Listen & Be Heard Network Arts News

My friend Adrienne gave me a copy of a CD titled “Rockatones Forever” (and subtitled “Too Good to be True”) from a Contra Costa County cover band called the Circuit Breakers.  The band practices next door to her house; giving her the recording appeared to be a peace offering as well as a musical one.  She asked me whether I had any interest in listening to it and I took it home.

I recognized the song titles – “Pipeline,” “Apache,” Walk Don’t Run,” “Sleepwalk,” and, of course, “Wipe Out” being among them – and knew that these guys were all about surf music.  One of the great things about the surf genre is how easily identifiable the music and its components have been since its inception during the early 1960s.  All it takes is some tremolo from the amp (or an effects box or computer software to achieve the desired sound), a bass player who can keep solid time, a drummer who likes to beat the floor tom senseless during solos, and a lead guitarist who knows something about using a whammybar (or vibrato bar, if one must), and - PRESTO! - instant surf band. 

The Circuit Breakers remain faithful to the original versions of these songs.  They perform them pretty much like Dick Dale, the Ventures, and the Surfaris, to name a few, did forty years ago.  The sonic quality is cleaner than the above-mentioned groups’ recordings, which is not necessarily a good thing for surf – a little sloppiness can be an asset and nothing a few well-placed pulls on a whammybar can’t fix – or an enthusiastic but scattered drum solo like the one provided in their version of “Wipe Out.”  It’s not a bad solo, it’s just not a dead-on perfect copy of the one from transistor radios of days gone by, and that’s a good thing. 

I assume the band plans to use this recording to get bookings and to sell at their gigs.  The only problem with this theory is the complete lack of information on the CD cover regarding website, e-mail address, or telephone number.  Easily fixed with a few mouse clicks.  Might also want to correct the spelling of “Samba Pa Ti” – a nice tune to follow “Wipe Out,” by the way, and completely unexpected – the last word does not have an “e” instead of an “i” in it, unless Carlos Santana has suddenly decided to promote some kind of spicy fois gras by using his song titles and band history as cross-promotional tools. (Devadip dip, anyone?)

The band is comprised of Bjorn Nymann, Mike Maxwell, and Rick Robles on guitars (Nymann plays the solos), Terry Notary on drums, Gary Chapman on bass, and Fred Baumgartner on sax, with Bernie Rivera adding sax on “Honky Tonk.”  Maxwell also sings on the Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes,” the only other non-surf song on this recording. 

The Who, incidentally, knew something about surf music: watch the 1979 documentary “The Kids Are Alright” and try not to gape while Keith Moon (!) sings lead on a killer version of “Barbara Ann.”  “Behind Blue Eyes,” on the other hand, is virtually free of any surf references.  Perhaps if the Breakers had wanted to be a little adVENTUREous, they might have tried a version of “Behind Blue Eyes” arranged like “Pipeline.”  Now THAT would be too good to be true.  Maybe next wave.  Bah-bah-bah, bah-bah-burrrrrrrrannnnnnnnn.