...by Emma Jade Gunn
Déja freaking vu, or is that view, baby! Los Straitjackets' Supersonic Guitars In 3-D CD rocked my soul kinda like the last time I sat in Jaws (Version The Jaws Convention Fans Know What) and "Fuhwheeeet!", that nasty predacious fishie jumped out of the screen and knoshed my face into a screaming, squeeming horror mask. Wow! Some things are well worth reliving again and again. Mask-wearing and mask-making types take note: Emma does not squeal easily but you guys have gone and done, done, done it again.
This CD is outrageous. Supersonic Guitars In 3-D comes with your very own 3-D glasses. There's a gnarly insert that you can refold to put your favorite Straitjacketed one on the cover --- gnarly meaning fun and clever and wonderful and absolutively fantastic to the Retro Literati. I immediately changed the cover four times. I never could pick a favorite masked one, which would be hard to do for anyone, 'cuz those way cool 3-D glasses make our hooded hunks stick out in, well, 3-D. Is that neat or what?! And the 3-D CD is a real gasser to zone out with through the glasses, too.
- SQUID
- (Amis - Curry - Lester - Neill) Cuh-cuh-cuh-lassic surfrockinroll, dear ones! Hey, lotsa arms of musical eptitude reaching out and crunching your bones with guitar licks and drum threads to die for. Honest. To die for. Would I lie? Of course not! Quick and classic are two words that come to mind for Squid and I can't help but move every little part of me when it plays. Perfect Surfdom Sounds.
- DIPINTO TWIST
- (Curry) Don't ask me why I got the feeling that country music was going to take over ownership of Los Straitjackets as the result of Dipinto Twist hitting the airwaves. Make a great song for the next Mike Meyers movie, I tell you what.
- TIME BOMB
- (Amis - Angel - Curry - Lester - Neill) Do you go to baseball games and stomp, "We will, we will, rock you!" on the bleachers until your feet ache? Well, Ultra Fan, here's a new banshee yell for you. No, I'm not kidding. Let the sports fans get hold of this and there'll be a whole new way of celebrating our obsession with games.
- CAN YOU DIG IT?
- (Amis - Angel - Curry - Lester) Surf rock at its Hawai'ian-bred best, love! Ginchy. Yeah, baby, listen to those smooooth guitars bending to the waves.
- SAN DIEGO SHUTDOWN
- (Amis - Angel - Curry - Lester) Let me find the channel here. Just a second, I know right where it is. Wow, man, flashback to the sixties knob-adjustable radio days. Yeah, here it is. No, wait. Here. Oh, baby, I don't care, just play it again, Sam, play it like you did before. You drummed it for him, now drum it for me. Sigh. Wow.
- ISN'T LOVE GRAND?
- (Angel) Where's Bobby Darin when you need him to sit beside you on a beach blanket and stare soulfully into your eyes while great songs like this are playing? Bobby, come hither. I have the greatest love song of the year; where are your big brown eyes?
- GIGGLE WATER
- (Amis - Angel - Curry - Lester) What? No Floyd Cramer this time? Okay, it's for the best if we get more treats like Giggle Water. The guys really strut their stuff on this cut, proving once and for all (as if we didn't already know!) that they're first class musicians all of the way from A to Z. Cute. I like it and would strip to it if I weren't the bashful type.
- MIDNIGHT IN SALERNO
- (Amis) What surf music is meant to be, inside, outside, upside and beachside. Or, as my old buddy in the flip flops used to say, "Dang but those boys are good!" Of course, Buddy was talking about a dude named Corky and crew, but you get my drift. Doesn't get any better than this.
- BEACH BAG
- (Amis - Angel - Curry - Lester) Kinda different, you know? Kinda surf, kinda ... uh, do I get to say it's a bag of a different color? Well, it is. Beach bag, that is, filled with bright licks with a distinctive twist.
- JUNGLEAYA
- (Amis - Angel - Curry - Lester) You Tarzan, me Beach Babe. Let's do some jazzy beach blanket bingo-ing. This is the kind of music that a ponytail and the frug belongs to. Fun, fun, fun.
- GALAXY DRIVE
- (Amis - Angel - Curry - Lester) Just how many ways do this fantastic foursome have to play those instruments? Hot, as always, this cut shows off some of the best in drums and guitars I've ever heard. Get in the Stingray and hit warp drive! I'm cruising to Galaxy Drive, guys!
- TARANTULA
- (Amis - Angel - Curry - Lester) My evil twin loves this song and plans to play it over the loudspeakers at every party she gives this year, especially Halloween. Okay, I made that up. I haven't got a twin. I'm going to play it over loudspeakers on Halloween and then again at every other holiday I can make up or find on a calendar. It's too good not to share with the neighborhood.
- DREAMLAND
- (Amis - Angel - Curry - Lester) Love it, love it, love it. Did I tell you that I love it? Kissy-face music. What a great way to close a CD by the Masked Ones! Oh, boys, you rock me!
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2003 Los Straitjackets