Surf’s Up Comrades: Voodoo Surf (Fresh Links)

Here I am in Australia for a brief interlude with family once again. What a joy!

And somehow, whenever one finds oneself in this country, the mind turns to surfing (and any number of other outdoor sports) which is one of the true religions the people of these regions adhere to. Not that I partake in the sport. I don’t. I am a new (ish) immigrant and sports, whether water based or any other are something I prefer to watch rather than participate in. Yet there is something genuinely uplifting about seeing people on boards navigating themselves between and over and under waves in the middle of a deep blue sea.

Surfing music is a form that has a very loyal (not to say, fanatic) following. I thought it was no longer en vouge until some years ago a taxi driver in Sydney raved for the entire ride about his passion for this guitar driven instrumental music. Not really rock n roll but not really any other genre, surf music has secured its own unique niche. And if the taxi driver was to be believed, it was still being churned out by contemporary bands in Australia and elsewhere.

I recently posted something on The Ventures which comes pretty close to surf-like music. I do rather enjoy the crisp picking of an Stratocaster and the snap of a tight drum head but still surf music was a bit ‘outre’ for my tastes, so I thought. My mind jumps to the Beach Boys (never big heroes in my book) and long forgotten acts like Jan and Dean. Dick Dale is a cult hero but not really mainstream.

So I had little to say to the Sydney cab driver except nod and say I’d check ‘it out’.

Well I have done a bit of checking in recent days and I must say I do like surf music. Or at least surf music as interpreted by Ukrainian, Russian and other former Iron Curtain country bands. Yes, you read that right. Eastern Bloc surf music. I’ve heard many things about the Ural Sea and Aral Sea too. And of course the Black Sea and Arctic Ocean are all part of the former Russian empire. But I have never come across a surfing scene in any of these bodies of water. Be that as it may, there is a strong contingent of musicians who love the sounds of Mr Dale and other Californian surf bands from the 1950s and 60s.

So while I don’t make any claims that this is authentic surf music (hence the name of the album, Voodoo Surf) I do commend it to you as very enjoyable instrumental music that sounds as if it could have been made in the garages of Alhambra, Santa Clara and Pasadena in the years before the hippies took over the discourse and ruined it all. And that this was made in darkest (and coldest) Minsk, Moscow and Kiev is all the more reason to say, ‘Far out!’

Every track here is infectious and entertaining. Though they all are of a piece they are also every one of them distinct and different. Some channel the Texas blues while others seem to have hired Max Weinberg of the E Street Band to play drums. They lift riffs from cowboy movies (or riffs that should be in cowboy movies) and conjure 1964 perfectly. Not a vocalising sound is heard anywhere on this record (except for some cryptic dark barking and French whispers here and there).

If you want something different and fun to shine in your day…then give this little record a spin. My favourite? 36-24-36! Play it often. Play if loud!

Surf’s Up!

Track Listing:

01 Surf Melody

02 Vaquero-San

03 French

04 Psychos

05 Immersion

06 Picked Legs

07 Tainted Love

08 Keep Breathin’

09 Sharks

10 Man With The Scar

11 Godzilla’s Dream

12 Bustin’ Chainsaws

13 Ñâåòèò ìåñÿö

14 Signal From Tremoluna Planet

15 36-24-36

16 Lightning Rod

17 Das Boot

18 Breakers

19 Mikkie Goes To School

20 Suffer

21 Neptune

22 Messing with Motor Chick

23 Ghost Theme

24 Õî›îâîä

25 Midnight Preacher

VuDu

Tight, Driven and Bursting with Energy: The Ventures

The Ventures

When I look back to the roots of my understanding of non religious, non classical music I see the Chad Mitchell Trio and other folk groups of a similar ilk. There was Al Hirt, Eddie Calvert and Herb Alpert and in the early 70s Tom Jones. At school I was exposed to the Beatles and my brothers introduced me to Dylan. But probably the first band that I really ‘loved’ was The Ventures.

Instrumental ‘rock’ had great currency in the non English speaking world. Many of the themes of open (and increasingly frank, as the 60s turned into the 70s) confessions of love and America-specific references simply were too difficult to ‘relate’ to for aspiring rockers in conservative countries like India, where I grew up

But fast moving, snappy instrumental pop music like that served up by The Ventures and The Shadows provided young people in the ‘East’ (what we now call the ‘South’) with a sense of excitement and even danger every bit as revolutionary as The Stones and The Kinks did for American and English fans. These were sounds that came as if from another world. Immediately refreshing and demanding an urgent response.   Today, the sounds of the Ventures is considered quaint and suitable for nostalgic reminiscing and easily forgettable.

But on this Saturday morning I’ve been listening to this record (Live in Japan ’65) loud and re-realizing how cool the Ventures were. Tight as sailor on shore leave, driven like a Corvette on the salt flats and oozing more energy than a leaky nuclear reactor The Ventures on stage were a Force. About the only thing you could fault them for was maintaining a strict code of silence on stage. No interaction, no vocals. Just pure focus and intention! Scary!

Not the first but definitely the most popular rock instrumental combo, the Ventures scored several hit singles during the 1960s — most notably “Walk-Don’t Run” and “Hawaii Five-O” — but made their name in the growing album market, covering hits of the day and organizing thematically linked LPs. Almost 40Ventures‘ albums charted, and 17 hit the Top 40. And though the group’s popularity in America virtually disappeared by the 1970s, their enormous contribution to pop culture was far from over; the Ventures soon became one of the most popular world-wide groups, with dozens of albums recorded especially for the Japanese and European markets. They toured continually throughout the 1970s and ’80s — influencing Japanese pop music of the time more than they had American music during the ’60s.

the Ventures‘ origins lie in a Tacoma, Washington group called the Impacts. Around 1959, construction workers and hobby guitarists Bob Bogle and Don Wilson formed the group, gigging around Washington state and Idaho with various rhythm sections as backup. They recorded a demo tape, but after it was rejected by the Liberty Records subsidiary Dolton, the duo founded their own label, Blue Horizon. They released one vocal single (“Cookies and Coke”), then recruited bassist Nokie Edwards and drummer Skip Moore and decided to instead become an instrumental group.

the Ventures went into the studio in 1959 with an idea for a new single they had first heard on Chet Atkins‘ Hi Fi in Focus LP. Released on Blue Horizon in 1960, the single “Walk-Don’t Run” became a big local hit after being aired as a news lead-in on a Seattle radio station (thanks to a friend with connections). In an ironic twist, Dolton Records came calling and licensed the single for national distribution; by summer 1960, it had risen to number two in the charts, behind only “It’s Now or Never” by Elvis Presley. After Howie Johnsonreplaced Moore on drums, the Ventures began recording their debut album, unsurprisingly titled after their hit single.

Two singles, “Perfidia” and “Ram-Bunk-Shush,” hit the Top 40 during 1960-61, but the Ventures soon began capitalizing on what became a trademark: releasing LPs which featured songs very loosely arranged around a theme implied in the title. The group’s fourth LP, The Colorful Ventures, included “Yellow Jacket,” “Red Top,” “Orange Fire” and no less than three tracks featuring the word “blue” in the title. the Ventures put their indelible stamp on each style of ’60s music they covered, and they covered many — twist, country, pop, spy music, psychedelic, swamp, garage, TV themes. (In the ’70s, the band moved on to funk, disco, reggae, soft rock and Latin music.) the Ventures‘ lineup changed slightly during 1962. Howie Johnson left the band, to be replaced by session man Mel Taylor; also, Nokie Edwards took over lead guitar with Bob Bogleswitching to bass.

One of the few LPs not arranged around a theme became their best-selling; 1963’s The Ventures Play Telstar, The Lonely Bull featured a cover of the number one instrumental hit by the British studio band the Tornadoes and produced by Joe Meek. Though their cover of “Telstar” didn’t even chart, the album hit the Top Ten and became the group’s first of three gold records. A re-write of their signature song — entitled “Walk-Don’t Run ’64” — reached number eight that year. By the mid-’60s however, the Ventures appeared to be losing their touch. Considering the volatility of popular music during the time, it was quite forgivable that the group would lose their heads-up knowledge of current trends in the music industry to forecast which songs should be covered. The television theme “Hawaii Five-O” hit number four in 1969, but the Ventures slipped off the American charts for good in 1972. Instead, the band began looking abroad for attention and — in Japan especially — they found it with gusto. After leaving Dolton/Liberty and founding their own Tridex Records label, the Ventures began recording albums specifically for the Japanese market. The group eventually sold over 40 million records in that country alone, becoming one of the biggest American influences on Japanese pop music ever.

Nokie Edwards left the Ventures in 1968 to pursue his interest in horse racing for a time, and was replaced by Gerry McGee; though he returned by 1972, Mel Taylor left the group that year for a solo career, to be replaced by Joe Barile. (Taylor returned also, in 1979.) By the early ’80s, the Ventures‘ core quartet of Wilson, Bogle, Edwards and Taylor could boast of playing together for over 20 years. Though Edwards left the band for good in 1984 (replaced again by Gerry McGee) and Mel Taylor died mid-way through a Japanese tour in 1996 (replaced by his son Leon), the Ventures continued to pack venues around the world. (AMG)

Track Listing:

01 Introduction

02 The Cruel Sea (The Cruel Surf)

03 Penetration

04 Bulldog

05 I Feel Fine

06 Band Member Introductions

07 The House Of The Rising Sun

08 Out Of Limits

09 Slaughter On Tenth Avenue

10 Besame Mucho Twist

11 Love Potion No. 9

12 Walk Don’t Run

13 When You Walk In The Room

14 Rap City

16 The Ventures Medley_ Walk-Don’t Run_Lullaby Of The Leaves_Perfidia

17 The Lonely Bull

18 Telstar

19 Driving Guitars

20 Mariner #4

21 The Pink Panther Theme

22 Yellow Jacket

23 Apache

24 Pipeline

25 Surf Rider (Spudnik)

26 Journey To The Stars

27 Bumble Bee Twist (The Wasp). Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘The Flight Of The Bumble Bee’

28 Diamond Head

29 Caravan

TVinJ65