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--- "Moon Dawg" <reverb2000@y...> wrote:
Moon Dawg! Great to see you here! Welcome.
> Maybe of more general interest, let me heavily plug the new
> re-recorded CD version of "Dumb Loud Hollow Twang". It is easily
> one of the ten greatest surf albums of the last decade.
I've been meaning to put a review of this CD for a while, and this is
a perfect opportunity. I was lucky enough to get the original
version of "DLHT" when it first came out, and enjoyed it through the
years. However, like the band themselves, I always felt that the
relatively poor recording quality of the original album masked the
greatness of the songs, and i was very happy to find out that they
rerecorded the entire album (originally released in '97). When I
first heard the new CD, I really enjoyed it, but I thought, well,
it's the same songs, and they don't sound THAT different. That was
about a month ago. Since then that damn CD keeps finding its way
into my player on a daily basis, sometimes multiple times! I've now
come to realize that in fact the old recording DID hide, as Moon Dawg
put it, one of the greatest surf albums of the last decade.
If you never heard the BM's, it's not easy to explain their sound.
It's at the same time very familiar and trad sounding, while being
all their own and sometimes seriously groundbreaking. They use the
usual two guitars/bass/drums lineup, and though each player is very
good, I would not describe any of them as a virtuoso. Their sounds
are very traditional: Jazzmaster guitars, Dual Showman amps, reverb
units, crisp sixties drum sounds, rumbling bass without too much
definition, just like it's supposed to be in trad surf music. But
what sets them apart is their songwriting, which is truly amazing.
The only way to describe their songs is as multi-layered. Many of
them appear as just simple trad surf songs on first listen, but with
subsequent hearings, all sorts of layers start opening up, enriching
the listening experience and revealing great beauty the more you get
to know the songs. That's a really neat trick to pull off! It's no
wonder that REM have become huge fans of the band, and that the BMs
have been touring all around Europe (and beyond at least once), as
well as winning all sorts of music awards in Croatia. I think it
would be fair to describe the Bambi Molesters as the most influential
surf band today, as I have been noticing their sound signatures in
other European bands, especially German and Italian ones.
A little bit about the CD itself. It has all the 15 original songs
which were on the original album, but it also adds four covers which
they have been performing over the last few years. The covers are:
an instro classic The Breeze and I (done by many, but the BMs version
is their own, very slow and pretty), the Fender IV's "Margaya", which
is probabably my favorite cover of one of my all-time favorite surf
songs - the BMs get truly savage on this version, with raging,
overdriven guitar and a pummelling beat - it's a thing of beauty!;
the Surftones' "Cecilia Ann", never one of the faves, but done well;
and finally, "Restless", a vocal originally done by one of the first
Brit r&r acts, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. The song features some
fantastic and intricate dual guitar parts, with an astonishing guitar
solo, recapturing the magic of the original (on the original the lead
was played by one of the best English guitarists ever, Mick Green -
you should all get some of their stuff, it's incredible). The singer
on "Restless" is Chris Eckman, of the US band the Walkabouts. In
fact, the BMs and Eckman have just released a whole CD together going
under the name of the Strange. "Restless" gives you a good idea of
their sound: twangy and very moody - like Deadbolt if they could
actually play instruments and weren't a one-joke band. (Also, think
Tom Waits, etc.)
On to the originals, and this is the heart of the album. Starts off
with the raging "Wanganui", typically surf but like nothing you ever
heard before, moving through different parts that all seem to
perfectly follow each other. It also sets the audio picture of the
album, with rhythm guitar leaning to the left and the lead guitar
leaning to the right channel. I can speculate and say that I think
it's usually Dinko Tomljanovic on the left and Dalibor Pavicic on the
right. But it's not fair to describe it as just rhythm/lead, since
Dinko is an excellent guitarist and adds all sorts of lead breaks,
and I suspect it's him playing the incredible solo on "Restless".
The two-guitar interplay is one important factor that makes the Bambi
Molesters so damn interesting and multilayered. They're constantly
trading off, playing counterpoint, etc. which makes for a really
interesting headphone experience. After "Wanganui" blows the doors
off in two minutes, we're off to a high-tempo "Hot Water Pool" which
raises the energy a few notches further, tapping into the spirit of
the Fender IV, but with the unusual addition of blaring trumpets
complementing more low-E pummelling - but it works beautifully! Like
an explosion, it's all finished very fast (1:40), and we're on to the
supremely moody "Restless", which is followed by the even moodier
ballad "Pearl Divin'" (one of four original ballads on the album).
Nobody does surf ballads like the Bambi Molesters - they are the
kings, without a doubt. With a bit of an acoustic guitar, piano and
electric piano thrown in, and subdued drums, the beautiful melody
just soars. One gets a feeling of the peace and calm of real
sea/ocean diving or snorkeling. Very evocative. Next is "Point
Break", which is probably my favorite on the whole album. What
starts as a seemingly simple and somewhat obvious surf song keeps
building for its 4+ minutes, going from one climax to another, until
shivers set in and the only way to react is to start laughing out
loud in disbelief of how good this song realy is. "Point Break"
shows a band in complete mastery of its art, having played together
for more than eight years, and finely attuned to each other. Each
instrument very subtly builds in intensity on its own terms and in
its own time, contributing to a whole which is MUCH larger than the
sum of its parts. And the melody and SEVERAL different bridges (how
many surf songs have THAT??) simply perfectly embody the
mysteriousness that surf music is supposed to be about. It's
astonishing. Next up is "The Breeze and I" that has some of the most
surf-like piano playing I've heard since the Chantays. And
then "Margaya" wakes you up from the dream of sunny beaches and
shallow turqoise waters, shaking you up and spitting you out with
vengeance! Wow. And just when you think, well, there's no way it
can get any better, it DOES! "Big Time Action" comes on, with an
urgent, nervous intro leading to more low-E pummelling at a brisk
tempo, bringing to mind the imagery of big-wave surfers. But just as
the power of big-wave surfing is balanced by the grace and delicate
balance and sometimes outright frailty of the act, so it is with this
song - the heavy beginning is followed by some beautiful, fragile
melodies. As far as I'm concerned, these first eight songs of the
album are just perfect.
But the highlights don't stop there: there is the very original mood-
piece "Catatonya" with a sparse melody augmented by some heavily-
vibratoed guitar as well as subtle theremin and featuring a lot of
creative quiet-but-intense counterpoint two-guitar playing. There is
also "Standing on the Nose in a Stylish Manner" - when was there a
better surf song title than this??? It is a perfect midtempo,
melodic surf song, again with great dynamics and building into the
perfect bridge which nicely transitions back to the verse. There
is "Coastal Disturbance" which can only be described as, well,
disturbing! Midtempo with some harsh tonalities and aggressive
playing by Dinko, it nicely offsets the beauty offered in other
songs. Hey, seaside life isn't all sun, babes and sand! But who are
we kidding, it is that a LOT of the time! :) And when it is, nothing
better to listen to than "Tremor", an achingly beautiful, slightly
uptempo, minor-key ballad. There are more songs, but I'm running out
of adjecives, so I better wrap it up with "Glider", the closing
number which is another ballad that has to be heard to be believed.
Gloriously moody and peaceful while at the same time highly
evocative, it's perfectly augmented by some mexican-flavored
trumpet.
Not every one of the 19 songs is amazing, but the 4 or 5 songs that
aren't, are still really damn good. Not only is the songwriting
exceptional and playing very capable, but the production is flawless,
with all the instruments sounding beautiful and with the addition of
always subtle and appropriate spicy touches of other instruments,
such as acoustic and electric piano, organ, trumpet, theremin, sax,
even harp. Finally, the artwork is perfect, it doesn't get better
than this. The Bambi Molesters got all of it right on this album,
and no true surf music fan can afford to be without this CD. It may
become thee CD to reach for when somebody asks me to demonstrate what
modern surf music is all about. As far as I'm concerned, with this
album as well as their two previous ones (also excellent) they have
reached the top of the heap. At this moment in time, they are the
supreme surf band in the world. (I also got the DVD with the CD, but
I haven't been able to watch it yet, since it's in PAL format - but I
will soon be getting a computer that can view DVDs, so I'll report
then - given that I can speak Croatian, I'm quite excited about
seeing it!)
Another band I've been digging hugely for the last couple of months
is Italy's the Wet-Tones. These guys get NO recognition, but their
debut CD "Mucho Reverbo" is REALLY good! Not quite reaching the
lofty heights of "Dumb Loud Hollow Twang", but definitely one of the
best surf CDs I've heard this year. Another very trad 4-piece band,
with a very appropriate CD title. The Wet-Tones will especially
appeal to the fans of Satan's Pilgrims, the Nebulas and the
Penetrators. Ten original songs and one cover (an instro surf
version of the horrendously annoying and corny folk standard "If I
Had a Hammer" - however, they manage to make it sound listenable! No
mean feat, I might add...). The originals are consistently very
good, combining great tones, a range of moods, often great melodies
and imaginative arrangements. The highlights for me are: "The 7th
Wave", an ultra-energetic, exoticly-tinged DD-like rocker that
features a pretty spanish-guitar intro and the second verse with the
acoustic guitar in the forefront, which was really cool - haven't
heard anything like that in a long time. "Playa Piranha" sounds like
it just escaped from a Penetrators album, all happy and playful with
a big dose of reverb! "Lightning Strike" starts off sounding like
the Fathoms or the Boss Martians, moving into a HEAVY DD-like part,
and then back to heavily muted lead and rhythm, again followed by
some intense double-picking. What a great way to combine both the DD
and Astronauts schools of the surf sound. "Bonecrasher" reminds me a
bit of some Space Cossacks stuff (if I may say so) with a beautiful
double-picked melody that's not overly aggressive. "Surfin' the
Casbah" starts off with a familiar melody, but then moves into some
really aggressive and heavily reverbed double-picking that's just a
pleasure to wallow in. The album comes to an untimely end (the whole
thing is less than half an hour long) with a gorgeous ballad "Mucho
Reverbo" that sounds a lot like the Bambi Molesters, or maybe some of
Satan's Pilgrims quieter moments. Again, featuring an achingly
beautiful and evocative mino-key melody, it's as good a ballad as it
gets, especially as it shifts to a major key and adds a big dose of
acoustic rhythm guitar at the end to bring the album to a close.
Nicely recorded, with the authentic surf sound (mostly Jazzmasters
with an occasional Jag, Twin amps, I think?). Great artwork, too.
I'm really impressed with this album and this band. I've been in
contact with one of their guitarists, Bruno, for many years, and he
is a really humble guy, always telling me that they're not that
good. What a crock! From what I heard here, I'd say that these guys
are among the top ten surf bands in the world today. I haven't heard
any other Italian surf band that I liked nearly as much as these
guys. They're the real thing. If you want to get a copy, you should
probably just email Bruno:
Well, finally done! After hearing these two CDs, and hearing some
live Surf Coasters stuff from their recent US tour, I'm becoming more
optimistic about the future of surf music again. I hope all of you
support these great, great bands and buy these albums. I guarantee
you won't be sorry.
Ivan
