Phil Dirt - Reverb Central - PO Box 1609, Felton, CA 95018-1609 USA Showman and the Thunderous Staccatos - Eat My Dust Asshole
 | I first heard this on vinyl. The recording is crude enough, but the vinyl had much of what was there. I though it sucked really bad. Having now heard it on CD, some of the performances energy and the details of the playing come out. I have come to realize that this is probably one mother of a band. It is another Sir Bald Diddley thing, is it not. I'd really like to get them into a decent recording environment. I suspect they would totally rule the earth, nit unlike the Surf Coasters. However, the extremely lo-fi nature of the recordings keeps that from happening with this record. They beg comparisons with King Loser in some ways, but fail with the lack of definition of the recording. So, if you're into lo-fi, this is fine. If your not, you'll probably hate it, or worse yet resent that a few great tunes are buried under such shitty sound. |
Picks: Eat My Dust Ass Hole, Hot Rod Race (Speed Crazy), Help Out Bo Diddley, Clutch Off, Hijo De Puta, XK-E, Fire Walk With Me, A Noche In Tijuana, Catwoman, Thunderous Staccatos, Give Me Your Honey Babe, Dragstrip Riot, Wray's Boleros
Track by Track Review
Eat My Dust Ass Hole Garage Surf (Instrumental)
Rod sounds merge into a wailing but repetitious rant.
Hot Rod Race (Speed Crazy) Garage Surf (Instrumental)
Heavy vibrato ominous guitar sounds, but it's just too repetitious.
Help Out Bo Diddley Garage Surf (Instrumental)
Bo Diddley riffs and not much character.
Garage Surf (Instrumental)
Rod sounds into a Dick Dale thing that's really big but doesn't quite get passed the intro. It does have a lot of flair and many changes. If it were well recorded, this could be a real killer psychosurf number not unthinkably like some of the huger more irritatingly endearing Shockabilly tunes, maybe like they did "Eight Miles High."
Garage Surf (Instrumental)
Big double picked tune with hot glissandoes. A rage with Middle Eastern flair. Really heavy guitar sounds.
XK-E Garage Surf (Instrumental)
Vibrato and a bit of tube squeal, then extreme noisiness and occasional feedback that hurts. It just doesn't go anywhere. The race narrative is useless here.
Garage Surf (Instrumental)
Indian yelps, tom-toms, spring reverb splashes, eventual big guitar gnarls, and a cool Indian stereotype melody line. Imagine if King Loser did "Hiawatha." No, not that good, but conceptually there.
A Noche In Tijuana Garage Surf (Instrumental)
Spanish serape burrito stereotype.
Garage Surf (Instrumental)
Major cool super high (behind the bridge?) runs lead into damped noodling lines, and then alternate with super heavy low-E double picked gutty lines. The whole thing is the alternation between these elements. Without that, it has no direction. The opening is quite cool, and it's worth a spin for sure.
Garage Surf (Instrumental)
Vibrato massivo plus Al Casey reverb drenched notes, a primal melody buried in back... cool but ugly.
Give Me Your Honey Babe Garage Surf (Instrumental)
Blues, out of place here, and not particularly interesting.
Dragstrip Riot Garage Surf (Instrumental)
Chunky in your face Spam slam.
Garage Surf (Instrumental)
Like the name says, "Rumble" and "Bolero." Huge, raw, powerful.