weatherfish

[weatherfish]

Resequencing The Past

The torqued journey of dragging thirty year old MIDI data into the present...

After almost a decade of fiddling around with hardware synthesizers and analog tape I acquired my first drum machines and a hardware MIDI sequencer at the close of the 1980’s. During the 1990s I created upwards of 900 music pieces created on hardware and software sequencers. I was quite keen on keeping these old tunes viable for the future and thankfully have been able to bring all of them forward into the new millennium though the following process of digging out and converting very old song files and re-associating the patches from my MIDI hardware to the virtual realm today.

Timeline

1982 Acquire my first synthesizer, a Yamaha CS-01

1988 Acquire my second drum machine, an Alesis HR-16 and my first MIDI sequencer, the Alesis MMT-8

1990 First sequences using the MMT-8, HR-16, Oberheim Matrix-6R, Yamaha DX-11 and an Ensoniq ESQ-M

1991 Archived my original sequences on to cassette tapes

1993 Acquire an Apple Macintosh IIsi computer

1994 Acquire a Korg X5 keyboard bundled with MOTU Freestyle sequencing software

1995 Begin track-by-track playback of MMT-8 parts recorded into MOTU Freestyle song files

1998 Archived my original Freestyle sequencer files on to CD-Rs

1999 MIDI studio expands to Kurzweil K2vx & Micro Piano, Roland JV-2080, Korg Wavestation SR and Yamaha FS1R

2001 Acquire Propellerheads Reason 2

2002 Export all 900 of my Freestyle sequences as Standard MIDI Files (SMF), importing them into Reason

2003 Usage of Freestyle comes to an end when I finally dump OS-9 for OS-X

2004 Re-import my original SMFs into Apple GarageBand with better results than Reason

2006 Maintain backups of the original 900 MOTU Freestyle files and their corresponding SMF files on macOS.

2007 Dispose of all of my MIDI hardware

2021 Finish converting the last my ancient SMFs into Logic Pro files with the methods described below…

The Process

First, I’ll open up the Standard MIDI file (SMF) song file in Logic Pro X, which still contains original note data and other MIDI events like patch names, velocity curves, etc. Each track in Logic is named how I had originally named the track in the MOTU Freestyle software. In most cases I noted the name of the patch for that specific track, preceded by a single initial denoting what hardware synthesizer was being used on that part. As an example the Logic tracks would be listed like this…

m slowater

j pyeanna

k doinks

In these examples, the first letter is the model of the synthesizer. “m” is for Matrix-6R, “j” is for “JV-2080” and “k” stands for “K2VX”. After that initial I’d note the patch name or sometimes a short description of the sound being used.

Back in the 90s, my last hardware MIDI studio consisted of the following instruments, with the shorthand abbreviation that I used when adding tracks in the Freestyle sequences.

Letter Abbreviation and corresponding Hardware Synth Name

k = Kurzweil K2VX

j = Roland JV-2080

w = Korg WavestationSR

x = Korg X5DR

f = Yamaha FS1R

p = Kurzweil MicroPiano

m = Oberheim Matrix-6R

Next, I’d open the 25-year-old SMF, in this example called “Ether Frolic”, in TextEdit, which as you see, seems like a lot of textual rubbish, but it contains some original patch information from the file:

Below is a mockup of this song in MOTU Freestyle in Mac OS-8. In the MIDI data for this “Ether Frolic” file I’ll find those terse track names for each part:

j git

j bas

j kit

j billies

j skyfi

j bio

I would then open the corresponding “Ether Frolic” Freestyle song file in TextEdit. This was created back in the Mac OS-7 era, but thankfully the raw text is still readable in macOS X:

Though the patch names are maintained inside the Freestyle data, to find them you have to wade through a mess like this:

StylStylSnd ∫JV-2080026 Steel-str.Gt˝ˇˇˇ026 Steel-str.GtPR-D (GM Group)@RÊmUSBAJV-2080JV-2080033 Acoustic Bs.˝ˇˇˇ033 Acoustic Bs.PR-D (GM Group)@R!ÊmUSBAJV-2080JV-2080122 Hillbillys˝ˇˇˇ122 HillbillysPR-B (Preset B Group)@RzÊmUSBAJV-2080JV-2080122 Sci-Fi Str˝ˇˇˇ122 Sci-Fi StrUser (User Group)@QzÊmUSBAJV-2080JV-2080 123 Biosphere˝ˇˇˇ123 BiospherePR-C (Preset C Group)@R{ÊmUSBAJV-2080JV-2080002 User Kit: JazzDrumSet1ˇˇ002 User Kit: JazzDrumSet1

But with a little sifting, I can find the corresponding patches I used for those tracks in “Ether Frolic” with the vague names I used. In this example they were all from the Roland JV-2080.

My Vague Track Name & actual FreeMIDI Patch List Name:

j git = JV-2080 026 Steel-str.Gt PR-D (GM Group)

j bas = JV-2080 033 Acoustic Bs. PR-D (GM Group)

j kit = JV-2080 002 User Kit: JazzDrumSet1

j billies = JV-2080 122 Hillbillys PR-B (Preset B)

j skyfi = JV-2080 122 Sci-Fi (User Group)

j bio = JV-2080 123 Biosphere (Preset C Group)

Some of the hardware instruments I used then have been virtualized, for example Roland included some of the JV-2080 presets in their virtualized version of their Roland XV-5080 synth. 

Using a PDF of the original XV-5080 Patch Lists, I can search by the patch names from my original project. For example for the track I named “j bio” in my Freestyle song I could see in the Freestyle file was a JV-2080 Patch called “Biosphere”. In the PDF I found the patch name and the number “123”

Back in Logic, I opened up the XV-5080 plugin and loaded up the “Biosphere” preset on that corresponding track in the “Ether Frolic” song file.

I then used Logic’s ability to name to rename the region to contain the original JV-2080 patch number and name. That way I’ll carry the original Patch name on that track. This can be helpful for instruments that have not yet been virtualized.

For example, it’s not likely Kurzweil will ever virtualize their K-series synths. Kurzweil makes far too much money selling their behemoth hardware workstations for megabucks to justify selling a humble $300 virtual version of their product line. So in that case I have to utilize samples of those Kurzweil instruments.

In the case of many of my original hardware synths all of the custom patches I created are simply gone now, so I have to come up with alternatives. For example, I programmed many custom sounds on my Korg Wavestation SR. However, I didn’t have SYSEX backups of that patch data, so in the main I’m glad I relied on presets in the main for much of my music, as it allowed this resequencing to be successfully accomplished in most cases.

“Ether Frolic” created in early 1990s in on an MMT-8 sequencer, imported into MOTU Freestyle in the late 90′s, exported to as a Standard MIDI File back in 2002, and now, imported into Logic and resequenced and reimagined in 2021…

And it sounds just as awful as it did three decades ago...

[weatherfish]

Vinyl Surfin’ In The 70s

ENDLESS SUMMERS & SIDEWALKS

It was all Bruce Brown’s fault. 

On an uneventful Sunday afternoon in the spring of 1976 I happened to catch the better part of Bruce Brown’s seminal surf documentary “The Endless Summer” on our family’s 20” Sony television. And my life was changed. Like many others I was charmed by the film’s simple, idyllic look at the surfing lifestyle; traveling from beach to beach, searching for a ‘perfect wave’. But it was chiefly the film’s soundtrack that solidified my interest, especially the lilting theme song by The Sandals. “The Endless Summer” movie was originally released in 1966, riding at the last crest of the 60’s surfing fad, and soon after the sport of surfing began its’ bottom-turn back into the underground. By the early seventies surfing was a bit of an outlaw sport, but thanks to the swell of popularity in the sixties meant it was ripe for revival. So smack in the middle of the seventies that same elusive California myth of the early-sixties would be reborn just in time for my adolescent mind to get sucked right into it.

While I first saw “The Endless Summer” film in ’76, director Bruce Brown was retried in Santa Barbara, while I was a landlocked 14-year-old, living in a miserable logging town in the Pacific Northwest. In the mid-seventies the ominous specter of gas shortages, inflation/recession, Watergate, the cold war and other bullshit crisis hung heavy over life, even for a witless young lad like myself. The whole California surfing lifestyle was an enticing illusion, and its agent was music. And such is why I fell so utterly in love with that silly surfing myth, which consumed much of my tiny mind throughout my high-school years. Even though I was only several hours away from the Pacific Ocean, it might as well have been a thousand miles, as Washington’s surf was rather frigid and breaks in the main were unaccessible.

After being so perfectly charmed by the Bruce Brown film, I was subsequently engulfed by the California myth due to two major factors:

The first was the Beach Boys revival. Capitol Records had recently packaged all of the Beach Boys early hit singles into a two-LP set called, coincidentally enough – “The Endless Summer”. That compilation shored up the sagging fortunes of the band back up considerably in the mid-seventies. So it was not uncommon to hear Beach Boys tracks on popular radio stations back then, even mixed in with the disco throb of the top-40. 

The second factor, and even more influential to me, was an article that appeared in a 1976 issue of Rolling Stone magazine called “The Endless Sidewalk”. Tim Cahill’s account painted a similarly idyllic view of a parallel revival coming from California in the seventies - skateboarding. Before that story appeared, what few skateboarders there were tended to be surfers too, and most of the land-board’s ‘tricks’ were derivative of surfing maneuvers, keeping a strong connection between the two board sports. But the wonderful thing about skateboarding to me (and most of the initiates of the mid-seventies) was that you didn’t need a temperate ocean break to ride. Even in a dismal backwater of rural Washington you could get your stoke on by rolling down any available paved street, sidewalk or parking lot.

Soon after I’d caught Brown’s surf epic on the television I visited our local five-and-dime and the only Beach Boys record they had in stock was a low-rent double-album called “High Water”. The first LP was an acceptable, if too-brief, compilation of Beach Boy hits. The second platter was an edited version of the band’s “Concert” LP from 1964. But combined with my purchase of a skateboard from the local toy shop, I was happily kick-turning around my parent’s driveway to Beach Boys’ music. The blissful combination of Beach Boys and the magic rolling board inspired me to actively seek out as much surf music as I could find. In those days albums of surf music were rare and rough, but this humble remembrance contains the records that I recall most vividly, as I began living the life of a ‘pseudo’ surfer.

NOTE - this is not meant to be any kind of definitive guide to surf music or even surf compilations of the 70s, these were simply the records I was able to acquire back in the late seventies, so a great deal of surf music of the early sixties is not represented here.

Surfin’ Safari - The Beach Boys (Capitol) 1962

Surfin’ USA - The Beach Boys (Capitol) 1963

Surfer Girl - The Beach Boys (Capitol) 1963

After starting with that marginal Pickwick compilation “High Water”, I decided to eschew the standard route of buying more Beach Boys compilations (which were plentiful and redundant) and instead got their original surf-era LPs. Thankfully Capitol had not yet gutted these early albums (back in the 70s Capitol reissued many of the early 60s Beach Boys LPs with fewer tracks than their original release, in some attempt to minimize manufacturing costs and maximize profits I suppose? It made the original complete Beach Boys LPs heavily sought-after back then. It wasn’t until advent of the CD that Capitol finally reissued the complete Beach Boys albums again with all of the original songs included.)

The first proper Beach Boys album I purchased was called Concert, again because the pickings were so slim at the local department store. I don’t own that album anymore and never bothered to repurchase it as it’s basically the sound of the Beach Boys being drowned out by a legion of screaming little girls. But soon after I acquired their 1963 album Surfin’ USA. I can honestly say I probably wore that album out from literally hundreds of plays. And it was soon joined by the other surf-era Beach Boys records of Surfer Girl and their debut record Surfin’ Safari. For the most part I just wanted the surfing stuff - but over time i began to appreciate the other songs and slowly but surely acquired the whole Beach Boys catalog up through their LA Light Album that closed out the 70s.

Surprisingly, the songs I liked the most were the instrumentals, which is not what the Beach Boys are typically noted for. It’s easy to look back on them now and see that they were probably just filler, but they still have an evocative quality to me. They covered Dick Dale’s “Let’s Go Trippin’” and his revved up “Misirlou” - and to this day I still prefer the Beach Boys’ version over Dick’s. They also covered the Gambler’s spacey “Moon Dawg” and the old barroom chestnut “Honky Tonk”. Their attempts at original surf instrumentals are mixed, “Surf Jam” is tuneless but energetic, “Stoked” is a little more developed. Their last attempt at a surf instrumental (from the record Surfer Girl) is a throwaway called “The Rockin’ Surfer” which is notable only for its use of a cheesy organ instead of a jangling guitar.

Soon after the Beach Boys dumped the surf-sham and developed into a formidable pop-group, with Brian Wilson’s genius given full reign until his collapse after the legendary Smile album was aborted.

The Big Surfing Sounds Are On Capitol - Various Artists (Capitol) 1963

My Son The Surf Nut - Jack Marshall (Capitol) 1963

I found these two albums in terrible condition while scouring the bins of the many used record shops in Seattle’s university district. They were both heavily scratched and skipped more than they played, but they were a bit like archeological finds for me. Both were released by Capitol to capitalize (sorry) on the surf craze. The compilation featured four artists; the Beach Boys, Dick Dale, John Severson and Jack Marshall. The BB tracks and Dick Dale were pretty well known in the surfing world. John Severson was surfing’s renaissance man, a film-maker, publisher, artist and musician. As far as I know only a small handful of Severson tracks were ever released, and the two on the this record are pleasant enough but not terribly memorable. Jack Marshall’s two tracks come from the album “My Son The Surf Nut”, discussed thus...

Considering who Jack Marshall was, his record “My Son The Surf Nut” is still a conundrum. Marshall was a well-respected jazz guitarist who’s best known for composing the theme song for The Munster’s television program. The first side of “My Son The Surf Nut” is a selection of mildly funny interview skits performed before a live audience. The second, and weaker, side is comprised of a comical surfing songs. I think that his “Monster Surfer” track would certainly be a strong contender for the worst surf song ever waxed. In fact most of the second side sounds like an alcohol-soaked studio session with nobody taking things seriously, but it’s all quite harmless fun. Side one’s interviews are better, and even jokes this old hold up OK after a half a century, and that’s saying something.

Big Surfing Sounds Are On Capitol was re-released in 1995 as “Surfing’s Greatest Hits”

Surfing - The Ventures 1965

I wasn’t overly keen on this LP, mostly because the Ventures seemed to be more of a covers band, just doing instrumentals of other pop hits. Certainly they’d had a big hit with “Walk, Don’t Run” but since this record’s theme of surf music was so pervasive, I decided to get it. They scored a hit by covering the Chantay’s “Pipeline”. I was also hoping the track “The Lonely Sea” was a cover of that lovely Beach Boys tune from Surfin’ USA. It wasn’t, but it was still a nice track. The other highlight was the ballad “Changing Tides”. The rest were more typical surf tunes, some covers, some original, with “The Ninth Wave” and “Diamonds” being better than the rest. This album was rereleased in expanded form in the CD-era, featuring other Ventures songs of the era as well as some newer material.

Endless Summer Soundtrack - The Sandals 1966

This album was nearly impossible to find in the mid-seventies, and so when I secured a dusty copy I was so delighted to finally hear the soundtrack that had turned me into a surf music fan. The vinyl was in pretty wretched shape, but it was still listenable. The album’s highlight was the title track, a lovely ballad that was the glue that held the film together. There are higher-energy tracks like “Route 1” and “Out Front” which are more traditional surf instrumentals in style, but have better melodic development. The soundtracks other high point is the evocative samba-like “Lonely Road”. “Wild As The Sea” and the silly “Good Greeves”, which is like surf music meeting Mancini’s “Elephant Walk”, are also quite good.

The Sandals re-recorded the entire album back in the early 90s, coinciding with the Bruce Brown sequel “Endless Summer II” (which the band contributed new material to as well). The remake of the original was quite faithful to the original, and sounds better overall, but I’m glad that Capitol reissued the original soundtrack recently as well.

Gotta Take That One Last Ride - Jan & Dean (2 LPs on United Artists) 1974

Ride The Wild Surf (United Artists) 1964

I’m unsure if this 1974 compilation came out before the Beach Boys’ Endless Summer set, but they both had a similar focus on surf’n’drag music and obviously were released to cash in on the surf revival. Featuring an eye-catching cover design by Dean (Torrence) this double LP focuses strictly on the duo’s surf/drag music, skipping over the team’s many other hits. This record’s standout track is “Gonna Hustle You”, which is curious as it’s one of the few that don’t fit into the surf/drag theme. Most of the record contains Beach Boys covers, rewrites and collaborations. Brian Wilson worked with the duo on several songs, and Jan Berry was adept at matching Brian’s production style and to a lesser extent, his songwriting ability.

Not surprisingly this set was reissued on CD, but only nominally, and now fetches triple-digits in the collectors market. But given the fearful plethora of J&D surf/drag compilations, paying such a premium probably isn’t necessary.

Another find in the dustbins of used record shops was a moldy copy of the duo’s ‘songtrack’ to the film Ride The Wild Surf. Actually that’s not even true, save for the title tune, nothing on the LP is from the movie, but it’s certainly packaged to appear like a movie soundtrack. Originally Jan and Dean were slated to appear in the film, but were not able to due to reasons you can scrounge up in Wikiland. Alas save for the signature song and “Sidewalk Surfin’” - their hit rewrite of “Catch A Wave”, the rest of the album is pretty underwhelming. About the kindest thing you can say about the album’s other songs is that they’re not as bad as the awful Bruce & Terry surf ripoffs of the same period (which featured future-Beach Boy Bruce Johnston).

Dick Dale & His Deltones (GNP Crescendo) 1975

I had amassed so many surf compilations by the late seventies that the last thing I needed were more Dick Dale songs. I only bought this album because of a single track, “Those Memories Of You”. I loved the spartan demo version that Jim Pewter included as part of the Surfin’ Roots compilation (q.v.). Pewter had written it for Dale, but Dale’s version didn’t surface until the mid-seventies. Alas Dale’s version comes off like a bit of fifties cornball, rather ruining the foggy allure of Pewter’s low-tech original. The rest of the record is the basics, “Let’s Go Trippin’”, “Misirlou”, “Surf Beat”, but is marred by some curious vocal tracks “Peppermint Man”, “Sloop John B” and Dick’s little ego-trip “King of the Surf Guitar”. But Dick was way ahead of his time and he actually was a surfer, all too rare a thing for surf music makers back then.

Golden Summer (2 LPs on United Artists) 1976

Probably the best overview of popular surf music available at that time. Compiled by Joe Saraceno and Jim Pewter it covers the basics from vocal hits from the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean and even some of the insipid Frankie & Annette beach movie tunes. But the best part is the surfing instrumentals from the Frogmen, Ventures and Dick Dale. Some tracks were faux-surfin’ cash-in hits, like the Markettes’ instrumentals and the Tradewinds’ “New York’s A Lonely Town”. The Venture’s cover of “Pipeline” is included instead of the Chantay’s original version. 

Surfin’ Roots (2LPs on Festival) 1977

This follow-on compilation to Golden Summer attempts a little more serious look at surf music, chiefly the instrumentals. But it’s marred by the mysterious inclusion of two irrelevant Annette Funicello tunes. It also has several of the same songs as Golden Summer, but has better coverage of instrument tracks from the Pyramids, Frogmen, Rumblers, Denels, Sentinals and Dave Meyer and the Surftones. The Chantays original of “Pipeline” But the real gem is the understated demo tune “Those Memories Of You” by Jim Pewter, which is might be low-fi but has a wonderful ambience.

Five Summer Stories Soundtrack - Honk 1973

I had read some vague allusions to this classic surf film, but finally caught it on afternoon television sometime in 1981. Unlike most surf-o-philes, I didn’t think it was that great a movie (and still don’t). Sure, there were great moments in some of the surf segments, especially of the Banzai Pipeline, and a fascinating segment on skateboarding, but nothing to compete with Bruce Brown’s stuff. The film’s original soundtrack was a mixture of forgettable country-rock crap and some great seventies-era Beach Boys music (“Trader”, “Feel Flows”, etc). But the highlight was the wonderful theme used in the sequence at the Pipeline in Hawaii. The good news is that this soundtrack includes that ‘Pipeline’ instrumental, the bad news is the rest of the soundtrack is that forgettable country-rock crap I referred to. Honk’s music probably relished by the same kind of bong-heads that idolize jam-band-dung like the Grateful Dead. So, aside from their “Pipeline Sequence” tune the rest of Honk record is sonic garbage. And to make matters worse, they removed the Beach Boys songs from the DVD version of the movie, making it even less important. Honk sometimes reforms, alas, and you can bring your hookahs so you’ll actually enjoy their aural rubbish at venues along the Pacific Ocean. Legendary surfer Corky Carroll likes ‘em a lot.

My Beach - Surf Punks (Epic) 1980

Surf Beat 1980 - Jon & The Nightriders 1980

Now the 1970s are perfectly kaput and them 1980s hath arrived matey, therefore it’s not surprising that surf music was prepping for yet another revival. These two albums represent two directions that the second revival (or third-wave, if you prefer) of surf music took. Surf Punks were a combo of surfers that blended fierce localism, Ramones-energy and synthetic-weirdness whipped together with plenty of Zappa-esque silliness. Jon & the Nightriders were carriers of the Dick-Dale flame, retro-to-the-core surf instrumentalists.

I found Surf Punks “My Beach” while visiting a small shopping center in Florida and bought it on the spot as surf music was a pretty rare thing back then, not to mention obviously new surf music and not another repackaged compilation. The Surf Punks, unlike most surf music artists throughout the previous two decades, were actually surfers and were heavily territorial about it. The album’s title track sets the mood for the album with the beautifully crystalized sentiment of;

My Beach,

My Chicks,

My Waves,

Go Home!

Musically the band eschews any olde surf music conventions of reverb-soaked guitars and lush harmonies for a low-tech, low-brow approach. Drew Steele’s Gibson Moderne sounds like it’s amplified through a can of bug spray, Hunt’s bass sounds like suspension-bridge cables and producer Dennis Dragon’s drums sound like they’re buried under dozens of throw pillows. But the group has a surprisingly tactile sound which is well-suited to their torqued takes on the surfing life. The songs are peppered with beer-belches, beach-jargon, dorky asides under a relentless surfeit of goofy synthesizer spikes. Yet buried deep beneath the kooky anthems to the life on the shore, it’s pretty clear these chaps are not the saltwater-addled musicians they pretend to be.

Lyrically Dennis ‘n Drew spin tales of Malibu surf-men with simple wants; waves, tits, beer and waves. They have dreams of Hawaii and nightmares of being drafted into the army, they despise Valleys, weekenders and anyone who doesn’t live within ten minutes of the water.  But even the album’s most sophomoric moment, “Big Top”, is relentlessly catchy and all in good fun. YouTube has kept their flame alive and most of their promotional music videos are still there to be experienced.

On the other side of the revival with have the loyalist sounds of Jon & The Nightriders. Centered around guitarist Jon Blair, who had published the first surf music discography just before this record was first released. Though most of Surf Beat 1980’s tunes were new, they sound as though they were recorded back in 1965.  There are a few surf chestnuts thrown into the bargain, like “Latin’ia” and Dick Dale’s “Surf Beat” In fact, Dale himself provided the album’s liner notes. Blair plays with a Dick-Dale-like fervor, soaking his Fender Jaguar in plenty of spring-reverb. The best tracks are the Pipeline-esque “Banzai Washout” and “Baja”. Probably the most novel track is his surfed-up version of “Over The Rainbow”. Fun stuff! The following year Blair’s combo released a very good live album recorded a the Whiskey-A-Go-Go.

History Of Surf Music Volumes 1-3 (Rhino) 1982

Thanks to the musical stoke from the Surf Punks and John Blair, suddenly surf music became hip again. A few record companies were keen to cash in and the venerable Rhino issued three volumes, two retro volumes (covering the instrumental and then vocal songs) 

The best of the three volumes is the first, featuring a good overview of the instrumental stuff tunes

The second volume is a spotty affair that features the stock vocal hits from the early sixties intermixed with a few oddities like “Surfer Dan” by the Turtles a couple of surprising female surf tunes from Dee D. Hope and The Beach Girls. The collection bottoms out with Bruce Johnston’s awful “Do The Surfer Stomp”, but it’s just one of the many surf’n’drag cash-ins that Johnston made during that era and eventually got him a lifetime gig with Mike Love, which they insist on calling The Beach Boys.

The last volume covers the revival and features a curious mixture of tunes, some excellent, other only tenuously connected with surfing. The Malibooz were a surf band during the original surf craze and then reformed for the revival, but the included track “Hot Summer Nights” has nothing to do with surfing. The same can be said of Steve Goodman’s “Sand In It” and

Summer Means Fun (2LPs on CBS) 1982

Featuring a rather weird, fantasy-esque cover, this equally-weird double-LP was primarily a compilation of Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher’s collaborations in the early-60s. The songs fall into two categories; Beach Boys covers and Beach Boys rewrites (well, ripoffs.) The backing tracks for “Summer Means Fun” and “Surf City” sound the exactly the same as the ones from Jan & Dean’s singles, so it’s hard to know who waxed them first? The only gem in this derivative compost heap is “Like Summer Rain” from Jan & Dean’s undervalued “Save For A Rainy Day” album. Thrown into the bargain were a rendering of “Pipeline” by Flash Cadillac and Johnny River’s “Help Me Rhonda”. The impact would have been much greater if it was whittled down to a single LP.

OUTRO - CATCH A NEO-WAVE

Thanks to Surf Punks and Jon & The Nightriders, a full-blown revival of new surf music was under way. At first many of the bands were more inclined to follow the retro path, like The Surf Raiders. Even the original Surfaris reformed and issued the tongue in cheek “Punkline”, which owed just as much to the Surf Punks as the originators, The Chantays. 

By the time the 80s were in full flood, a new surf-skew had emerged from center of suburban blight in Fullerton, California – Agent Orange. This young power trio took olde surf classics and transformed them into buzzsaw skate-punk rave-ups. But Agent Orange was wise enough not to let their skate-punk vibe be owned by surf nostalgia, and though they occasionally trickled out a surf music chestnut, they left that to the dozens of other surf bands that vied for public attention throughout the 80s.

As far as the new wave of surf were concerned, the Surf Punks' output was sporadic and by the time the 80s fizzed into the 90s, Drew and Dennis went along to their own separate breaks and never worked together since. They ended with a live album (recorded sans audience) in 1988. Some 30 years onward, Dennis Dragon passed away  and it doesn’t seem likely Drew will pick up the torch again.

I spent most of the eighties avoiding the ravages of adulthood, generally wasting the whole decade in and out of colleges. And my fascination with synthesizer-based music flowered - ambient, industrial, synth-pop, etc - so I lost almost any interest in surf music and began to loath and despise the golden state. Some fifteen years later I actually tried surfing for the first time in my life. I spent two summers attempting to getting to grips with bellyboarding in the shore break on a few Washington state beaches. I was also interested in the revival of interest in 60s era longboarding, as shortboard surfing was nothing more than a derivative of skateboarding style. Rhino had released surfing mega-set called “Cowabunga” and surf music was actually being used in film soundtracks and suddenly people were diggin’ Dick Dale again.

In the first decade of the new millennium I relocated to SoCal - yep I’d become a despised ‘Val’, living a few short miles from the surf breaks that inspired so much of the music I adored in the seventies. So in a weird way, at the ripe age of forty-five, I started living that California myth. I don’t surf, don’t even want to, but still love the music.

[weatherfish]

My first single has been released, follow the link from my page. Or don’t.