If you've never taken the time to look into the late 90's surf group Jonny and the Shamen, here's a great way to do it: everything they've ever recorded plus a few unreleased tracks shoved into one $10 bundle. Their music is hard-hitting surf with horror/space/spy themes not unlike early Man or Astro-Man? - close enough that Jonny joined them as Victor Vector. More recently, he was a part of the Other Timelines on the last year's EP.
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When I saw that this Ventures record was being reissued I thought "I'd never seen that one". That's because it's an alternate edition of the "Mashed Potatoes and Gravy" record they put out.
That explains the tuber-centric tracklist on this supposed beach party album:
Christian Targa plays for the punk band Blind Pigs who have been around since the 90s, and he certainly didn't leave his punk influence behind; my first thought on the opener "Abdução" was Dead Kennedys. Those first three tracks all have a great sense of panic and terror before cooling down a little bit into the more anthemic "Aos Amigos", which still retains a punk guitar tone while ditching the attitude. He doesn't really slow down entirely until "Nova Lua", a nice closing track.
It's absolutely beautiful today in New Orleans and I've got the material to match it. Brand new stuff from Mike Barbwire and Tsunamish as well as some un-spun 45s. A good chunk of oddball stuff too!
Here's what I played last week
3/7/17
the journeymen - surfer's blues (rare surf vol 1)
watang! - sing sing singapore (miss wong)
hang-ten hangmen - shark bait (destination saturn)
los straitjackets - bobsleddin'! (jet set)
the kanaloas - boneyard reef (surf a go go)
The Apaches hail from Arizona and a bit of open-air desert sound definitely creeps into this. Sure, it's definitely surf and not spaghetti western or anything, but it tends to deal in solitude more than it does in adrenaline. I believe all of these are original compositions and they have a good sense of when to play pretty ("Grim Fandango" is a good example) and when to punch ("Space Chase").
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