Savage Night

Blue Hawaiians | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 13, 1999)
• Original Release Date: July 13, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Interscope Records
• ASIN: B00000JBGR
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #150,190 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cool jazz meets surf noir....., January 7, 2001

By 

Patrice Webb (Georgetown, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Savage Night (Audio CD)

This CD by the Blue Hawaiians, with its "Las Vegas meets West Coast Surf" wave of genre-bending music came riding in as one of the more eclectic releases of 1999. "Savage Night", inspired by Jim Thompson's dark crime novel of the same name comes on as not just your average surf music album with its endless summer of sun and surf, but rather as a walk on the dark side of temptation and sin found only after dark in a shadowy nightclub.

Old fans of the band may be disappointed by the Las Vegas attitude and the glossy production of this disk, but it is the bands fearless ability to mix their potent Mai-Tai of different musical styles without considering the consequenses that so aptly sets them apart from most of the bands working the West Coast Surf music scene today.

In somewhat of a departure from the bands previous offerings, "Sway" and "Live at the Lava Lounge", there is more emphasis on the vocals of Mark Fontana and more of a mixing of the Hawaiian steel guitar and drums found in traditional surf music with the organ, horns, piano, and sax found in jazz.

Fontana's voice, with its Jim Morrison/Roy Orbison/Chris Issac Timbre provides the CD with a sense of danger that is seductive, adventurous, and sexy. "Highlife" with its cool seductive jazz takes you into a nightclub circa the 1950s with Janiva Magness, one of the more talented vocalists on the contemporary blues scene, providing background vocals on this track. The CDs opening track starts with a hypnotic Chris Issac like vocal that sounds like it came out of a David Lynch movie, and on "Lonely Star" Fontana brings Frankie Avalon off of the beach and into the piano bar. On "Sway", and "Jockey Full of Bourbon", the band swings into a Cha-Cha rhythm and then swiches over to south of the border with the toreador inspired "Trouble Bay".

For those who seek a sense of adventure in the music they listen to this walk on the dark side of life is worth the danger.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is Lounge.........., October 25, 2001

By 

badsardine "badsardine" (NRW) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Savage Night (Audio CD)

Grab your Daiquiris and enjoy the best in Lounge-Surf-Noir. I love this band! Probably the best I've ever heard........Especially the first Song!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Melt Your Cares Away, May 8, 2003

By 

L. "seadoggstevens" (La Mesa CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Savage Night (Audio CD)

I thought I was purchasing a surf instrumental cd. What I got was a nice mix of retro 60's style musicianship with sharp vocals combined into a luxurious lounge music presentation, which is both earthy and evocative. Each piece is handled with the sensitive, tasteful caress of a true artist passionate about his work. The vocals are lush, embracing, memorable for their understated elegance. The slow vibrato stylings of the electric guitar, the soft saxophone, and high quality steel guitar work is blended sweetly, never overdone, with nice soloing alternating with the lead vocals. Possibly the finest cover of Shakin' All Over ever done, takes the original to a new level, a vista seldom visited. The title track, Experiment In Terror, and Hot Rods To Honolulu are sensuous instrumentals, the others are vocals with smooth instrumental backing. The relaxed pacing of all of the music is certainly suitably fitting to a group that performs in a place called The Lava Lounge. My favorite number is Sway, a timeless classic so exquisitely performed that it reverberates, hauntingly, in my memory, long after the album has been put to bed. I can only wonder why a group so deeply moving has not been promoted by the sometimes unfathomable gurus of the music industry. Take a chance on this rare breath of fresh air. Latin-based tunes performed with an almost stoic affection may stay with you, melting away the stress of an arduous day.