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I thought some of you would enjoy this. Following the interview a couple
of months ago that Brian Neal did with Randy Holden, the guitar player of
the amazing Fender IV (Margaya, Everybody Up!, Malibu Run) and Blue Cheer,
I put together two CD-Rs with the best of '90s surf music for Randy. I
stuck mostly to the more-aggressive songs, especially the ones that showed
influence by the Fender IV or had common influences. Brian kindly helped
me out with all of this, and got the CDs to Randy. Well, below are some
of his comments. These are preliminary, and I expect that he'll have more
to say. But how often do you get a chance to hear the opinions of one of
the guys that pioneered this great genre about the new bands?
The interesting thing was that I put some covers of the Fender IV songs on
there (by Fifty Foot Combo, The Treblemakers, The Treble Spankers, the
Phantom Surfers). He hadn't even realized ANYBODY had covered his songs,
so that came as quite a revelation. The bands I put on the CDs were: The
Treblemakers, The Fathoms, The Apemen, The Treble Spankers, The Space
Cossacks, The Woodies, The Ultras, Slacktone, The Surf Coasters, The
Volcanos and a few others. I put a couple of tracks by each band.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy what he had to say. (and please forgive the
indulgence of forwarding his email that contains many compliments on my
own band. I figured the inclusion of the more general comments justified
it - and hell, I'm just happy and proud about the things he said about my
band, too, so why the hell not?)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 14:51:21 -0700
From: Randy Holden <>
To:
Hi Ivan,
I received your CDs today - Wow! You sure certainly put a lot of work into
compiling these. I was quite surprised to see others recording my songs
- flattering. The tones were surprisingly good, I think I liked the first
one (The Treblemakers' Mar Gaya) best, it stayed more in keeping with the
original staccato, and chord lines. But was fun to hear all.
I have to say I really enjoy the "Space Cossacks" - Great Band - I really
love the melodic variation mideast flavored, but with a distinct Russian
touch that is probably the best expression I have heard of the Russian
influence on music in modern history - (I love 16th through 18th century
string music). Nice stuff - and represents a primary element of surf, in
my book.
Kind of interesting how the Cossack influence has the element of heavy metal
dischord to it. Some of the better surf guitar I've heard - so who's the
guitarist? (band tight also)
Also enjoy some of the "Fathoms" - etheral - nice compositions, well
executed guitar, smooth.
I would probably say the Surf Music of the nineties is quite a breadth
better in a broader range than that of the sixties.
Thanks
Randy
PS from what I hear off of these CDs so far, it's a hell of a lot better
than what else is going on in music ....
