April Birthdays 
Lately I've been really enjoying the Dangermen debut CD "Meet the Men of Danger...", released on the great Finnish label Gas Records last year (along with the Vision and Shockwave CDs, all three of which came out together, and all three being great CDs). The Dangermen are a Finnish band that I would describe as a surfier version of the Quiets. The Quiets were also a Finnish band that specialized in fantastic recreations and reinterpretations of mostly classic Euro-instro songs, though they would occasionally dip into American surf and instro music, too. The Dangermen cast their net a bit more widely, and the guitar sound has a lot more reverb and less echo compared to the Quiets (they seem to be playing Jazzmasters and Jaguars, including the blonde/gold-hardware MIJ 1995 Limited Edition models of which I owned one, now in Noel's possession). Both bands are also similar in that they heavily feature a Farfisa and do not write any originals - it's strictly '60s covers - but they both give those covers their own sound and spirit.
This CD features UK instros ("Zapata" by the John Barry Four, "Red Rocket" by Joe Meek's Tornados, "Cruel Sea" by the Dakotas and "Spanish Armada by the Les Reed Combo, also covered by the amazing Rapiers from the UK a few years ago), a '60s UK TV series theme ("Human Jungle"), the Shadows (great versions of "A Place in the Sun" and "Maroc 7"), the Ventures (focusing on their mid-'60s surfier period, with the great "Cathy's Theme" from the Ventures A-Go-Go album, "Dick Tracy", and "Moon Child" from the In Space album), and even a few Eleki tracks (the ubiquitous "Black Sand Beach" by Yuzo Kayama and "Manx Man Island", I don't know who this one is by). There is only one cover of a track from the '60s surf scene - the opening track "Moon Probe", originally by the Vulcanes, and they really knock this one out of the ballpark! It's just fantastic, and drives home what a lost classic that song really is. It made me really wish that the Dangermen had covered some other obscure surf tracks. Maybe the next time.... (There are three tracks that I don't recognize but they're not credited to any of the band members, and given the names of the songwriters I figure that they must be covers of Scandinavian tracks, probably also from the '60s: "Beatnik Time", "NO!", and "Monster Beat".)
Anyway, I love this CD. It's played and recorded extremely well by five guys that GET this music, have the chops and the tones to make it sound fully authentic while still imbuing the songs with their own sound. And though the songs are on the more obscure side, they're all phenomenal, an excellent selection of should-be-classics (well, and a couple of bonafide classics). It's just feel-good music, and I highly recommend it to everybody on this list. (Get it from Double Crown Records.)
—Ivan
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Last edited: Oct 28, 2012 15:45:01
