I recently found this review that Ivan Pongracic (The Space Cossacks, The Madeira, Lords of Atlantis) wrote for Frankie and the Pool boys' "Spin the bottle" album. I'm parking it here for posterity.

June 6, 2018

I've been wanting to review Frankie & The Pool Boys' brilliant new CD "Spin the Bottle" (Double Crown Records) for a while now, but have just been too busy. I FINALLY got around to it - and as you can see, I had a LOT to say! For the short version of my review, just read this paragraph: it's Ferenc's best work to date, a true masterpiece, and my favorite surf album in years! At the center are the well-crafted and compelling songs which are also often surprising in the best ways possible, showing it is possible to STILL do something creative and new in this nearly-60-year-old genre. The musicianship by *everybody* involved is extremely high, all the songs expertly performed. Dusty Watson's production is dead-on, clear-but-warm, with a lot of small touches and details which keep the songs interesting and surprising long past becoming familiar with them - there's always something new to hear if you pay attention. It’s deep music but it doesn’t require deep listening to enjoy – though it certainly rewards it! It's an album that has a vibe and attitude and confidence which I think is rare - it knows it's a TON OF FUN and that if you give it a chance, you'll almost certainly fall in love with it!

Ferenc and I have been friends and even occasional collaborators for many years (twenty, I believe!), and that is not an accident. I have an enormous amount of respect for him. He always delivers. Every time he does something new it shatters my expectations and shows him to be a truly talented musician. So, I definitely am biased when it comes to his work, no question about it, but I think I'm biased for the best reason of all: I already know him to be an exceptionally creative person whom I admire a great deal, so my expectations are always high.

At the center of the album is Ferenc’s guitar playing which just keeps getting better with every new release. It has *always* been great, but he still continues to find a way to improve it! It is particularly full of fire and passion this time around, with a guitar tone has never sounded better - sometimes crunchy and aggressive, other times beautifully clean-yet-complex, with a lot of detail and warmth. (It must be the new brownface Bandmaster that he got at the SG101 Convention a couple of years ago from Danny Snyder. What a sound!) One remarkable thing about his playing on this album is that over the years he’s developed an uncanny ability to sound like a steel guitar, using the Strat’s tremolo arm. He’s really become an expert in that technique – which of course was Leo Fender’s original idea when designing the Strat’s vibrato/tremolo system in the first place, to allow the player to emulate steel guitar (which was highly popular in the early ’50s). Ferenc has done astoundingly well with that technique, and it’s not one I hear very often, so truly well done, my friend, very impressive!

I gotta also shower with kudos Jonathan on drums and Abe on bass, the rhythm section of the Deadbeats who have now also become the Pool Boys, and both sound *amazing*, like real pros, belying their young age. Abe is often playing lines that one would expect from a much more mature and experienced musician, and Jonathan sounds positively Dusty-like in many places of the album. They don’t only provide the solidity to the album, but lot of its fire, too, a remarkable feat!

Karen on the organ (and occasional piano) and Jono (formerly of Pollo Del Mar) on rhythm guitar are both highly competent and dependable, and play their parts with precision one would again expect from highly seasoned pros. Karen in particular shines in many places of the album, often trading leads with Ferenc or sometimes even taking over the lead completely! Both Karen and Jono are also very tasty players, as well, and know when to lay back and just support the song rather than vie for attention.

If I start seriously dissecting this album, I could write a short book - but I’m quite sure NOBODY wants that! So, let me just mention a few of my favorites:

“Seafoam Angels” is grand and uplifting, and effectively sets the mood for the entire album (and what a fantastic title, love it!).

“El Valenciano” is a fantastic, Latino/Hispanic-influenced song with exceptional playing by everybody. It features a highly dynamic guitar performance, some of my favorite playing by Ferenc ever! (Though, I gotta say that the drum part played by Jonathan reminds me more than a bit of the drum part played by the Madeira’s Dane Carter on our song Sahar. Coincidence? Hmmm…. )

“Magic River” – I love the choice of the cover (one of the two covers on the album) of this obscure Surf Coasters song. Surprising and unexpected, but absolutely perfect for the band. It comes from the “L’esprit” album from 2002, one of the two ‘organ’ albums by the Surf Coasters, and it gives a chance to Karen to shine playing the upbeat melody over a groovy Bo Diddley beat. Ferenc gets to revisit the main guitar hook from his classic “Ewa on the Beach” song in the bridge of this song, which is a very nice touch. This really is a fantastic song, but one that only the most hardcore Surf Coasters fans would know (which Ferenc certainly is!), making it so much cooler!

“The Wet Season” is my absolute favorite song from the album, it's ‘pièce de résistance’, and in fact, one of my favorite new surf songs in years! It’s an incredibly dynamic song, with Ferenc’s possibly best-ever guitar playing (LOVE all the open-string pull-offs!), featuring a super-fat and yet sharp-and-cutting guitar tone that just exudes confidence and attitude. It actually reminds me a bit of some of the great songs from the classic “Searider” album from 2008 by the Swedish surf band the Barbwires, one of the all-time-great surf albums, as far as I’m concerned, certainly of the modern era. There’s a sense of epic scale and grand proportion with this song which matches or even outdoes the Barbwires. It also features one of the best bridges in a surf song I’ve heard in a long time. It really opens up the song, lifting it to the next level, reaching transcendence! Too few surf musicians exploit this songwriting device, as far as I’m concerned, but I personally think bridges are extremely valuable to keep a song dynamic and interesting. And Ferenc absolutely nails it here, it is just perfect. The song is also filled with many little details that make it so much fun to listen to, even if you’re not paying very close attention, you can still just pick it out ‘out of the corner of your ear’! I love the bits of feedback in the song; the wah-wah which works so incredibly well (I never would have expected that!) and which gives it a bit of that ‘70s-crime-movie feel; and then the final verse with the double-picked call-and-response guitars which eventually join into a cool harmony as the rhythm becomes increasingly syncopated, building towards a climax, with finally the lead guitar going off the fretboard, climbing higher and higher – what a perfect, even inspired touch! So, so great overall! Immortality earned, Ferenc (though you already got there with a few previous songs)!

“Summer cold” is an evocative, gorgeous ballad with ingenious playing by Ferenc. On the first few casual listens I honestly thought Ferenc had a guest player playing steel guitar, until I listened more closely and realized that it’s actually him making highly effective use of that Strat tremolo arm! So, so beautiful!

“Fast Loud Hard” is a hard-rockin’, even punky, tune which seems to have been influenced by the Surf Coasters. The beat, the guitar licks, the guitar tone, the overall energy and vibe, all scream the Surf Coasters to my ear – and the band completely does them justice, which is a pretty amazing thing if you know anything about the Surf Coasters!

“Tan Line Fever” is the most trad-surf song on the album, and is just SO much fun, a total blast! It really was the perfect choice for the flip-side of the “Ewa on the Beach” single recently put out by Hi-Tide Recordings. It features the signature Astronauts beat, their ‘booch’ rhythm guitar, and the lead guitar part played in their the muted single-line style, with wet reverb splashing all over the place! It also has a melancholy feel that surf music often so effectively turns into something upbeat and uplifting. But despite being traditional-sounding, it’s still completely unique, exuding Ferenc’s personality! Even when he’s trying to sound traditional, he still ends up sounding like himself, and that’s actually a GREAT thing!

“San Quixote” sounds to my ears as a bit of a tribute to Insect Surfers. I believe Ferenc has been quite open in the past about Insect Surfers being a big influence on him, especially back in the Pollo Del Mar days (for example see their great song “Insecticide”). I hear some of the same vibe and similarity of approach to lead guitar, the chord progression and the rhythm, to what I’m used to hearing on Insect Surfers records. And it’s a freakin’ KILLER tune – as are the next two, “Raise Hell”, another extremely pretty melancholy-but-happy quasi-ballad, and the sheer fun and energy blast of “Pool Boy Stomp”!! But then, I really think ALL the songs are killer, there’s no weak moment on this amazing album! It ends with the four bonus vocal versions of the songs which are a ton fun, but my heart lies with the instrumentals, so I better bring this review to a close. I’ve run out adjectives, anyway! A truly amazing job, Ferenc and the Pool Boys (and Girl)!!