Phil Dirt - Reverb Central - PO Box 1609, Felton, CA 95018-1609 USA The Rumblers - It's A Gas!
 | This CD gathers the singles and more, with great liner notes and excellent mastering. A few of these tracks have never seen reissue before. This was a great recording band, and reportedly very cool live. |
Picks: Boss, Boss Strikes Back, Bugged, Waimea [The Angry Sea], It's A Gas, Tootnanny, Night Scene, Wild Weekend, Warhead, Night Train, Hi Octane
Track by Track Review
Surf (Instrumental)
This is the Rumblers lone national hit, and was the basis for their follow up singles "Boss Strikes Back," "Son of Boss," and "Boss Drums." Heavily R&B based, rhythmic and grumbly, its catchy thump and honkin' grodiness are essential listening for ant fan of the genre.
Surf (Instrumental)
"Boss Strikes Back" is a perfect followup to "Boss." It's derivative enough to be familiar, but different enough to satisfy. A bit less dangerous and up tempo. It's also more surfy. An excellent track!
Space (Instrumental)
This exceptionally fun R&B instro has some narrated vocalizing, making it hard to define totally as an instro, but it's just too fun to pass up. That excellent quirky Rumblers sound and dumb utterances... what more could you ask for than that.
Surf (Instrumental)
This highly unusual track features the ugliest grodiest bass ever - mostly sounding like cabinet rattle without the bass notes... really cool! It's choppy, dark, brooding, and angular. A great track to augment a surf set.
Surf (Instrumental)
The classic "Boss" rhythm theme is the underpinnings of "It's A Gas." Derivative, but a tuff and very cool groover with great drums!
Surf (Instrumental)
This follow up is based in part on Rumble, but it sports the very cool drums of Adrian Lloyd and tremolo guitar. "Tootnanny" is simple, but rhythmically engaging and very fun.
R&B Surf (Instrumental)
Simply the best damn tune the Rumblers ever laid down! It is slow, moody, saxy, and has a cool cadence. The Eliminators cover this extremely well. One hell of a great track. Magnetic.
R&B (Instrumental)
This perennial party favorite rant from the fifties sees new life here, if not new ideas. Frat band standard in a frat band arrangement.
Surf (Instrumental)
This is much surfier than the Rockin' Rebels' original, chunkier too. They had a knack for ominous sax and chunky sound.
Surf (Instrumental)
The Boss theme is again the source, with great whammy and that tuff R&B surf sound. Raw sax and heavy, gutty soul. Oh yeah!
Stomping Time Rock (Instrumental)
"Stomping Time" is a murky progression exercise, with guitar and sax trading lead duties. Not particularly memorable or interesting.
Surf (Instrumental)
"Intersection" is a more straight forward R&B progression with great drums and familiar riffs.
R&B (Instrumental)
A pedestrian version of Les Cooper's hit.
R&B (Instrumental)
James Brown's classic, R&B sax ground, hanky squirty, cool.
Surf (Instrumental)
That "Boss" whammy and beat... in fact the distance between this and that is, well, not much. You could chalk it up to a different arrangement.
The Hustler R&B (Instrumental)
Using the Night Train riff, "The Hustler" doesn't really rise above it. A sax noodles overhead, but never lands. Just obscure.
Surf (Instrumental)
The guitar riff is borrowed from labelmates The Chantays' song "Blunderbus," though it's somewhat different. The arrangement is very different. This is raucous and very fun, with almost Duane Eddy-Steve Douglas sax work.
Surf (Instrumental)
Up an octave from "Boss," this is still somewhat derivative. It's also not as infectious as most of The Rumblers' original material.
Surf (Instrumental)
Big whammy and an adventurous variant of Boss with dirty sax and clipped drums. Hot, fun, but hard to listen to. It's easy to hear why it was unreleased before.
R&B (Instrumental)
Tribal drums, chunky rhythms, and an R&B feel. It's the kinda thing that the Las Vegas bands did while the strippers did the bump and grind.
Surf (Instrumental)
Kettle drums and big production doesn't really sound like The Rumblers, though it's not hard to see how they got here. Loud guitar licks, heavy soul rhythm, and it's at least as interesting as the many progression based R&B instros of the day.