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I'm new here on SG101, so I don't know if I have a full vote yet :)
I second Ivan, and nominate Longboard Ranch Rides Again! I bought
the CD off the CD-Baby website last month, and it's become one of my
most listened-to discs! The Kilaueas Professor Volcanova is another
FINE FINE disc, but being a trad-surf fan, my nod goes to Longboard
Ranch.
Respectfully,
Pete
Aloha All,
The best of 2005 for me was joining SurfGuitar101!
It is nice to be amongst folks that obviously LOVE
Surf Music as much as I do.
We (Solar Wind) are one band, out here in the middle of the Pacific,
With the sole intent to preserve the Tradition of Instrumental Surf
Music.
And to have Fun and to Rock it Up!
We have a songlist that we have been following, that I
Assembled from all the old instrumentals that I so loved,
From back in the Early Sixties.
I called it "the essential list to meet all possible requests".
And of course, the first time someone came up with a request,
It was none of these! Dang! Where did this guy come from?
HIS old favorite was Caterpillar Crawl. Ok, so next time we'll
Have it. Gotta learn Church Key, too.
Here at SG101 I learned that there are many interpretations
Of what IS surf and what IS NOT. My criteria was, "if I had
The 45 on my turntable back in the day", that was what I
Wanted to play. I now know that some of these songs were
The precursors of SURF. But to us, who were in the thick of
"the scene" we did not make such a distinction. We adopted
ALL that music as our own! Our own movie score of our life.
So when you heard BAJA on the radio, and you were headed to
Mexico, that was so bitchen.
WILD WEEKEND and TEQUILA? Man that was IT!
Richie Valenzuela of Pacoima laid down a track MALEGUENA
(we called it More Iguanas) and we were beating that song
on our acoustics along with Bongos, around the fire rings at
Huntington Beach, or Lunada Bay, dropping hot dogs in the sand
and eating it anyway, that was SURF.
Another activity in this "era" was while we were in class,
(We did have to go to school), you could hear the tribal rhythm
of WIPEOUT being beaten on school desks, car hoods, trash cans
and guess what?
Our reverb was the halls! And it was SURF.
Of course when we were cruising, we were mostly dependent on the
Radio and what we "called in" to the station and Requested.
There was no 4-Track or 8-Track or Cassettes or CD's.
When we were at the beach, everybody had their little Japanese
Transistor Radios tuned to the same station. The roots of
Quadraphenia and SenseSurround.
My brother did have a 45 player in his '49 Merc! It mounted up
Under the dashboard, and you played the 45's one at a time,
The needle arm was spring loaded upwards, to avoid bouncing
Out of the groove. It was speaker wired to the front, (no stereo in
Those days) and to the deck behind the back seat. And wired
Into this system was...guess what?
A Vibrasonic! This was the first electronic REVERB that anybody
Ever heard! He picked it up at Wallach's Music City.
When inside the car, it sounded like the DJ and all
The music was in the Sistine Chapel! Even the news was in REVERB.
Yes, this was truly Heaven.
Forget about the sunburn and the sand in your crotch.
Thanks one and all! I love to hear about all the gigs, and strings
And speakers and bands and amps and tunes, new and old.
Aloha,
Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Kim in Kohala
