Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

I grew up listening to surf music. This was back before it was even called surf music. I'm not talking about Jan and Dean, The Beach Boys, or the Rip Chords. No, I'm talking about surf music, dammit, mostly instrumental guitar-driven, jangly instrumentals by groups like The Ventures, Dick Dale & the Deltones (still, to this day, jaw dropping amazing in concert), The Chantays, The Safaris, The Trashmen, and several others that I've undoubtedly neglected to mention. The genre never really went away, though it's influence and presence certainly shrunk. It got some much needed pub when some of Dick Dale's great, great music made it onto the soundtrack of "Pulp Fiction" and there are several web radio stations that play it exclusively. And it still sounds great, even to a guy who goes out of his mind with boredom at the thought of even driving by a beach. The guitars, the rhythms, the drum rolls...this is what rock 'n' roll is all about.

RADIO WAVES by the Aqua Velvets is 100 per cent unapologetic surf music. It's a two disc CD, with the second CD being more of an EP than not (just four songs), about 90 minutes total. It appears to be a sandwiching of two radio broadcasts, performed live in the studio, and it's great, great stuff all the way through. What is great is how the band, unconsciously or not, demonstrates that surf music is the direct connection from rockabilly to post punk.

Now dig up. RADIO WAVES opens with "Swampabilly Bop," which they basically play straight, foreshadowing the roots of surf music, Oklahoma by way of Southern California, with a bit of Tex-Mex thrown into the mix. A few tracks later, "Spanish Blue" provides the link to the southern California psychedelic '60s. It used to drive me crazy when I'd listen to "Caravan" by The Doors; there was a sound there that sounded familiar, but was just beyond my grasp. I finally got it after listening to "Spanish Blue" --- The Doors were lifting surf music lines. Cool. Given their southern California origins, it's not all that surprising. But when you listen to the Aqua Velvets' take on "Smells Like Teen Spirit" it's nothing less than a revelation, with the opening chord progression form "Wild Thing" and the beery guitar solo with the reverb and tremolo kicked up a notch. I mean, it's 1963 all over again. I don't think Kurt Cobain had even been born in 1963.

There are also a number of the timeless surf classics here, like "Walk Don't Run," "Apache," and "Pipeline," as well as several obscurities, but all of it is good, good stuff. Get that 360 air going, throw this on the car stereo, and watch out for McGruff and the radar. RADIO WAVES will have you flying for hours.