Michael Jackson Split Single with Surfer Joe and Frankie and the Pool Boys

There's a headline I never thought I'd write!

In August of 2022, the Surfer Joe Band was at my house and we were talking about Lorenzo's love of 80s pop, and Michael Jackson came up. Lorenzo said he had an arrangement of "Billie Jean," and wanted to record it.  They didn't have a B-side ready, so I suggested that the Pool Boys record "Beat It." And that is how the greatest novelty record of 2023 came together. Someday, the universe will have to ponder why a surf treatment of Michael Jackson came into existence. We get it, it's definitely a novelty release. But the songs have great melodies, and that always suits the surf style. We also know that MJ is rightly viewed in a harsh light, and we have no excuses, other than we enjoyed his music when it came out 40 years ago.

We did have a lot of fun doing the recording and putting the package together. We tried to match the original single art as closely as possible. I used an AI program to help identify the fonts used! In them olden days, we used to flip through thousands of pages in a font book!

You can listen and purchase the songs from Bandcamp, or stream on all the major services.

"Beat It" by Frankie and the Pool Boys

"Billie Jean" by Surfer Joe

Ferenc is interviewed by Ryan from Pi Records

 Ferenc is interviewed by Ryan from Pi Records

I had a nice long interview with Ryan from Pi Records. We talked about the new Pollo Del Mar album, and other recent releases from Frankie and the Pool Boys, The Mach IV and The IFIC.

Pollo Del Mar plays "Beck's Bolero"

 Pollo Del Mar plays "Beck's Bolero"

Here's a snippet of Pollo Del Mar performing "Beck's Bolero" for the first time at the Art Boutiki in San Jose. 

John Blair reviews Pollo Del Mar's "Speed of Dark"

 

A review of Pollo Del Mar's new album, "Speed of Dark" by esteemed guitarist, music historian, author and documentarian John Blair.

Well, it ain't surf music. At least not in the trad sense. There are excursions into Zappa-esque textures and psychedelic styles that only a handful of contemporary "prog surf" guitar instrumental bands have approached. But, among them, I DO consider Pollo Del Mar among the best that's out there.

One thing that struck me while listening to the band's latest 12-inch gift of music, is that the sequencing here is really good. IMO, when you produce this kind of sophisticated guitar work, good sequencing is important. It's sort of a lost art that shows here.

And, the only non-original track is Pollo's cover of The Pyronauts' "Sifaka." The original has, I think, become a modern classic and this cover is a very good salute.

There aren't many guitarist/writer/arrangers out there who seem to be as familiar with so many sonic corners and dark musical alleys as Ferenc Dobronyi, who has a lot of guitar tricks in his saddle bag. I don't think there's really a bum track in the bunch. It all flows nicely and sounds great when played loud at the speed of dark.

https://pollodelmarsurf.bandcamp.com/album/speed-of-dark