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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Music Reviews »

Permalink The Avengers VI - Real Cool Hits

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A quick review of my Avengers VI cd, why not? (Actually, because I just happened to be listening to it earlier today and because I don't feel like doing homework for the 30 minutes before I head off to work... so this'll have to be quick.):lol:

Overall I think this is an enjoyable but not great album. Very hit or miss with some big-time hits and some huge misses. I wish these guys recorded more originals because those are the songs that tend to be the most interesting on here--in fact Time Bomb and Heartbeat are two of my all-time favorite 1st wave songs. If nothing else, the cd is worth hearing those two songs, and a cool look at what the B-list surf scene must've sounded like back in the day.

_Heartbeat _is one of the coolest surf tunes out there, plain and simple. The E-F-G-F progression which lasts the entirety of the song could hardly be any more simple, but really proves to be a damn cool groove that never gets boring. Cool guitar lines, and the guitar-tradeoff break is a lot of fun too. Anyone who hasn't heard this song yet should definitely seek this out.

_Downtown _is, well... Downtown. Yeah that old pop song. I guess it's melodic enough to pass as an instrumental, but doesn't really lend itself to a great surf instro. It's happy and cutesy but... meh. I do like the drumming on this track though.

I really like the first five-or-so seconds of Mr. Lucky--false promise of a cool, suave bossa nova-y track that then dissipates and quickly loses its edge. The organ bit borders on muzak to my ear. Nothing offensive, but nothing great either.

Cool drumming again in None But the Brave, which has a kinda restrained optimism about it. A bit delicate, but with cool tones, which I guess are worth mentioning now... I really like the Avengers VI's guitar tone almost throughout. Are they playing Mustangs like I see on the album art? Whatever it is, it sounds pretty cool.

The Avenger's Stomp is another really raucous and really fun track. Cool solos from everyone and high energy all around really carry what's essentially just a jam track, but a damn fine one. It's a real toe-tapper this one is.

Hmmm, I don't really like this version of Slaughter on 10th Avenue. Again, I like the tone, but this version really ignores or abandons aspects of the Ventures' arrangement and instrumentation that are more appealing to my ear.

Pipeline. The classic, played less well than the classic original.
Moving on.

I'm most familiar with the next track "Summer Place" from Jasper Beardly's rendition on the Simpsons. That rendition was funny. This one just sucks. Damn this song is lame. Sleeping

These guys's rendition of Peter Gunn is friggin' awesome. I'm debating with myself whether or not this is my favorite surf rendition of this song. Dripping wet punchy reverb and fat dribbling tone, deep whammy dips and general gutsiness abound. This song is badass! Rock

Time Bomb is definitely my favorite track on the album, and one of my all-time surf-instro faves of the 1st wave and beyond. Pretty simplistic, but it's got a great hook, stellar drumming, and again really cool tone. The melody is kinda dark and sad, but really dramatic--especially for a 1st wave song. This marks some of my favorite use of organ in surf, with keys and guitar switching off lead duties really tastefully. With so much going for it, and clocking in at only 1:45, this is a song worth numerous consecutive listens. Everybody check it out.

Hall of the Mountain King has been done a good handful of times in surf, and this version holds its own. Not my favorite arrangement, but still pretty good, with some cool vibrato on the guitar at times and organ mystery at others. More trading off of lead duties that keeps things interesting and pretty fun throughout.

Coming Home Baby isn't surfy at all. More sax-heavy R n' B type stuff that's pretty chilled out for the most part with a strong hook, but these guys really shoulda stuck more to the surf instros. I like their melodies more than their solos anyways. Smile

The last song, Sahara is a really interesting specimen. The opening sequence sounds more in the vein of the handful of Indian (as in, Native American)-themed surf songs that were released in the first wave--not so much Middle Eastern, but then breaks right into a cool exotic riff. It has the potential to really bust the song open but... I just wish--wish so bad--that the main melody wasn't just Duke Ellington's Caravan. Mad It's not a note-for-note carbon copy, but the plagiarism is pretty obvious. If this section were its own original song I'd be really happy, but instead I always listen to this wishing it would either just sound like Caravan, or do it's own thing entirely. Given these guys' other originals, I know they could have pulled off something interesting to fill the song out.
The song then goes off elsewhere--organ and bass thump out a simple but effectively dramatic rhythm that then busts into--what the hell?--a raging fuzz solo! Shocked The whole rest of the song is just raging fuzz, and it's fucking awesome. Twisted Evil The out-of-the-blue rhythm change is killer, and the guitarwork is about as dark as I've heard 1st wave surf get, save maybe some Dick Dale and Fender IV stuff. The thumping finale is awesome and a real cool finishing touch to round out the album. Damn, if it weren't for the Caravan disappointment in the beginning, Sahara could have proved to be one of the all-time 1st wave epics and a big favorite of mine. Unfortunately, it falls just short.

Maybe that song serves as a good metaphor for this whole album: really interesting and oftentimes exceptional original stuff marred by less-than-inspiring incorporation of other people's songs.

Okay, I've overrun my time allotment. Gotta go.

Good review Wooza, thanks,

I know that Norm of the Ghastly Ones raves about these guys, and Fender IV and the New Dimensions as having some killer songs, that not enough people know about, but yeah def some bad songs too.

I'm just happy to learn that they went to my High school, and played at Disneyland, Tomorrowland stage that came up outta the ground.
how cool would it be to be able to say you did that.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

I almost bought a tele from Torres the amp mod guy, he had a sticker on the case that he got way back when he played that stage, and said it was the ONLY way you could have get it was to have played that stage.

It was a 63 Tele and went for 1250 about 10 years ago... D'ough

THe NEpTuNeS

Thanks for the review. I have this album also, and for the most part it really rocks. The Avengers VI were really late in the game, weren't they like 1966 or something? Surf was basically over by that point.

Time Bomb is a classic. That is another tune that my interest in MoAM? drove me to the original source.

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me

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

And as much as I like the Ghastly Ones, I think seeing The Avengers VI live with 3 guitars going on Heartbeat would have been really something.

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me

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

Great review, Wooza! Nice to see you tackling more reviews, keep it up!! Going from memory (I'm on the road at the moment), I think I agree with your review 100%. (You do know that the last three tracks are bonus, right, and weren't on the original album? They were probably recorded at least a year or maybe even a couple after the album tracks.)

Hope to see more!
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

Thanks, Ivan. Yeah, I knew that at least Sahara wasn't included on the original album. Maybe it clarified in the liner notes to the cd, but I never checked. That song's no particular surprise, it's a real standout from everything else on there.

Brian
The Avengers VI were really late in the game, weren't they like 1966 or something? Surf was basically over by that point.

Wow, were these guys really playing _that _late?? I didn't realize. So were the Avengers VI the last of the 1st wave bands?

I agree with almost the entire review (I actually like their version of "Pipeline" a lot). I was pretty disappointed in the album at first. I had heard the three songs of theirs that are on Diggin' Out - "Heartbeat," "Time Bomb" and "Good Humor/Avengers Stomp" - and, from that, figured this would be the most amazing album ever. And it definitely isn't, but there is some other good and great material within - "Sahara" especially. Considering those are, what, four out of the five songs they wrote, they had a pretty insane batting average. (And "None But the Brave" isn't bad, either.)

Definitely worth picking up. Great review.

-Warren

That was excessively violent and completely unnecessary. I loved it.

I actually really like the entire album and think it is an absolute must have. One of my favorite "lesser known" tunes on the album is None But the Brave. Such a cool tune! There's some really cool organ work on the album. Hell, I even really like "Summer Place". The guitar tones are just incredible on this record. Coming Home Baby sounds straight out of the Dave Brubeck playbook and its a very cool change up to the album. I love the Grant Green-ish guitar playing on that tune. These guys are easily one of my favorite 1st wave bands.

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
The Secret Samurai on Facebook

Here's a bump to this thread for easily one of the best 1st wave albums EVER!
I'm gonna have to agree whole-heartedly with Ryan on this one--this album IS great and should be a part of any serious surf collection.
Yes, some of the tunes (Downtown, Mr. Lucky, Summer Place) get a little cheesy, but that is a large part of their charm. In fact, Mr. Lucky is one of my favorite songs on the album because of it's cheese. This recording pre-dated the entire surf/lounge/exotica movement of the 90's--waaay ahead of it's time!
Their Downtown exists as a great example of the way a good surf instro band can adapt a vocal line for guitar and keep it strong.
Like Warren, I too really dig their version of Pipeline. More than anything, probably for the use of the organ. Again, this is more of a garagey influence that pre-dates so many of the classic bands of the 90s using them (Ghastly Ones, Bomboras, Tiki Tones, Treblemakers, etc.)
Hall of the Mountain King--C'mon, this could have been on a Ghastly Ones album! Simply awesome!
Anyone ever noticed the similarities between Coming Home Baby and The Blue Hawaiians' Highlife? Hmmm.
And, I hate to say it, but even though Sahara has such obvious ties to Caravan, that Korla Pandit-like organ and balls-out Fuzz just gets me!!!
Love it!!!!
Every time I listen to this album again, I want to immediately run out and scream about it from the rooftops and put together a band with 3 guitars and organ!!!! Who's in????
Rock

Insect Surfers
The Tikiyaki Orchestra
The Scimitars
Lords Of Atlantis
Fiberglass Jungle - Surf Radio

Real Cool Hits is OOP. 1 cd can be found at amazon & ebay for $33 or amazon mp3 for $9.
There was a group called The Avengers from LA, circa 1966 who did a very nice garage song "Be a caveman" , which can be found on the Pebbles cd vol 2.

JONPAUL wrote:

put together a band with 3 guitars and

organ!!!! Who's in????
Rock

Come on, don't be a tease.
You know I'm in Smile

I'm somewhere in the middle on this, definitely some killer tunes with some ho-hum.
I do like "Hall of the Mountain King" a lot. This version is one of my daughter's favorite songs, and she has good taste).
What I like about the "Pipeline" version of it, is that it has a little native American rhythm to it (I told BTD and JP in the past that if I ever play Pipeline/Liberty's Whip it would have to be a Spaghetti Western arrangement).

I did not mention Time Bomb, since obviously it's obe of the greatest surf songs ever. But now I remembered something that I think needs to be pointed out:
Play the melody alone - OK
It's when the rhythm chords are played together (assuming you're playing the right ones) is when the song reveals its greatness.

Ran

The Scimitars

DaveF wrote:

Real Cool Hits is OOP.
1 cd can be found at amazon & ebay for $33

Dave, it's not out of print.
cd is available from Dionysus records,
http://www.dionysusrecords.com/shop/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=335

and I am almost positive that he (Lee) had it for sale at the SG101 con.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Last edited: Sep 20, 2011 13:38:13

I know for a fact he had the LPs for sale at the SG101 show ... probably had the CDs, too.

That was excessively violent and completely unnecessary. I loved it.

I bought this LP at the sg101 show so there's that.

This is probably my favorite 1st wave album if only because it's not 80% done-to-death standards. Most 60s surf albums make me involuntarily groan just looking at the track list. I actually like this version of pipeline and the originals are excellent.

Hot Summer Comes Again!
Let's Go Beach! Let's Go Beach!

For what it's worth,
Guitarist Rick Bastrup is in the Nocturnes now and they sometimes
play a song or 2 by the Avengers VI.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Love this album. While we played "Heartbeat" a few times back in the 90s, we never recorded it, preferring to instead, ahem, pay tribute to it and use it as inspiration in a few of our originals.
As far as "Downtown", goes, I love it. The drums totally swing, but they pretty much do on every cover of it. It's a swingin' tune, and written by Tony Hatch, who wrote some great Britumentals as well.
Here's another great version of Downtown, dedicated to Danny and Abe.
groovy!

http://www.satanspilgrims.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Satans-Pilgrims/8210228553
https://satanspilgrims.bandcamp.com/
http://www.surfyindustries.com

I just wanna give this a bump. Great review . I love this album. I think these guys have an amazing tone. I agree that I wish they skipped on some of the covers and instead squeezed out a few more originals.

The melody is kinda dark and sad

I actually find it very cheerful, like most Surf melodies.

But I guess that is the best part of instro music - everyone understands it in the way he likes Big Grin

Cheers,
Mark.

Great album! A must have for every surf aficionado.

BOSS FINK "R.P.M." available now from DOUBLE CROWN RECORDS!
www.facebook.com/BossFink
www.doublecrownrecords.com

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