Billy Mure - Fireworks!

One of Billy Mure's other albums was posted over at Rock Is Dead and for what this blog normally covers, it would make a much better choice. However, Billy Mure has always skirted the edge of exotica and so have I! I first got into record collecting buying (mostly terrible) Hawaiian albums with pretty girls and beaches on the cover. Well, Billy stepped into the deep-end with this one, but at least chose from the best. This is pure Space-Aged-Esquivel Worship, just short of adding z's to the dooooooo-doo-wahs. Still, Billy's guitar is prominent and excellent, with the first tracks on either side falling more into the realm of Super-Sonic guitar.

In fact, wait a second, doesn't Super-Sonic Guitar suggest that we wouldn't be able to hear it?

Anyway if you like Esquivel, Billy emulates him better than anybody I can think of. It's a good album! The rip is pretty nice too, save for one little skip in the very first song. It kills me, and I was looking so hard at the record, cleaning it and recleaning it trying to get that skip out of there. You might not notice it though.

Here's the tracklist, note the writing credits

Side A

1. Firecrackers (Billy Mure)
2. I Wonder, I Wonder (Daryl Hutchins)
3. Peanut Vendor (Simons - Gilbert - Sunshine)
4. Peg O' My Heart (Alfred Bryan - Fred Fisher)
5. By The Beautiful Sea (Harry Carroll)
6. Jealous (Jack Little - Tommy Malie)

Side B

1. Dancing Guitars (Billy Mure)
2. Crackerjack (Billy Mure)
3. For Me And My Gal (Meyer - Leslie - Goetz)
4. Guitar Theme (Billy Mure)
5. They Can't Take That Away From Me (Ira and George Gershwin)
6. April in Portugal (Ferrao - Kennedy - LaRue)

GO GET

Earl Washington - Miserlou \ Wolf Call

Back in my WESU radio days, I took a lot of pride in the various ways I jazzed up Storm Surge of Reverb, already an example of irregularity in the station's programming. One of my favorites was "Spring Break Misirlou" in which I prepared two entire shows of nothing but renditions of Misirlou, both before and after Dick Dale, both surf and non. And had some left over.

So I've heard a lot of renditions of this song. I ran soulseek dry and googled the living crap out of it. I'm sure you've heard plenty too, and though I welcome you to prove me wrong, I bet you've never heard a blues version.

Earl Washington's version of Misirlou probably bares more resemblance to Martin Denny's than Dick Dale's, but it also precedes the dickster's by about 4 years. It's weird for sure, jazzy piano over a blues progression and opera-like singing. It's kind of hard to give it a genre, which is the case for the best music.
Miserlou

Wolf Call is a much more straightforward upbeat blues instrumental. It reaffirms to you that he's a Checker artist, but it didn't inspire me to check out the rest of his work
Wolf Call

The Safaris - Kick Out \ Lonely Surf Guitar

Confused people think The Safaris were responsible for Wipe-Out. Curious googlers might find that The Safaris were a doo-wop group. But somewhere I determined that these Safaris released some badass surf rock. By some, I mean not much. From what I've been able to gather, this 45 is...uh... all there is to gather.

But seriously, this is a serious 45. As you can tell from the picture, it deserves a better quality rip, but it's clear enough for you to understand that this is a really great 45
Kick Out

Lonely Surf Guitar is a slow number, which in surf rock I've always thought was harder to do well. Well, I played this side instead of the A side on my show last week, so there you go
Lonely Surf Guitar

Other blog watch

So I had a sort of "secret weapon" by The Goofers that I was ready to post but somebody beat me to the punch. Sure, they weren't really spotlighting the song, but it's a much better quality version than I would have posted. In fact, I've been calling it "surf rock with bagpipes" until I heard an actual non-scratchy-45 version which, well you'll see. Then again... my side didn't say Take 2! I might give it another listen. Regardless, it's really fun, and while I'm posting the MP3's I got from his blog post, the entire album can be got at Be Bop Wino's blog. It's a cool album, check it out. But if you just want to hear the Goofers, here's your shortcut.

The Goofers - Scotch on the Rocks (take 2)



The Goofers - Head Hunters is jungle themed, this time I'm pretty sure. This is always cool in my book

I would post a picture of the label but I'm on a ski trip.

Meanwhile, Kahuna Kawentzmann made an excellent post recently with all sorts of incredible links of the history of surfing. Not much about the music, but I'm always digging for some of the pictures you can get in those links.

Kent and the Candidates - Go High

I will tell you straight off why this single is great: on Go High, these two men have recently fallen on hard times with their women and decide (real quote here) "Well let's get out of this place!" "I know, let's take a rocketship to outer space!" It's like people write this stuff with my blog in mind, I swear.

Go High


The Neck is probably the more danceable song out of the two and the one I've seen mention of more often. From what I understand, our friends are checking out a party, scoping out all the familiar friends and characters and Tall Timmy with NO REGARD for the safety of his peers, breaks out doing The Neck, after which the song mostly inquires about your own ability to perform this hazardous dance move.

The Neck

Storm Surge 3 Today (Friday)

2PM - 4PM CST

Last show in this timeslot. After that.... who knows!

Going to be throwing on a ton of 7"s this time.

stream at www.wtulneworleans.com

edit: Here's the playlist!

the volcanos - krakatoa

lost acapulco - ven perrita
al casey - el aguila (the easle)
telekrimen - la mosca
the hellbenders - sabata
the lively ones - mexico
i cosmonauti - (death of a) Matador
the concaves - li'l walquin
rockin' rebels - wild weekend
the gems - shutdown
the weisstronauts - sir wacky

rat holic - yu-hi
los pataconas - spiderman
the deuce coupes - skin diver (that might be wrong....)
johnny zorro - bongo guitar
maracca five-oh - gidget's guns
sultans of jungle - no looking back
the introducers = surf fever
the safaris - lonely surf guitar
Doctor A-Go-Go - hot girlie action
the virtues - Guitar Boogie Shuffle
bambi molesters - alpha e

krontjong devils - land beyond the moon
the bills - organ stomp
the archers - hybrid moments
ghastly ones - ghastly stomp
Man...or Astro-Man? - transmissions from Venus
avengers VI - time bomb
the staggers - eagle surf
tornados - robot
the hangee V - Space Rat
Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory - music to murder girls by
i fantomatici - orgasmo intergalattico

southern culture on the skids - dance for me
aqua velvets - casbah club
the chantays - pipeline
the royal pendletons - nites along the mississippi
the bomboras - surfin' bull

Blue Stingrays - Ju Ju Beads
The Techniques - Dream Theme
The Treble Spankers - Enola Gay
The Routers - Mashy

Johnny Phelps - Tom Katt \ None So Fair (As My Fair Lady)

I was immediately drawn to this 45, but I think it was just because it was on the "Ski" record label and I thought "skiing is nice". So logically Ski Records is based in skiing hub of the world Indianapolis, Indiana and according to this site didn't make much else. A bummer since Tom Katt is a great rockabilly number from 1958, certainly enhanced by a many cat meows throughout the song.
Tom Katt


None So Fair (As My Fair Lady) isn't really as fun, but gets stuck in your head pretty well.
None So Fair (As My Fair Lady)