Song of the Week: The Ventures - The Swinging Creeper and Pedal Pusher

The Swinging Creeper

Pedal Pusher

Anyone who hangs out at this site very long knows that I have a man crush on The Ventures. I think they are simply marvy, to use the parlance of Marcia Brady. In fact, guitarist Nokie Edwards is one of my all time favorites. Catchy, tasteful, tuneful, never more than is needed for the song. No extended noodling leads. Melody all day long. Don Wilson, Bob Taylor and Bob Bogle rounded out the classic line up of Tacoma, Washington's originators of the surf sound.

We feature today both sides of one of their lesser known singles: The Swinging Creeper and Pedal Pusher released on Dolton Records in June of 1965. It's just enough fuzz to make the cool cats over at Surfadelic stand up and take notice. But not so much fuzz that you can't see the peach that are the songs. A little organ thrown in for good measure and a crap load of cool melody.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Song of the Week: The Lively Ones - Surf Rider

From 1963, The Lively Ones perform Surf Rider. The Lively Ones were a SoCal band that recorded for Del-Fi Records, Dick Dale's label. A fact that I did not know until I started to write this, Surf Rider was actually written by The Ventures' Nokie Edwards, one of my all time favorite guitarists. Helps explain why this song is so dang perfect. The hep cats among us may recognize this song as the outro number to Pulp Fiction. 

Enjoy

Video Diary: The Ventures Live in Japan (2 of 4)

Video Diary: The Ventures Live in Japan (3 of 4)

Video Diary: Ventures Live in Japan (4 of 4)

Video Diary: Dick Dale - Miserlou

Song of the Week: "Sleigh Ride", The Ventures

Listen - The Ventures perform Sleigh Ride

Merry Christmas!

Video Diary: The Ventures, "Diamond Head & Caravan"

Happy Friday to all. Two, that's right, two Ventures videos in one. Plus a creepy ad.

Hey kids, want to be cool this weekend? I thought so. If for some freak of nature reason you actually get invited to a party, get-together or, even better, one of them soirée parties that I've read so much about in them vintage swinger magazines, just throw out the following sentence: "I've always believed that Nokie Edwards is criminally underrated as a guitarist. How about you?" I promise you, Ventures loving members of the opposite sex are going to be knocking down your door with pipeline love.

Song of the Week: "Sing, Sing, Sing", Los Straitjackets

With the amount of surf music the On the Flip-Side staff listens to, it's a real wonder it's taken this long to get a good surf instrumental elevated to Song of the Week. Praise reverb, the wait is over. This week we sample the fine instrumental skills of Nashville-based surf merchants, Los Straitjackets as they put their thumping interpretation to Sing, Sing, Sing, a number written by Benny Goodman back in, I think, 1937. 

For those of you not hip to a live Los Straitjackets show, here is a little primer to help you get caught up. The band performs a relentless attack of instrumentals while decked out in Mexican wrestling masks, they introduce their songs only in a rapid-fire Spanish that will make you think you are part of the Inquisition, and perform deadly serious unison "dance" moves that, admittedly, may make Gene Kelly raise an eyebrow askance. And if you are really lucky, you get to see the masked musicians perform with The Pontani Sisters, three Brooklyn based sisters who interpret the band's instrumentals with a PG rated Go-Go/Vaudevillian/Burlesque-like show that will have the audience laughing all night. And on a really good night, Kaiser George, the Scottish Buddy Holly look-alike will MC the show and throw in a twist number to boot. Or maybe Big Sandy will jump in to add some vocals to a number of Rockabilly tracks. And to wrap it all up, the whole gang will stand at the exit and thank you for coming and wish you a safe drive home. 

All this adds up to an evening of great entertainment that is good for the whole family as well as the very serious connoisseurs of surf music. In short, the Flip-Side brain-trust suggests you check out Los Straitjackets' tour schedule (in support of their new Yep-Roc album, The Further Adventures of Los Straitjackets) and have a night of total entertainment, the likes of which, one doesn't get to see much anymore. The Christmas shows are particularly entertaining as this low-res video of Sleigh Ride will hint at.

In the meantime, enjoy this thumper SOTW from Los Straitjackets and get ready for the bestest week you ever had.