SUSAN & THE SURFTONES
Night In Old Town (Acme Bros)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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Susan Yasinski's SurfTones have been an ever-changing cast of characters on two coasts, but she's managed to hold on to the basic sound because she knows exactly what she's looking for. She doesn't want a bandful of virtuoso instrojocks who are going to be all about the solo. Susan's always been all about the song, and that's how she likes her bandmates to be. The performances on Night In Old Town are generally keyed directly to the need of the song, with very few incidents of anyone stepping far outside for a glamour shot. Nothing wrong with a glamour shot, but there's something to be said for a song that's built the old fashioned way, woven of strummed guitar chords, solid bass and drums, a garagey organ cutting across the top and a well played guitar melody in the cross-hairs. Susan has a very cool, instantly recognizable guitar tone that's at once smooth rich and gritty, a marriage of surf and garage, much like her overall outlook on music. On the cover of The Yardbirds' "For Your Love," she plays it straight and simple for all but the last few bars of the song, when she rips into a Twilight Zone riff with some tremolo that moves it nicely into the bizarre, For someone who plays it straight as much as she does, she sure does seem to love to jump into the deep end on original tunes, like the spacey, whammy-happy mind trip of "Mexican Spaceman," and to pick unusual cover material, like Bob Dylan's "If Not For You," Television's "Chinese Rock" and Roxy Music's "Over You." There are a few weak moments where an extra instrument could have made a difference, but all in all it's another fine collection of instrumentals from Susan & The SurfTones.

© 2004 - DJ Johnson