Light On Dark Water

Mutant Surf

Weekend Music

I'm not sure exactly when it started, but when I noticed it sometime in the mid-1990s or so there was a surf guitar revival going on. It started out as a straightforward imitation of the old stuff, with a bit of irony thrown in, as in that clip by The Metalunas that I posted two weeks ago and that got me off on this kick.  Some people took in in different and sometimes pretty strange directions. In addition to the association with surfing, that reverb-heavy single-note guitar style also became associated with spy movies, presumably because of the original James Bond theme (Dr. No in 1962).

Jonny and the Shamen were a local group who put out at least one album sometime in the mid-1990s or so. I saw them at a local music festival. They seem to have had the espionage vibe in mind with this one. Now that I think about it, there was also the Peter Gunn theme.

 

Of the two major state universities in Alabama, Auburn is the one originally oriented toward the trades, the one that in many states is called A&M, for Agricultural and Mechanical. It has a better engineering school than its rival, the University of Alabama, and in general is more highly regarded in technical fields. So it's sort of fitting that Man or Astro-Man? originated there. They developed an elaborate sci-fi persona in which they steadfastly insisted that they were extraterrestrials named Star Crunch, Birdstuff, and Coco the Electronic Monkey Wizard. I don't know enough about them to know how they explained their use of those rather earthbound names. But their music is a lot of fun.

 

 

And then there are The Mermen. I think they started out as a revival band, but they soon turned into something else. You can still hear Dick Dale in the first one, but…you might want to stand back a little for these.

 

 

I haven't heard the whole album, A Glorious Lethal Euphoria, from which these two selections are taken for a good many years now, but I've often counted it among my favorite pop albums. I'll have to listen to it again and see if I still like it as much.

Maclin Horton

15 responses to “Mutant Surf”

  1. Robert Gotcher

    Now that I think about it, the B52s had that kind of sound. Think of Rock Lobster.

    Reply
  2. Mac

    I never really heard much of them. I’ll look for Rock Lobster later. Right now I’m getting reacquainted with this Mermen album, which is as good as I originally thought, in fact better, because I now have a subwoofer and can hear the bass, which is so low that it was mostly lost before, and is really good.

    Reply
  3. Mac

    I see what you mean about Rock Lobster.

    Reply
  4. Rob G

    I was going to mention B-52’s as well. As a matter of fact, I remember a sub-genre of music in the late 70s & early 80s that was known as “surf punk.” There was a band called The Surf Punks, and I think they may have started that trend.

    Reply
  5. Mac

    Never heard of them, but via the copyright-disregarding magic of YouTube….
    Interesting that they don’t use the classic surf guitar sound.

    Reply
  6. Rob G

    Not related, but I came across this band, Hammock, a couple weeks ago on Amazon. One of those “people who bought X also bought Y,” related to Sigur Ros. Big guitar, ambient shoe-gazy sort of thing, mostly instrumental. Some of it is almost, but not quite, like Sigur Ros without the vocals. Here’s a lovely video with a tune from the CD that I got:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rENnKECnfs
    Some of it’s a little denser and/or darker than this track, but it’s fairly representative.

    Reply
  7. Mac

    I like them a lot. The one I’ve heard most is Maybe They Will Sing for Us, but I have heard this album a bit and I think it may even be a little better. A lot of it does sound very much like the quieter instrumental parts of a Sigur Ros song. I’ll have to wait a bit to watch the video.

    Reply
  8. Rob G

    The one that came out last year, Departure Songs, is really highly rated on Amazon — 30+ reviews, almost all 4 & 5 stars. And they have a new one coming out the end of this month.
    Have you heard ‘Explosions in the Sky’ at all? I see their name come up all the time but I’ve never listened to them.

    Reply
  9. Mac

    Wow, that video is beautiful. I’m not sure whether I’ve heard Departure Songs or not. I’ve listened to several of their albums on Rdio but get them mixed up.
    I love Explosion in the Sky’s The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place. Absolutely love it. Noiser and generally more kinetic than Hammock, not ambient, but not exactly rock and roll, either. Here’s a track, with a poignant narrative video (actually sort of a tear-jerker, to tell you the truth).

    Reply
  10. Rob G

    I checked my library and they have a copy of that one but it’s out, so I ordered ‘All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone’ instead. I’ll try to watch the video later today.
    Yes, that Hammock video is great, isn’t it?

    Reply
  11. Mac

    Indeed. I think I’ll post it for the benefit of people who may not have seen it here in the comments.
    I haven’t heard that one. The only other one I’ve heard is Those Who Tell the Truth, and I’ve only heard it once or twice. On that basis I didn’t like it as much but I should give it more of a chance.
    Have we ever discussed the online music streaming services, Rdio and Spotify? They are wonderful for checking out things that you might or might not want to buy. I think I pay a bit under $10 a month for Rdio and it’s more than worth it. It’s an almost-unlimited library of pop music (not so great in classical). If you have a computer and high-speed internet at home, it’s worth a try. Or if you have a smart phone. It’s really kind of too good to be true. It’s legit, but I suspect it’s a bad deal for the artists, so I still buy things if I really like them. I use it all the time at work, mainly for background ambient music, but then I have that kind of job. Even if you had to sit at your computer at home with headphones (assuming you don’t have your computer hooked up to your stereo like I do :-)), it’s worth something to have that sampling ability. Personally I like Rdio better than Spotify but that’s a matter of taste. Spotify at one time had a free version which was interrupted periodically by commercials. I don’t know if they still do or not.

    Reply
  12. Rob G

    I don’t have a computer at home, nor do I have a smart phone. I’m a dinosaur in that regard. I’ll have to keep looking for music the old-fashioned way. 😉

    Reply
  13. Mac

    No computer whatsoever?!? Goodness. Being smart-phone-less is still in the category of just sort of behind the times. I don’t have one, either, although I have a hand-me-down iPhone (from one of my children) which doesn’t work as a phone but does play music. But not having a computer at home is almost Amish.:-)

    Reply
  14. Rob G

    Several years back I heard Fr. Thomas Hopko say in a lecture that in his experience personal computers often cause more trouble and offer more temptations than they’re worth, and that if it’s possible for you to do without one, you should consider it. I took his advice, and when my last one crashed a couple years back I didn’t replace it. I’m able to use my work computer for a lot of things, and for the rest I go to the local library a couple or three times a week. I’ve found that I don’t really miss it.

    Reply
  15. Mac

    I have to admit that’s good advice. I don’t plan to follow it, but it’s good advice. I struggle constantly, not very successfully, to keep from wasting time on it, reading half-randomly here and there. And I do find the frequent appearance of girls in bikinis etc. a problem.

    Reply

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