I know, he only played drums in a band situation one more time, when he joined Pollo Del Mar in 1994 for a two year stint. (Pollo Del Mar covered The Sidetrack's epic 2314-B.)
Peter moved to the Bay Area in 1979 and, soon after, he opened a recording studio in Richmond called Starlight Sound. The house drum kit at Starlight was the Rogers kit, and was used on thousands of recordings, including, most famously, Elmo and Patsy’s “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer”!

Along the way, the rims were dented and lost, the shells sticky with duct tape, the hardware becoming a mix and match jumble of brands kludged together. When I moved out to California in 1985 to form a band with Peter, I started working at Starlight as an assistant engineer (aka Tea-Boy) and learned the art of recording.
Peter sold Starlight in 1987 to a mutual friend of ours, and the Rogers kit went with it. In 1995, I bought a house with a basement big enough for band rehearsals, and got the kit back, and tried to restore it to its former glory. So, except for a few years there, the Rogers kit has been in the family for almost 60 years.
When Chris Thomas joined Pollo Del Mar in 1996, he didn’t own a kit, so he used the Rogers until 1999. Then, we started hosting the monthly surf shows at the Hotel Utah in San Francisco and the Rogers kit was used by a parade of surf drummers. Man, I wish I had asked every surf drummer who ever played that kit to sign it!

One drummer in particular was thrilled to play it, Jim “Too Fast” Nichols of the Nebulas. He’s a life long Rogers enthusiast, and has four Rogers sets. He says that 1967 was the end of the golden era for Rogers, before they were bought by CBS and the factory was moved from Covington, Ohio to Fullerton, California (sound familiar, Fender???). He also points out that because Ringo played Ludwig, they were so popular that they were unattainable, so drummers looked at other brands like Rogers. Perhaps that explains my brother’s choice in 1967?
Dusty Watson, who has played my kit on three Pool Boys albums and quite a few Bay Area shows, also started out playing Rogers, buying his first set in 1966 for $200. He was inspired by his heroes who played Rogers including– Louie Nelson, Buddy Rich, Roy Burns, Hal Blaine, Dennis Wilson, Dino Danelli, and Louie Belson. Dusty played that kit on the Jon and the Nightriders “Live at the Whiskey” album. There it is, right on the cover!

He lost track of that kit after he loaned it to a friend, and then became an endorsed Ludwig Artist, but he recently bought a 1972 Rogers kit. Says Dusty, “So now I have a pretty close version of what we all use at Ferenc’s studio. Great punch, tone and just right amount of sustain to help bring all of his recordings to life. I’ve always loved recording on his drums and now I finally have another Rogers kit at home that I’m never getting rid of.”

What? Do I play drums? Are you kidding? With all these talented rhythmatists around me, I’ve never felt the need!

Janne Haavisto of Laika and the Cosmonauts on my Rogers kit.

Uta from The WHYs on my Rogers kit.

Jimmy Dale and Dusty Watson...

etc...

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Last edited: May 18, 2025 23:03:33

These back stories are incredible reads! Thanks Ferenc!

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"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

The Endless Drummer Story, Part 11
Track 8 - Chroma Key
(Listen to Chroma Key on You Tube)
I first met Jeremy Rexford at Starlight Sound (see chapter 10) in the late 80s. He was doing the same thing I was, exploring a career as a sound engineer. He made friends with my brother Peter, and we were all impressed with his abundant drumming talents. Jeremy was also childhood friends with bassist Jeff Turner, and brought him into the fold. The four of us, and a singer, had a band called The New Hungarians in 1987 for a few minutes. Jeremy played on some of my pre-PDM recordings, and then joined Pollo in 2000 after being a frequent sub.
Chroma Key (working title: Xray Spex) probably started out with me noodling around on the guitar, and coming up with the main riff in Bm. All of my ‘riff” songs tend to be in F# or B because of the access to the open strings in the scale. After the intro riff, it immediately jumps up to a C#m bridge- it’s a weird move accentuated by a switch to the Fender Bass VI, and very dramatic. After that, the song settles down into a familiar verse/chorus groove, until the bridge comes around a second time. After that there’s a one chord jam for the lead guitar, and a breakdown for the a bass solo. Finally, the bridge returns in a severe retard for even more drama.
If all this drama makes it sound like a Pollo Del Mar song, that was the intention. The first demo for Chroma Key was recorded on November 1, 2019 so it was ready to go for the Pool Boys, but then covid and, well, you know. With the sheer boredom of the pandemic, the four Pollos decided to get together- 6’ distanced and masked- to record an album. We had a lot of songs left over from when we stopped playing in 2012, but would need a few new songs to fill an album.
Pollo Del Mar rehearsed nine songs before the mics came out on 11/14/2020 to record for the Speed of Dark album. Chroma Key definitely feels more rehearsed than most of the songs on Endless Drummer, and you can hear tight interplay and accented off beats throughout the song, revealing the communication between the players developed over time.
Why didn’t Chroma Key appear on Speed of Dark? A few reasons– The first is the keyboard line played on the Vox Continental. PDM never had prominent keyboard parts, and it felt weird to introduce that sonic vocabulary into a guitar heavy band. In my mind, the keyboard is a crucial clue to what I consider to be an homage to the late 70s, New York, pre-New Wave sound, and absolutely necessary. The second reason is that Speed of Dark was largely recorded live with the four of us in room, with no headphones. There was a lot of bleed of the bass and rhythm guitar into the drum mics, especially on Chroma Key. At the time, I thought it would be unmixable. When I listened with fresh ears in 2024, it wasn’t as bad as I remembered, and workable. Karen added the Vox part and the song made sense.

Buy Endless Drummer @ Bandcamp
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My Blog- Euro Tour Blog
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