Sundazed has really been leaning into surf recently, with last year's Chantays - A Dawning Sun, Surfin' the Great Lakes compilation, and The Vaqueros' 80 foot Wave. All three records were either entirely or in large part unreleased material, which certainly had me excited, but there was a fair share of disappointment. The Chantays record wasn't quite as surfy as the cover art might have you believe, and I just found the Kay Bank studio stuff to be generally lackluster. The Vaqueros record was pretty good, but a lot of it was vocal. I applaud Sundazed regardless for putting them out -- release everything! Let no surf go unheard! But I was admittedly a little worried what another unreleased surf record from a basically unknown band would pan out to be.
Before I give you my impression of The Impressions, some very brief context. The Impressions were from San Francisco and never cut a 45, and the liner notes suggest that they weren't exactly a live sensation, but were very capable musicians that eventually found work backing up the likes of Ray Columbus, Sonny & Cher, and eventually two of them became Thomas & Richard Frost. These are bedroom recordings, no label involved, just a reel-to-reel in their house. That said, it's very listenable! Not audiophile stuff, but far from lo-fi, plenty enough for your average vintage surf listener. Three tracks towards the end are live and are as expected a little less clear but get the energy across.
So yes, energy. They've got it. This is the sort of high-voltage teenager stuff that vintage surf fans are looking for. It's a shame that only the first track, "Rock the Surf" is the only track they wrote themselves, because it absolutely rips and lets you know right away what they have to offer. I do think it slows down a little bit after that, but all of these covers are competent, have a good surfy tone to them, and stay energetic. I'd even say that the three Freddy King tracks do a great job of transcending past Freddy's more stripped down song and retooling it seamlessly for surf.
If we're talking about recently released lost surf records, the one to beat is Lee Hazelwood's Woodchucks - Cruisin' for Surf Bunnies, brought to life by Light in the Attic. And this doesn't reach that high bar. That record gave surf fans more of Lee Hazelwood's (essentially The Astronauts) surf sound, but playing very different and interesting songs. It's a must-have I think. The Impressions are great, but short of iconic. The Sentinals, The New Dimensions, The Astronauts are surf as anything but sound uniquely like themselves. I wouldn't say that about The Impressions, but I would say that there are more good tracks on here than many reissues of released surf records.
I find it interesting that Sundazed revived the Lost Legends of Surf Guitar branding, which has previously been the name of a compilation series, for a release by a single artist. But it might ring more true here than those compilations -- The Impressions clearly had a lot of talent and promise, and it's a shame that it took 60 years after their heyday for recordings of them to reach anybody's ears.
Available on vinyl, CD, and digital.
