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--- In , "supertwangreverb"
<supertwangreverb@y...> wrote:
>
> Christ Ivan! You write too much to hold my attention haha. I'm
> going to need the cliff notes of your posts from now on.
Yikes, I know you're kidding, but I feel it may be all too true for
too many of our young people....
> Hey, I didn't mean to offend anyone. I just don't like some of
> the "newer" surf stuff I've heard. I've heard the Merman and
> disliked it, same with Slacktone, I've also heard some of Les
> Fradkin's stuff and didn't like it either.
I wasn't really talking about bands like these. They're definitely
going way out and not even trying to be trad.
> However, I feel some of the newer bands like the
> Treblemakers, the Ghastly Ones, Satans Pilgrims, and the Bomboras
> did put a more modern spin on surf, but those guys did it
> differently than the previous bands I mentioned, and they were
> still creative.
Well, that's exactly what I was saying! I mentioned SPs and the
Bomboras. I should have mentioned the Treblemakers, cause I do love
them, too. (I'm not that into the Ghastly Ones, though I appreciate
what they're doing - I don't think they're terribly trad,
incidentally.)
> Ivan, I respectfully disagree with what you say about newer bands
> sounding like the old ones. I really think minus the organ on the
> Finks album it sounds similar to the original bands, same with some
> of the Treblemakers.
Hey, this is all in the spirit of mutual respect. But here's the
thing: I have the Finks CD, and there are, what, two or three
originals on there? They definitely capture the traditional sound
and playing technique, and they get very close, but to my ears they
still don't sound like a recording from '63. And if they tried to do
more originals, I'm sure they would have sounded even less
traditional. As far as the Treblemakers, I was friends with both Zak
and Denis, and we corresponded quite a bit during the late nineties
(haven't heard from either of those guys for a while, they dropped
off the face of the earth). There's NO WAY that a sixties band would
have ever recorded the Doomsday Device album! No way. I think
that's an amazing CD, but exactly because those guys allowed their
personalities and creativities to take over rather than slavishly
attempting sound authentic, circa '63. Their previous CD was mostly
covers, and it's the same thing as the Finks - they sounded very
close, but not like a band from Orange County in '63. They simply
can't, they're different people in a different culture and different
place in history. And different WEATHER, with all the experiences
that that brings to surf music. And, finally, different recording
techniques and equipment, for better or worse.
If you strive to follow in the footsteps of the Treblemakers, then
I'll be happy to admit that you've got good rolemodels. Not so much
for the Finks, though. I think both the Bomboras and the Huntington
Cads were infinitely better and more interesting than the Finks, who
were ultimately pretty bland. If I want to hear those songs, I'll
just listen to the originals, they were still better.
> Also comparing bands who made those big changes in the 60s is
> different than now, there's so much shitty things that have been
> done in music the past 40 years that everyone gets a little
polluted.
> Which, I guess could go along with what Ivan saying, no new bands
> are going to sound exactly like an old surf band.
Yep, exactly. But my friend, 'polluted'? You must like SOMETHING
that has been done in the last forty years? I like a whole bunch of
music from these last four decades (and much before it, too), and I
feel my life would be poorer for not having heard it. I don't think
that's pollution. Let's put it this way: can you ever do surf music
in the same way after having heard and loved the Ventures In Space,
which came out in '64? It's gonna change your perceptions of the
genre, cause it's amazing! As the Madeira bass player said to me
once, our ears just aren't 'innoecent' anymore. And then you won't
be able to sound like exactly as did somebody that was writing songs
and recording before that. Is that pollution?
> With my band we try to sound as traditional is possible, go ahead
> say we are putting on blinders and blocking out too much. That's a
> compliment as far as I'm concerned. We've been asked to play our 3
> biggest shows this year because we sound more traditional than any
> of the other surf bands around here. There's still alot left to do
> with the traditional sound IMO.
Bill, I think you've got a great band, and I think you guys have an
enormous amount of potential. I loved your performance when I saw
you in May, as I was happy to tell everybody. I love the fact you
have the most traditional sound (I really do, that's what I love to
hear and where my heart truly is), and I'm VERY HAPPY you're getting
shows. What I'm talking about concerns songwriting and recording -
making your own contribution to the genre. If you can make music
that's as good as the Treblemakers or Satan's Pilgrims or the
Bomboras, I will love you forever and be one of your biggest fans!
But if all that you amount to is doing really faithful versions of
Scratch and Mar Gaya, and writing a few originals that copy those
tracks, then I may enjoy seeing you live on occasion, but I doubt
I'll be singing your praises to others or even recommeding your CD.
That is all that I'm saying. Set your goals a bit higher! Don't
just strive to RECREATE this awesome music, strive to CREATE some of
it, make it your own, something that would make Eddie Bertrand of '64
and Randy Holden of '64 proud and make them take notice! Don't lose
your trad sound, but add to it. And try to appreciate others that do
that. God, there are so many trad sounding, good bands around right
now. Just to dip in my best-of list, the Hellbenders are quite trad
with a big western influence, the Bambi Molesters are most of the
time very trad, the Lunatics have a big mid-sixites Ventures sound
mixed in with trad surf, the Wet-Tones and El Ray are pure trad
surf. Why not check out some of those bands? None of them are like
Slacktone or Get Wet.
Hope that makes some sense and that I'm not testing your attention
span again...
Ivan
