Various Artists - War of The Surf Guitars

The BEST surf instro CD of the year with 32 tracks of the coolest Surf music from Golly Gee Records and Double Crown Records. With almost 80 minutes of music from 15 of today’s hottest Surf Instro bands - You need to own this disc. All killer - no filler! Album Description

A few excellent cuts but mostly boring

I collect instrumental surf CDs and have a very broad context within which to place the songs on this disk. The two songs by the Coffin Daggers are expressive, energetic, ironically humorous, beautifully played, and lovely sounding. They are thick with gorgeous guitar distortion. The rest of the songs are not in the same league, and sound like simplistic garage rock. It makes more sense to get a Coffin Daggers CD. Even the Volcanos (whose own two CDs are sparkling and exciting) sound boring here in a rip-off of the old standard "Church Key" they call "Bad News." I have listened to this CD several dozen times and the bad vibes have grown strong. Several collections that are much better and I still enjoy after many many hearings are "Bikini World," "Swivelin' Wahini" "Surfs Up" and "Beyond the Beach." December 19, 2007

Good songs

You take Bullseye, The Wayback Machine, and James Bond, and listen to those. They are good cuts. Then the rest, some of which I really don't like. But you take those three, maybe a couple more - it's worth the discount price. For those, I'd recommend it. I put two of those on one of my mix cds right along with my remixes of Metallica live (SnD), Sabbath live (Into Void), Nugent (Please Don't), etc. And I can get tired of those, and never much listen to the lyrics at all. But I like listening to Bullseye and Wayback, over and over again. I'm very partial to guitar intrumentals, with some 'groove' and energy.
April 4, 2007

THERE'S NO DENYING

THAT THIS SURF MUSIC CD GETS YOU GOING. I AGREE WITH ONE OF THE OTHER REVIEWERS THAT THE SONGS MAY AT TIMES SEEM A BIT FORMULAIC, NEVERTHELESS IT IS STILL PRETTY GOOD AND BETTER THAN MOST OF THE CRAP YOU WOULD HEAR ON THE RADIO NOWADAYS. SO IT GETS AND EXTRA STAR FOR THAT BY ITSELF. HOWEVER, THERE IS NOT ONE CUT ON THIS CD THAT IS TRULY ORIGINAL.......AND IT LOSES A STAR FOR THAT! October 25, 2006

why surf music died

While this may sound negative for the sake of bashing, i grew up with surf music and really like it. Heck I play it (as i imagine some of the people interested in this genre might too). WHile ther are one or four somewhat intersting cuts- this is quantity not quality surf.

Back in the day there werent as many super guitarists, but lots of pretty competant guys....well this cd shows that these cuts seem to be emulating that level of playing and creativity.

The best of the genre is great-this cd is a sampler of Golly Gees and Crown records 'stable'-personally i think it is stale and uncreative-kind of a modern surf thrash-suitable for modern day movie sound tracks-ie -I-IV-V's with insipid repeating hooks and bashing drums, the ballad in minor, but nothing taking the genre someplace new and better, or taking the old and putting a great new twist on it. Just my opinion.

I wouldnt buy this again, as I really found it formulaic and an imitation of the genre with little new or inspiring. and next time ill listen to more cuts more carefully before buying. The sound quality however is quite good, as are the catchy tune titles and group names. July 27, 2006

surf mania!

The title of this alblum sounds a bit cheesy but the music in the CD is excellent. The songs sound much better on my stereo than the little speakers in my computer. This CD is a champ as far as giving you your moneys worth of songs. I could not find any songs I did not like to listen to and was very impressed with the Supertones songs on the alblum. While not quite as authentic as real 60's surf music I find the collection of songs here to be some of the very best of whats offered today in the modern day surf guitar sound. April 10, 2004

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