Free Fall for "Wave Walk'n: A Tribute to The Surf Raiders"

Frankie and the Pool Boys recorded "Free Fall" for Wave Walk'n: A Tribute to the Surf Raiders on Green Cookie Records, and available from Bandcamp. The song was originally written by Richie Podolar of Richie Allen and The Pacific Surfers for his Surfer's Slide album. The Surf Raiders called their version The Ranch for their 1983 Surf Bound LP. There are lots of cool bands on the the tribute CD, including our pals The Insect surfers. In fact, the CD was curated by IS bassist Jonpaul Balak, and he also did the package design.

The video is pretty cheezy, we just arranged five iPhones around the room and used the motion filter. On the other hand, it didn't cost a penny :)

Here's a link to download or buy the album from Bandcamp.

Green Cookie is a very cool label, located in Greece.

Systilus (MX) covers "Teke Teke Teke"

 Cool cover of ”Teke Teke Teke“ by Sys Malakian

Systilus is a band from Mexico City, MX led by Sys Malakian. Here's his Bandcamp profile: 

Power Speed ​​Surf from CDMX. Reverberant Guitars, Warm Bass and Extraordinary Drums. With 5 years of experience he has performed at the two surf festivals in Mexico (Surfeño and Back To The Surf Music), also managing to be heard around the world and get himself as one of the representatives of the current surfing scene in Mexico. New and fresh sounds upcoming. 3 albums, 5 EPS and lots of singles.

I think it is the highest honor for a musician to have their music covered by another artist! Thanks Sys!

Surfer Joe / World Traveler Review from The Continental #31

 

Surfer Joe / World Traveler

The International Surf Music ambassador returns with his fifth solo album, appropriately, and ironically, titled World Traveler. It’s correct, in that no one has put more miles in the van preaching the reverb gospel globally than Lorenzo Valdambrini in the last ten years. And ironic, in that the album was recorded, solo, at his home in Livorno during the strict Italian COVID lockdown. As noted many times before, Valdambrini has all the tools he needs to create his music– he’s a crafty songwriter, a talented drummer and guitarist, and knows how to produce a vintage sound in the studio. He is, as track 10 suggests, The Solitary Surfer. The Surfer Joe color box is consistent on World Traveler, with few production touches and a quartet lineup of two drippy guitars, bass and drums. Much of this album is influenced heavily by The Astronauts, and their tones and beats show up on many tracks- Rebel Princess, On Top of Their Game, and Kaiju, which is a monster track! The lead off, Schlingel, is a party rocker with a minimal melody but a dance floor groove. Sunset is the slowest song with a mesmerizing quarter note thump from the rhythm guitar throughout, and features a dramatic, uplifting, change from minor to major at the bridge. My pick for the hit single is found in the rhythmically challenging Runaway Truck Ramp, featuring a compelling intro groove. The song is as much a mystery as it is an odyssey! Stay Stoked is another ear worm, coming more from the early Paul Johnson tradition, with a rolling snare carrying the reverb kayak over the rapids. Overall, another consistently excellent long player from Surfer Joe.

Availble in the USA from Hi-Tide Recordings

International Distribution from Surfer Joe and Surfer Joe Bandcamp

This review is published in The Continental, Issue #31. Please buy and support the magazine and the music!

 

Jimmy Dale pays tribute to his father Dick Dale in Alameda, 10/23

Ivy Room, Fireside Lounge, & DJ Sid Presley, in conjunction with West End Arts District & A-Town Agency presents...

JIMMY DALE w/ Dusty Watson & Sam Bolle play the music of Dick Dale!

Featuring Frankie & The Pool Boys

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Saturday, October 23, 2021
Doors - 2pm
Live music - 3pm

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Tix $22, available at Eventbrite (TIX ON SALE NOW!)

***All tickets are will call only. ***

(Children 4 and under are free) - Make sure to check out the kid zone!

Merch plus food and drinks will be available for purchase. 

Enjoy Singaporean street food & more, by Satay By The Bay SF food truck

First come first serve seating and based on your table purchase.

Event is rain or shine.

Live performances end at 8pm. 

Enjoy the show!

From your friends at Ivy Room and Fireside Lounge, and DJ Sid Presley!

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A quick word about transportation and parking.

Webster Street is accessible via the tube with nearby access to I-880 and public transportation such as BART and AC Transit. There is street parking on Webster, both metered and non-metered. ADA Parking is available at any metered space free of charge with a CA Disabled Placard. There is a parking garage on Park Street with a direct bus line to Webster via Santa Clara on bus 51A. Please be respectful to our neighbors and avoid blocking driveways or parking in lots posting private parking spaces.

Les Agamemnonz review from The Continental Magazine

Les Agamemnonz

Amateurs

Hi-Tide

In the last few years, Les Agamemnonz have established themselves with a sound that is completely fresh, as though reinventing the Surf genre. But, not in a modern way. While many in Surf pride themselves on taking the music where it might have gone, Les Agz have found a space where it feels as though they could have actually influenced the birth of surf. What if the teenage testosterone that propelled the energy for early surf was provided by hop-headed jazzers, pushing the beat with sophisticated musical knowledge as influences? 

Their first albums defined their unique sound. Along with inventive, melodic songwriting, and open arrangements, their drummer, André Pasquet, became, literally, the driving force as he pushes the beat like Art Blakey. His drumming is just that expressive and syncopated. Check out the stick work on “Xiphias” from “Amateurs,” the new album, or “Air Force,” which clocks in at a ridiculous tempo of 190 beats per minute, and you’ll feel the fine art of maintaining a steady pulse, but somehow always staying ahead of it.

“Theme” starts off the album in a subdued way, an ode to the style Jack Nitzsche, and gradually builds to a production the size of which would awe Spector. Aided by a two man orchestra, the track swells with a cinematic manipulation of the senses. When you start an album like this, expectations for what follows are very high. The string and horns, as well as vintage keyboards, like a clavioline, appear throughout, making for a rich and fantastically recorded production. “Xiphias,” “Artemis'' are vintage Les Agz, with strong melodies and quick tempos. “J’avoue” (I  Confess) is a minimalist, romantic, island mood piece, gently giving us a reprieve before “Air Force” takes off in full flight. “No Shoes No Service” is a deceptively simple party rocker, with a heavily distorted keyboard. “Mt. Capitola'' veers into Morricone territory, but does not rehash the spaghetti western tropes.

“Amateurs'' is, and someone has to say it, the opposite of amateurish. The album title is the first clue to the absurdist humor infused throughout the album. Many of the songs feature arrangements that are so joyfully insane, that they must have been inspired by madmen. As side B continues, the additions to the basic four-piece are nothing short of ear candy– there’s so much going on in “Attention”, I wouldn’t know where to begin when describing, but please listen in headphones for the full effect. “Les Conseils de la Fee Des Lilas,” a theme by French composer Michel LeGrand from the movie Peau d’One (Donkey Skin), is wacky source material, and becomes chamber-surf, with the guitars and flute in gentle counterpoint. The only other cover song comes from Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite album. “Mt. Harissa'' is recast with the energy and tones of a Terry and the Blue Jeans eleki track, infused with that absurdist humor of the random piano.

I still remember the headline in Rolling Stone for the review of “Sandinista”: “The Clash Drop the Big One.” One of the eras most respected bands, who had already proved themselves, delivered something so great, so over the top, that one could have hardly ever expected such a brilliant work of art. Amateurs, the new album from France’s Les Agamemnonz is that mind blowing, and brims with the joy of life.

©2021 Ferenc Dobronyi 

This review originally published in The Continental Magazine #30. 

Please support the magazine by getting a subscription. 

Percolator!

 "Percolator" digital single released on Hi-Tide Recordings

Frankie and the Pool Boys have a new digital single out, available from Hi-Tide Recordings. It's ultra-trad surf, heavily caffeinated, with the reverb dripping and strong brew. 

Listen and buy on Bandcamp.

We are happy to continue our association with Hi-Tide Recordings. This is a digital only release, but hopefully will lead to a full length vinyl release. The Pool Boys got together for a rehearsal yesterday, Saturday June 5, and we officially started working towards recording our fourth album.

Cover art is by Ghaas design

The video was filmed on our December 2019 tour in Baja, Mexico.

Frankie and the Pool Boys "The Wet Season"

Our new anthology CD, "The Wet Season" is available now on Double Crown Records. 27 songs, 4 unreleased cuts, 79+ minutes, low, low price. Liner notes by John Blair, art by Fred Lammers.

Frankie & The Pool Boys - The Wet Season: 2008-2021 CD (Double Crown Records)

With the complete selling out of the Frankie and the Pool Boys catalogue, Double Crown Records presents an anthology of songs from their first three albums. Packed with 79+ minutes and 27 songs in total, it also features four new cuts. The track list was chosen largely based on how well the songs were received in a live setting, so the selection really was decided by fans of the band.

All of the Pool Boys’ three albums (the 2008 eponymous first album, 2013’s The Adventures of Cap’n Coconuts, and the Pipeline Magazine Album of the Year for 2018, Spin The Bottle) are well represented. Of course, “Ewa on the Beach” (voted the #3 Surf Revival song by listeners of North Sea Surf Radio) is included, as are the band’s most familiar songs, “The Wet Season,”“Skinny Dippin’,”“Teke Teke Teke” and “Tan Line Fever.”

John Blair (noted music historian and leader of Jon & the Nightriders) appears on “Cat Fight” and wrote the extensive liner notes. Ivan Pongracic (The Madeira and The Space Cossacks) appears on “Magyara.” Drummer Dusty Watson (Dick Dale, The Sonics, Slacktone) is featured on many tracks, and is credited as producer on those he didn’t play on. Oslo based artist Fred Lammers, who has designed three album covers for the band and more than 40 show posters, returns with a stunning package design. The previously unreleased songs include a live take of The Surf Coasters “Dreams,” which features Naotaka Seki, from that band, on drums. The bombastic “Game of Thrones” theme is recast in a spaghetti western style. The lead off track, “Moorea Mon Amour” was inspired by the passionate beauty of French Polynesia. “The Whammy” is an ancient Pollo Del Mar song, brought back to life at the insistence of Pool Boy drummer Jonathan Rodriguez.

John Blair writes: “Personally, I consider Frankie & The Pool Boys to be among the most creative surf instrumental bands on the planet today. And if there earlier records didn’t get the message across, this “best of ” compilation should drive that point home.”

As the Pool Boys take this moment to look back at thirteen years of recording and touring, they also look forward to new music and touring. A new album is currently being rehearsed with plans for recording and release in early 2022.

Pollo Del Mar plays the Star Trek Theme

Pollo Del Mar plays the Star Trek Theme

Interstellar psychedelic surf band Pollo Del Mar plays the Star Trek theme. Much praise to Alexander courage for writing an amazing piece of music. We shot this video at the Rebel Base, and Art house locate on 46th Street in San Francisco. Please support them so they can keep Gene Roddenberry's dream alive. It's a crazy place filled with home made models, a complete Enterprise bridge and the world's largest ping pong table. Swing by, take a tour, have your next party there. We recorded the track in 2009, at which point, we were on a "15 year mission." Now in 2021, we are on an "endless mission" for sure!

Link: https://youtu.be/c1kq-rx1Wpc

 

Interview with Pi Records

 

I did an interview with Ryan from Pi Records today and talked about new releases from Pollo Del Mar, Frankie and the Pool Boys coming out on Double Crown Records, MuSick Recordings and Hi-Tide Records. I also talked about writing for The Continental Magazine and playing with fuzz-pop band The IFIC. Some other random stuff came up, too. Lots of fun!