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The Defiant Ones: Super Secret Disaster (self-released?, 2006)
The only reaction a person can have to this CD: Holy Crap! This is
absolutely insane, completely over-the-top music. It's a side-
project between two of the Balboas, Rich (lead guitar) and Caitlin
(bass in the Balboas and baritone guitar here), and Dusty and Sam
(Slacktone, Agent Orange, Jon & the Nightriders, Dick Dale, etc.,
etc., etc.). It's a mix of California hard-core punk and surf, and
it's definitely UNIQUE. It's grungy as hell, and it ain't pretty in
any way shape or form, but damn, it rocks like a mutha! Imagine
Dick Dale and Link Wray fronting a hard-core rhythm section (Black
Flag or Dead Kennedys or something) and you get some idea. The
music is in general very riffy, without much melody (though there
are a couple of songs that show some melody, such as No Soy or 6000
Stitches). But it really doesn't matter, cause when you listen to
it loud you get totally swept up in the aggression and the attitude
of it all. This is a CD with giant balls! There are four vocal
songs that have nothing to do with surf music again, not much
melody, but huge energy that get you pumped up big time, even me,
and I usually hate that sort of a thing! The whole CD actually
doesn't sound THAT much different from the Balboas, really. Maybe
just a bit more 'out there'. And in fact, it's a `family' affair
for the Balboas, as they all appear on the CD in some form or
another: besides Rich and Caitlin, the Balboas' rhythm guitarist
Rick plays organ on one track (though it's not clear whether he
really should be
), the Balboas' singer wrote the lyrics for the
four vocals (though they're sung by two other dudes whose names I
didn't recognize maybe punk singers?) and the Balboas' drummer Ben
did all the artwork, which is very `film noir' (the cover shows a
dirty ashtray, a switchblade, a syringe and a few other blurry
items that pretty much tells you the whole story. Dusty and Sam
sound on this CD like they not only never played surf music in their
lives, but never even HEARD it! It's all about punk with bass and
drums on this album, baby. But the guitars are definitely Fender
all the way, awash in a sea of reverb. I gotta say that the songs
are all a blur, one sounds pretty much the same as another. But it
works somehow. (Except for the two instro covers, which aren't very
good - Ghostriders, and Bajjad by sixties Aussie instro band the
Echoes.) Oh, I should also mention that Dave Wronski is a guest on
one track, The Exile. It's a really simple repetitive song that
could easily get boring. But Dave is able to somehow keep exploring
the melodic and rhythmic possibilities of the song and ends up
extracting the maximum mood and coolness out of it. Some of the
notes he plays in that song are just wild!! Anyway, I recommend you
get this CD, crank up the volume and wallow in the sheer adrenaline
and ridiculousness of it all. Crazy, man, just crazy
.
Ivan
