Surf and Destroy

Photo by Matt Otto The Dynotones
The Dynotones
Dynosonic Records

If surf music is what the gonads in SUVs are throbbing to as they slime their way up and down Main Street in Huntington Beach every weekend, then surf music sucks. But if it's what Orange band the Dynotones are twisting out on this CD, then there's hope for the amphibious set yet. You just know these guys roll up at the beach with martinis clutched grimly in their claws and cigarettes dangling rakishly from their lips: this CD is drowning in no-fuckin'-around instrumentals with real bite, not that wimpy bachelor-lounge stuff that's really just a soundtrack for paddling around in a kiddie pool. Surf snobs will thrill to carefully chosen hi-octane covers of everyone from Colorado's never-saw-the-seashore Astronauts to zombie-rockers the Deadly Ones to genre standard-setters Link Wray and the Ventures. But we're firing up our Woody over originals that fit seamlessly alongside the legends: "99 AD" is a raunchy (well, for an instrumental, anyway) snarler that would've snuggled up nicely against anything Estrus Records was putting out a few years back, while "Devil's Martini" slithers out of the speakers like a bleary, bitter, Las Vegas hangover morning. And we love their Wailers cover ("High Wall," and no, local stoners, this isn't the Bob Marley band), which beefs up a time-tested original with a menacing fuzzed-out guitar line that adds a whole new edge. If the Dynotones take requests, the Sonics' "The Witch" would be apocalyptically bitchen! File this somewhere within spitting distance of your vintage surf classics.

Info: Dynosonic Records, P.O. Box 1666, Orange, CA 92856; (714) 639-4647.

The Dynotones perform at the Bamboo Terrace, 1773 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa, (949) 645-5550. Sat., 9:30 p.m. Free. All ages.

OC and Long Beach bands and musicians! Mail your CDs and tapes (along with your vital contact info, plus any impending performance dates) for possible review to: Locals Only,OC Weekly, P.O. Box 10788, Costa Mesa, CA 92627-0247.