Phil Dirt - Reverb Central - PO Box 1609, Felton, CA 95018-1609 USA The Gremmies - Never Mind The Reverb, Here's The Gremmies
 | These tracks were culled from several websites, including MySpace, PodShow, and the band's now defunct homepage. All probably date from 2007. |
Picks: Sunset Beach, Tijuana Nights, Asteroid, That Voodoo Moon, Nitro Express, Pacifica, Shark, Sleep Walk, Surf Vamps, Crikey
Track by Track Review
Surf Rock (Instrumental)
"Sunset Beach" is a softly moving song with an easy post-rainstorm kinda melody. Echo replaces reverb, but the coastal highway images remain. "Sunset Beach" is a very nice track. This is not the classic Sentinals song.
Surf Rock (Instrumental)
"Tijuana Nights" doesn't raise images of Tijuana or night time, but it is a very enjoyable track with a soft melody and easy rhythm. While really q long way from the surf envelope, it does have an aquatic feel as part of its rock ethic.
Surf Rock (Instrumental)
A delayed glissando launches the circular melody and moody turbulent surf image. The big rock guitar lines seem outta place, but otherwise, "Asteroid" is a very cool track.
Jazz Rock (Instrumental)
A slowly undulating track, "That Voodoo Moon" runs atop a goofy jazzy cool for cats rhythm. The melody is tasteful and delivered with rock tone and attach. Quite not surf, but very cool indeed.
Nitro Express Blues (Instrumental)
"Nitro Express" is a blues rock number that's very derivative of many electric blues jams that came before. Not particularly interesting.
Pacifica Surf Rock (Instrumental)
This is a very straightforward cover of Los Straitjackets' "Pacifica." It's been done a million times, and like all the others, this does nothing new with the song.
Surf Rock (Instrumental)
Great drums and gentle double picked surf coolness delivers "Shark." The melody is unchanging and circular, and without arrangement variations, it gets pretty tedious at times. The two guitars are playing the mostly same lines all the way through, just with slightly different tone or in different octaves. The song does evolve, but very slowly, and the big rock guitar midsection is not very interesting.
Sleep Walk Rock (Instrumental)
This is a very pedestrian cover of Santo and Johnny's "Sleep Walk." Without the lap steel slide or much liquid slither in the playing, this song always seems empty.
Surf Vamps Surf Rock (Instrumental)
While rife with surfisms such as glissandos, "Surf Vamps" nonetheless is not very surfy, and the rock anthem break doesn't help.
Crikey Surf Rock (Instrumental)
This is a much more crudely recorded mono track, with a minimal melody line and muddy sound. It sounds very early, is tentatively played, and is underdeveloped from an arrangement perspective.