4.23.2008

Drag Beat




The De-Fenders Drag Beat LP (Del-Fi, 1964)

Aha! Crud Crud is back with some fresh meat! Took some unexpected time off. Life and getting the next issue of Z Gun together. During that time, I gave this gem of an album a lot of spins and, man, what a great surf/hot rod instrumental jam this is!

Who are the De-Fenders? I dunno. I am sure I could spend some time and get some names for you, but they will be a bunch of LA session guys that neither you or I have ever heard of, but have probably heard a thousand times before. What you need to know is that this pup is on Del-Fi and Del-Fi's track record (ha ha, track record get it....uh) on the rock & roll instro is pretty damn good.

So here are my three favorites. "Deuces Wild" is pretty much your straight forward garage instro, except that it has a nice R&B edge and gobs of great sound effects. Some internet idge says "Taco Truck" is a rip of Harry Belafonte. Nah. Well, maybe a little but this shit is also a West Coast grab of the East Coast Puerto Rican R&B craze ALA Jimmy Castor as well as a twist on Hollywood swinger anthems like "Music to Watch Girls By." And then there is the drum crazed "Drag Beat," a song I will let speak for itself.


# posted by Scott Soriano : 20:40
Comments:
Tommy Tedesco was a pretty famous session guy. He used to write a column for Guitar Player magazine back in the 70's - 80's.

Did you post some of this stuff last year? I seem to have some different tunes in my iTunes file, but Drag Beat is one of them.

Last summer I used my laptop for an alarm clock when I had to get up early to help a buddy dig holes in the street. (City plumber gig.) I had a hotrod playlist to get me out of bed. The De-Fenders were there, but the opening track was Rev-Up! by Manuel & the Renegades ("Rev-Up!
Vroom Vroom") and I know I got that from you.

Found this on the web:
http://www.del-fi.com/hotrod.html

And thanks for helping me to get to work on time.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 15:34
 
problem with hot rod instros, is the r'n'b influences rather than the exotic/ exotic interpretations as found in surf. as a genre that was almost completely made up by record companies, and by studio musicians it seems like the aesthetic of that "action beat" tends to stereotypical r'n'b rhythms rather than the latin/middle eastern/spy/spanish/space/hawaiian/mexican/etc. influences that surf had. so yeah it's a question of taste, and it can work sometimes, like here, or some of the deuce coupes tracks, or some other singles. but most of the time it can be a colossal waist of time searching this type of music (and i waisted hundreds of hours doing that) compared to it's sea loving twin genre.

and for the sake of namedropping here are some hot-rod singles that worth your time. btw, half of these are surf bands that jumped of the hot rod fad.

-gamblers - teen machine
-dave myers and the surftones - gear
-opus 1 - back seat 38 dodge
-arlen sanders and the pacifics - hopped up mustang
-star tones - the chase
-road runners - road runnah
-pyramids - midnight run
-lances - when johnny comes draggin' home
-venturas - ram charger

Eilon
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 08:05
 
"Taco Truck" is really more a of a rip of Mel Torme's 1962 hit "Comin' Home Baby," apart from the obvious Belafonte nod in the vocal intro. The Skatalites also ripped that tune and called it "Christine Keeler." Their version is my favorite, but this one's pretty awesome!
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 08:42
 
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