Susan & the Surftones
The Originals (Acme Brothers)
By Kate Carolan-Reed
Published: December 30th, 2002 | 1:25pm
Susan & the Surftones do surf rock with the same brutal enthusiasm and energy that made the genre so popular in the '60s. The Originals combines rampant guitars, throbbing bass lines, solid drum structures, and breezy organs to help bring this genre to this day and age.
The tones used are dead-on to surf music of the past. Songs like "Tiki Kiki" and "Blue Hammer" give listeners the traditional surf-rock sounds reminiscent of Dick Dale and other early greats, while others, like "Spaghetti Beach" and "Tramp," bring a little more attitude into the picture, and "Deep Blue Goodbye" uses sweet balladry to keep things interesting.
The beauty of this album is that the creamy guitar hooks and wailing instrumentation are composed and played by a woman -- guess who? Susan. She plays with her heart and her head, creating brick-solid structures, and she manages to make this vocal-less music (which may often pass as background music to a surf video) fluid and concise by speaking through her guitar. Not a lot of people do that. Not a lot of genres do it.
Surf rock is not dead. You'll be picking the sand out of your undies by the end of this one.
Issue #35
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more