Search - Various Artists :: Pebbles 4

Its OK not the best of the Pebble Series

Cool Cat | Springfield, OR USA | 05/03/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This CD wasn't bad its just not up to par with the rest of this awesome series. Now I really don't dig the surf vocals their too clean and poppy for my tastes. I likes my music with some sugar but also with a greasy blast of a bacon cheeseburger chased down with a bitter tequlia! I like surf vocals that are rowdy and raunchy like Surfin' Bird. There is some good ones on here like The California Sun's "Masked Grandma", Lloyd Thaxton telling you what it takes to be a surfer in "Image of a Surfer", the awesome gritty sloppy surf punk by the Readymen called "Shortnin' Bread", then the alcholic song "Wine, Wine, Wine" by the Bleach Boys. Then its on to my favorite part of the CD the instrumentals cheif among them being "LSD-25" by the Gamblers this is probably the first drug record since it was recorded in 1961! Then the last song "Big Surfer" by Brian Lord a insane song where the guy sounds like a Jhon F. Kennedy clone. There is strong material on this CD but I expected better out of the pebbles series."

An UFO in the peebles serie : surf music at its best

Marc Antoine Herrmann | France | 09/10/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the only Peebles presenting Surf Music. The good thing is that they worked in the same way on this one to find obscure surf songs with "something".

A great collection of surf songs (mostly vocals) including less known songs from great bands (Pyramids, Rivieras,...). On the CD vs vinyl, they added bonus tracks from even more obscure surf/hot rod bands... and even the almost impossible to find instrumental "LSD25" of the gamblers. A great album."

Pebbles on the beach!

Laszlo Matyas | 08/09/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As its title implies, the fourth Pebbles disc is a bit of a departure from other volumes in the series. It serves up 19 tracks of ultra obscure surf rock from the 60s (except for Dave Edmunds' "London's A Lonely Town," which was recorded in 1973). The songs are mostly from the poppier end of the spectrum, with vocal harmonies, symplistic lyrics, and peppy instrumentation that shows a clear Beach Boys/Jan & Dean influence. Severeal of these songs are really good- The Dantes' "Top Down Time" is an infectious rush, and the Knights' "Hot Rod High" offers the kind of simplistic joy that its title promises. The Wheel Men and The Super Stocks provide two excellent versions of the same song (with slighty different titles, however. The former group calls their tune "School Is A Gas," while the latter provides "School Is A Drag"). Lloyd Thaxton's "Image Of A Surfer" can almost be described as the surf-pop counterpart to Kim Fowley's "The Trip." The Bleach Boys (bLeach, not beach) turn in a wicked cool version of "Wine Wine Wine." There are also a few less poppy gems: The Readymen's unbelievably awesome "Shortnin' Bread" is a beer-blasted slab of midwestern surf-punk insanity a la the Trashmen, and the Gamblers' "LSD 25" is a way-cool instrumentl strutter. Brian Lord's "The Big Surfer" is a totally inexplicable song which featuyres- okay, I don't want tio give it away, but it rules. Sadly, there are a few subpar tunes that keep this from being a five-star buy: "Custom Caravan" and "Big 'T'" are ultra-generic tunes that really aren't all that fun or interesting, and a few other tunes on this disc are similarly unenjoyable. But meh, who cares? The best music here is Pebble-riffic summertime greatness. Enjoy!"