November 21, 2003

Instrumental Surf Music at the Feed and Fuel

By Dennis Jamison

For those who have not had the opportunity to hear live instrumental surf music, Almaden’s own “Surf Cinema” will be playing at Almaden Feed and Fuel on Friday night, Nov. 28. No doubt “The Feed” will welcome the band’s fans as well as the curious. Surf Cinema is actually a quite fitting name. The band conjures up a combination of surf music blended with visual images projected behind them as they
play onstage. According to Almaden’s Peter Robinson, alias “Heter”, traditional surf bands are not that visually entertaining. Surf Cinema tries to distinguish itself by solving this deficiency by embellishing their live music with a compilation of video clips that ramble from beach parties to pulp fiction clips to spaghetti westerns.

Anyone unfamiliar with surf music may be surprised to find out that it is not the music you listen to while surfing the web (although it could be). Surf music was born well before the development of the World Wide Web. To many, surf music is identified with the tunes of Jan and Dean or the Beachboys. Although they are included in the genre; according to some authorities, real surf music is fundamentally instrumental.

Early forerunner bands of this style of music often performed in bars and clubs in Southern California frequented by surfers who went crazy for the music. Dick Dale,
who formed the Del-Tones back in the early 60’s, is considered the godfather and inventor of surf music. A legend concerning the origins of surf rock relates that when Dale compared his guitar playing style to the sensation one gets while on a surfboard cruising the waves, the unique music was given an identity.

As an instrumental surf band, Surf Cinema has been playing up and down the West Coast for three years. They have even shared the stage with Dick Dale who is still playing after all these years. The band began with a vision that Peter Robinson had about ten years ago. But it was not until he met Aaron, the band’s drummer, that his vision began to materialize. They met by chance at a barbeque and the existing drummer in Robinson’s band needed a break so Aaron agreed to sit in for a time. The rest is history. Robinson is originally from Toronto, Canada and has over 15 years experience playing in various independent bands throughout the country. Aaron has also been playing music for over 15 years with local bands. Moe, the bass player, has also been playing for a considerable time in the Bay Area with bands like the “JTS” and “The Floppy Rods”.

To get more information on the band, visit their web site at www.surfcinema.net. Their show begins at 9 p.m. on Friday night which is a full day after Thanksgiving. It just may be possible that Surf Cinema’s show would be good for the digestion after the great feast day.

For additional information on the show, call the Feed and Fuel at (408) 268-8950.