Dick Dale is alive and well… and the spirit of his
\nbeach-party-from-hell music has turned into a movie about – well, a
\nbeach party from hell.<\/p>\n
\nPsycho Beach Party<\/i> is a soundtrack that will surprise you in
\njust how kitschy and catchy it is. Almost having a Tex-Mex flavor,
\nthe score that was created by Ben Vaughn sounds like it could have
\nbeen lifted from any movie in the ’60s. He has captured the essence
\nof the genre well – and could be in line to become one of the next
\nkings of this style of music.<\/p>\n
He’ll have some tough competition, judging from the selection of
\nguest artists who appear on this soundtrack. (Did this film
\never<\/i> make it to America?) Los Straitjackets seem to have the
\nthrone well in hand, turning in two absolutely stunning
\nperformances, “Tailspin” and “Tempest”. But even Los Straitjackets
\nhave to fend off the musical power of such groups as The Halibuts
\n(“Night Crawler”), The Fathoms (“Overboard”) and Four Piece Suit
\n(“Bombasteroid”). You might never have heard of these groups, but
\nafter just one listen to
\nPsycho Beach Party<\/i>, you’ll want to hear more.<\/p>\n
Of course, something needs to serve as the glue that holds these
\nperformances together – and Vaughn’s score is just that.
\nAdmittedly, the score doesn’t serve the purpose of shaping the
\naction of the movie (it’s hard to be sad when you’re playing surf
\nmusic), but tracks such as “Chicklet Wipes Out,” “Mournful Surfers”
\nand “Neenie’s Famous Weenies” are so infectious, you don’t much
\ncare.<\/p>\n
\nPsycho Beach Party<\/i> is so well packaged, it could easily
\nstand on its own just as a collection of surf music to put on the
\nstereo on a cold winter day. I happened to be freezing my ass off
\nin the Pierce Memorial Archives before I slapped this disc in the
\nplayer. The next thing I knew, I was dangling my feet in the surf –
\nokay, it was the bathtub, gimme a break – and lounging in my chair
\n(the less you think about that, the better), a margarita in my hand
\nand zinc oxide on my nose. (At least, I
\nthink<\/i> it was zinc oxide; later in the day, I saw a tube of
\nPepsodent on the sink.) This is the kind of music that helps to
\nwarm the blood, making almost any winter day more bearable.<\/p>\n
Even if you’ve never seen the movie,
\nPsycho Beach Party<\/i> is a wonderful assortment of tunes that
\nhelps to remind people that surf music is not dead – and is still
\nas enjoyable in today’s form as it was back in the ’60s.<\/p>\n
2001 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault”. All rights
\nreserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
\nwritten permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of
\nUnforscene \/ Nettwerk Records, and is used for informational
\npurposes only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5729],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-39456","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-soundtrack","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39456"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39456"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}