Stopped by the UNDERGROUND LOUNGE uptown Manhattan last night and
caught some neat cool surf from 3 of our great local NESMA
bands. All 3 acts were in fine twang 'n reverb form.
First up, TARANTINOS/NYC -- this band has got the
sci-fi/spaghetti western/r & b/spy "thang" down to a neat groove
-- I especially love the BOOKER T. tunes they cover, "GREEN
ONIONS" and "TIME IS TIGHT" -- those 2 trax are personal faves
from my youth -- had both those recordings on 45 rpm -- and
'surfed up' - well, it works; they also introduced some new
material ... gotta get it on disk or mp3 so we can get it on to
one of my internet radio shows; hey Joey Tarantino--if you're
readin' this, don't you have anyone else in the audience to talk
to? HAHAHAHAHA
THIS SPY SURFS - I like to call them "film noir surf" -- with
obvious jazzy influences, this band just, as usual, gets their
struttin' stuff goin' and don't let up; and T-99 just roams
around the room, playing his strat like it's part of
soul...seriously...this guy rarely misses a note, and doesn't
even glance at his guitar....way too proficient...though that
ain't a complaint.
And God bless VENICE BEACH MUSCLE CLUB -- another band I have
watched grow in leaps and bounds ...great mix of tunes; EVAN's
pickin' was sweet melodic and, when it needed to be,
blistering....by the way VBMC set up the gig....bravo to them
for keepin' the twang alive, and for constantly looking for
venues to bring live surf to NYC.
Lookin' back, a wondrous night of fabulous surf music -- yeah,
I'm happy as hell.
And to those band members I didn't mention -- that doesn't mean
I don't love ya, or you didn't make the reverb superb -- each &
every 1 of ya' are key elements to the bands you play for....let
that be said....
