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Crank up the Hi-Fi and strap your ass down! The Defiant Ones are all about smashing your sensibilities with a high voltage two on the two punk surf beat. Bringing it on in a Fender fueled munitions package that will just knock your ass out! The Defiant Ones fuse bar chord punk, old school surf, and a sledgehammer to produce a sleek sonic asskicking. Riding somewhere between Agent Orange and Dick Dale and totally blowing the rhythm meter off the charts... Sam Bolle brings the bass, Rich Griffith the lead guitar. The Queen of Rock n Roll, Caitie O'Shea lights up the baritone guitar and Dusty Motherfuckin' Watson is cranking on the kit.
The Defiant Ones started in the fall of 2004 when Dusty and Sam were touring with Dick Dale in Florida. Rich, who lived in Melbourne Florida, arranged studio time during an off night of the tour. Dick Dale was dropped off at the local movie megaplex and half the tracks for Super Secret Disaster were recorded. Cait, who had played with Rich in the Balboas, was brought in to play baritone guitar and complete the line up of The Defiant Ones. The band completed the recording a year later in Los Angeles and the CD was released in the winter of 2006. Dusty and Sam are the most accomplished rhythm section in surf music having logged thousands of miles touring with Dick Dale. The two also played together in the classic, but always cool, surf punk band Agent Orange, and arguably the best surf band in the world, Slacktone. The Balboas piss in the wind approach to surf music and their booze fueled stage show brought a much-needed edge to surf music, which is dominated by Hawaiian shirt wearing white guys who have a fender gear fetish. The Balboas brand of surf was faster, harder, and filthier than Brazilian porn. Put the two together and you’ve got the Defiant Ones. "I really wanted to record a CD that had a balance of Punk and Surf, both in the tempo and intensity and the beat…. throwing some Ramones style drumming under a surf groove…" Commented lead guitar player Rich Griffith. "Heavier and harder than Dick Dale, but with a more instrumental mix than Agent Orange and the Dead Kennedys. The Defiant Ones really brings it on full force, this is some serious punch you in the face surf". Much emphasis in surf music is made on the ability to recreate the sound of the sixties classic surf bands. The Defiant Ones approach to surf is considerably more aggressive, with some traditional surf fans wondering if it surf at all. "Listen this project was always intended to have a fast rough edge, so I am not surprised when I hear that" answers Griffith. "But man there is a lot of surf on this CD, 80% of the tunes have the similar surf beat and arrangements. The entire CD was recorded on classic surf gear, with no distortion added. We just play these amps loud and when they get hot they scream. But this is totally fender driven punk surf. Its just played sweaty and aggressive and at the edge. There was a ton of energy when we were recording and I think we caught it on tape." Super Secret Disaster is a 15 track CD full of pure speed and wreckage. The CD goes from 0 to 100 in a flash, and never lets off the pedal. The reverb soaked guitar sounds huge, hot, and overdriven, in both the traditional surf arrangements such as "Shadow of Pele" and when shredding through 2 minutes punk numbers like "Riot on the Beach". The choice of the baritone guitar gives the CD a ton of low-end rumble and percussive rhythm. It mates perfectly with the booming bass that alternates between anchoring the bottom end and pounding you with tight surf grooves. The drumming is the guts of this band, and Super Secret Disaster has A LOT of guts. Dusty Watson lays down some of the best drumming in surf, ever. Eleven of the tracks are instrumental, while four demonstrate Mark Healy’s (who wrote the CDs sparse lyrics) penchant for crime, madness, and debauchery. Overall the power of the CD is what is most memorable. If this is what surfing is all about then surfing isn’t fun. It’s more like a 40-foot wall of water rushing at you with no hope of escape. Super Secret Disaster can be found at most online retailers including: Amazon.com, CDNOW.com, Best Buy, Sam Goody, iTunes, & Napster For more about the Defiant Ones check out their website: www.defiant-ones.com also on myspace at: http://www.myspace.com/thedefiantones |