If you just took the “Surf Rock with hints of Middle Eastern chords” tracks from the back catalogue of Camper Van Beethoven, you’d have a pretty good idea of what the Weisstronauts are doing. Featuring “Perky” lets loose 18 instrumental tracks that find Pete Weiss & Co. riding their guitars like surfboards down the pipe. “Thrifty” gives it a little lounge lizard smarm, while “Berlining” goes in a more cosimic, dark, Pere Ubu fashion. Then there’s “Fibonacci,” a funk cakewalk music just right for accompanying the three hula hoop spinning guy on the Gong Show. “Uncle Turtle/Johnny Drama” is the cowboy surf tune that most sounds like CVB’s Telephone Free Landslide Victory.
What else? A turn of “Tequila” for “Jade Cow 2005.” Another CVB-like tune on “Odysseus Goes to America” with train track drum rhythms from Jeff Berlin. Getting “Fajity” with it on the conga line. Gossip punk meets Irving Berlin on “Pete’s Bucket.” And an untitled 39 seconds of rockabilly vamp to close the album.
Thank you to the Weisstronauts and Dren Records, and Sool Recordings for the review copy.
