The Lava Rats: Surfing the Magma ...CD review by Ann Rein

The Lava Rats: Surfing the Magma

...by Ann Rein

     As almost any surfer and most of the west coast knows, PCH is an acronym for one of the best drives along some of the best surfing spots to be found on this continent — the Pacific Coast Highway. The Lava Rats have made a fitting tribute to this icon of freewheeling.

     Starting sultry like that winding mass of blacktop on a hot summer night and moving into some vivacious strings popping like the waves off the Point, Surfing the Magma rocks! These guys have some chops that will make them go far, and that I promise.

     Can I go out on a limb? It takes a surfer willing to break their neck, put their hide on the line and test their mettle to take up long-boarding. Well, likewise, it takes a band willing to make those fingertips raw, put up with angst and long hours of practice, practice, practice and risk a ton of bucks on vintage equipment to take up classic surf rock musicianship.

     Playing as a group for three years now, The Lava Rats have it all and that's where I end up on that limb. With a dynamic name (The Lava Rats! How incredibly cool!), a great stand of equipment many of us would die for, and the go-get-it to get-it-going, I'm going to predict that these dudes will be rocking world-wide if they keep at it.

     Okay, I've put my reputation as a critc on the line, so here's the inside jenny on the outrageous Lava Rats. Bill Bergstrom makes his place front and center with an amazing cache of guitars and amps that includes, I kid you not, a '64 Fender Twin Reverb, a '67 Fender Dual Showman and a Mosrite. Kenan O’Brien lays in the bass on a custom Warmouth while drummer Taylor Still uses his talent particularly well on a Zildjian sizzle ride. There are a lot more instruments in this group's arsenal, but a piece of equipment is only as good as the player so I have to pay tribute to The Lava Rats as well as their impressive apparatus jackpot. With cuts like Homercles, their value as juggernauts of sound is rocketing into the millenium with a bullet.

     Surfing the Magma is the product of a year of hard work. The variety of sounds contained in this CD are worth the investment, both in time and dinero. A Phalanx of Terror cleverly reincarnates the party sound into a tune that begs for gogo dancers to strut in cages. Yep, this is a song you can actually do the Frug to, friends! Mahvelous! Absolutely Mahvelous! Hey Link! pays tribute to the past with throbbing guitars and thumping drums just like we want to hear it. Militant Cyclist tests the speed of light, while Summer of Our Discontent is a make-out song for those nights when you had too much caffeine to lay around on a blanket. Just add beach and partner for a grand time!

     The last track on Surfing the Magma, Exile in Mantua, deftly sums of the band. A great final song with a myriad of techniques displaying the licks and riffs that, amazingly, are done by a band of three. Three mayhem makers from PCH, I'll grant you, but three none the less. Check them out. Some day you'll be able to say, "I saw them when."

The Lava Rats: Surfing the Magma

01) Sundown at the Gallows	4:29
02) PCH	3:04
03) Hey Link!	2:56
04) Shifty-Eyed Surf	4:24
05) Militant Cyclist	3:08
06) Homercles	3:18
07) Naughty Pine	3:52
08) Summer of Our Discontent	4:02
09) A Phalanx of Terror	4:26
10) Moss Beach Madness	3:40
11) Blowtorch	3:02
12) Pachinko	3:04
13) Exile in Mantua	2:46