Photo of the Day

Dateline Omaha, NE
Unlimited Productions Releases Surfin' In The Midwest, Vol. 4
Phil Dirt

Unlimited Productions has just released the long-awaited fourth volume in their amazing Surfin' In The Midwest series. I had the pleasure of assisting on this one, and I'm very pleased with the outcome. Extensive liner notes as always, lots of pictures of bands, and more. This one is very clean as a result of extensive restoration of the source material. It's on 12 inch vinyl.

Those of you who have earlier volumes of this series know what it means to get another volume out. Volume one came across my radar one rainy afternoon at a little refuge in San Jose called Dedicated Record Collector. There is was, sitting quietly in the "new" bin. The artwork alone was worth the dinero, but a quick glance at the track listing and I knew I had to have it. Surfin' In The Midwest (Land Of The Ho-Dads) raised the bar for comps of dusty old singles.

The series has included so many magical surf obscuros that it's hard to under-value. Just look at the list of tracks before this volume.

Breakers 'Beachhead,' 'Doheny Stomp,' & 'Jet Stream'
Butch Berman 'Pipeline'
Chessmen 'Dark Eyes'
Citations 'Moon Race'
Emotionals 'Misirlou'
Enchanters IV 'Like Tuff'
Evan Carrol and the Tempos 'The Monster'
Furys 'Furious'
Impact V 'Riptide'
Jay Bee and the Kats 'Tension'
Marauders 'Caliente'
Marrell's Marauders 'The Marauder'
Misty Knights 'Misty Nights'
Novas 'Take 7'
Pretenders 'Surfer's Dream'
Pretenders 'The Gorp'
Renegades 'Istanbul'
Rich Clayton and the Rumbles 'Wail It' & 'Flip Side'
Rockin' Continentals "Count Dracula' & '2-3-4'
Royal Flairs 'One Pink Box' (an original 45 label typo that should have read 'One Pine Box')
Shattoes 'Surf Fever'
Shelltones 'Blue Castaway' & 'Mark's Blues'
Stage-Men 'Fall Out'
Sting Rays 'Mad Surfer'
Titans 'Motivation'
Titans 'Surfers Lullaby'
Torquays 'Busting Point' & 'The Other Side'
Tradewinds 'Gotcha' & 'Surfin' Thunder'
Treasures 'Minor Chaos'
Tremolons 'Theme For A D.J.'
Twilights '007'
Vaqueros '80 Foot Wave'
Venturas 'Ram-Charger'
Vigilantes 'Warm Wind'
Viscounts 'Journey To Infinity'

So, with that impressive list, volume four would have to be quite something to earn its place in the series. Of course, it is just that – quite something! Just look at the lineup this time! 18 tracks, 17 bands, all from the Midwest (of course), and many of the singles have not seen the light of day before.

Al's Untouchables 'Church Key'
Avanties 'Bass Beat''
Blue Echoes 'Moon Ride'
Commancheroes 'TP'
Count Downs 'Way Out'
Johnny & the Shy Guys 'Moon Dawg'
Johnny Ray Gomez 'Romp Out'
Kan Dells 'Cloud Burst'
Monzels 'Sharkskin'
NU Beats 'Carlotta (aka Jezabel)'
Precisions 'I've Got To Have (Precision Sound)'
Ronny Kae (& The Saints) 'Swimming Drums'
Royal Scorpions 'Spooky Village'
Star Tones 'The Chase (aka Quasimodo originally by the Road Runners)'
Titans 'Tchaikovsky Rides Again'
Tornados '7-0-7' & 'Scalping Party'
Valiants 'Jack The Ripper'

$15 (postage included in USA, outside USA write first)

Also, still available from Unlimited Productions:
Surfin' In The Midwest, Vol. 3 on CD $15
(vols 1&2 are long sold out, but there "may be" a reissue 2-fer at some point)
Royal Flairs - Surfin' With 7 inch ep $20

plus some garage stuff - write for a catalog.

Unlimited Productions
PO Box 3852
Omaha, NE 68103-0852