Customer Reviews

Surf Rider!/Surf Drums

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4 star:		(1)
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This is a great release from one of the better original surf bands. The Lively Ones were one of Del-Fi's best.

"Surf Rider" is a great surf album. Every track is different from the last and is a prime example of surf music in the early 60's. Surf Rider, Misirlou and Caterpillar Crawl are classics. Paradise Cove is a very good atmospheric number. "Surf Drums" is good as well, Mr. Moto and Rumble likely being the best tracks. The only complant i have, and it is a minor one, is that the songs based on a 12 bar blues progression get a slightly repetitive by the end of the second album. Other than that, two great albums!

The Lively Ones' debut album remained their best effort, and a great example of `50s instrumentals morphing into `60s surf rock. Joel Willenbring supplies the fat-toned sax, and Jim Masoner and Ed Chiaverini the reverbed guitars. The quintet's first full length pulled together previously released singles - notably the title track's reworking of the Ventures' "Spudnik" - with a handful of covers and a few memorable originals. The album opens with Tom Fitzpatrick's crisp drumming kicking off Dick Dale's "Surf Beat," smoothly integrating Willenbring's growling sax with the low twanging guitars. A take on the classic "Miserlou" hasn't the manic staccato virtuosity of Dale's version, but the drums once again cut sharp lines behind the energetic guitars. The more obscure covers are even better: a moody take on the Strangers' "Caterpillar Crawl" and an upbeat romp through "Walkin' the Board" each sound like something Thee Swank Bastards would use to get Szandora LaVey's hula-hoop up to speed. The two originals, "Goofy Foot" and "Happy Gremmie" are quite fine, the latter with a bluesy edge to its combination of surf and Vegas grind. Great sound (stereo except track 2, 4, 5 and 6) - this is a must have for any surfer stomp; available as an album of MP3's or a two-fer (with their second album, Surf Drums) as a CD. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]