What is surf guitar exactly? I just know that the name Dick Dale is associated with it, since he invented the style in the 50’s, a style linked to the beach-surf-culture of Southern California, revived to its coolest level by Quentin Tarantino. It’s a full and dense sound produced by electric guitars, which is supposed to evoke the movement of the waves.
Yesterday The Californian was playing at Spaceland and the five-piece band was described as a post-surf rock and alt-surf band on the ad of the club, and I was not sure what to do with both terms.
Their sound makes a heavy use of surf guitar effectively, complemented by some loud and powerful drum beats and interesting vocals using male and female harmonies. You could accuse them of nostalgia with that much of surf guitar, but their music is not classic rock at all, it is something completely different that has absorbed many different influences from pop rock to psychedelic, and contrary to classic rock, their music can be quite dark and scary despite the beach-theme of the background.
But above everything, their music will surprise you by their change of mood and tempo in the middle of the same song, like a constantly changing beach weather, from chilling to sunny in a few seconds, and then back to creepy cold. It can be more than surprising, I would say, a little astonishing and disorienting at times, but the bright vocals are there to guide you through this stormy weather
The band is made of members of Phantom Planet (Darren Robinson), The Henry Clay People (Jonathan Price), The Bird and The Bee, as well as John Graney, Wendy Wang, and Michael Hopkins. As they entered on stage, the lead singer came up with the bold and funny introduction ‘We’re the Californian and you’re not’, channeling his inner Chevy Chase, something we all had to deal with.
Their 4 song EP can be streamed here: