At last the debut album from Boss Fink, featuring members of the Ghastly Ones, Thee Cormans, and The Huntington Cads -- definitely some A-list pedigree. They had a great 7" out on Double Crown last year that confirmed what we had hoped out of them, but I think everybody was *really* waiting for the full length. Wait no longer! From what I've heard this is a pretty straight-ahead trad sound but plenty aggressive and mean. Here, watch some youtube
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If you've listened to my show enough you've probably figured out that I've got a thing for Peruvian chicha music, and the similarities to surf rock should be apparent enough that that wouldn't be surprising. I find it amusing that while there's some great surf in Peru, the bands that seem most faithful to the sound appear to be everywhere else. Mexico especially is home to perhaps my favorite: Sonido Gallo Negro.
This looks like the first record in about 5 years from the masters of moody surf The Aqua Velvets, and if you were already a fan you should feel right at home. If you're new to them, expect slow, perhaps lonely surf guitar with flamenco touches, sparse percussion, and still plenty of reverb. I'd put them close to a band like Friends of Dean Martinez but still on the surf side. Big Lazy sound similar as well, but the Aqua Velvets predate them significantly.
When you're always on the lookout for surf groups, it helps to have a good gut feeling for them based on the name of the band and album, maybe even the songs. That's true for both the new stuff and the vintage stuff. The Baltic Side would have failed that test: The band name doesn't sound surf, "Hope" isn't really something I associate with surf, neither are song titles like "Believe", "Pilgrim", and "Rainbow". Nothing wrong with those names, they just don't register as a blip on my surf radar.
Well let's be honest, the names of your songs aren't terribly important in surf music, so I can't really blame Surf Out! for their lazy naming schemes. This EP starts with a fiery one out the gate, then chills out for the rest. Some of them build to a frenzy, some of them continue to take it easy. It's a pay-what-you-want album, so give it a shot.
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