Jerry Cole was one of the most sought-after session guitarists of the 1960's Los Angeles scene. He was a member of The Wrecking Crew and regularly appeared albums by The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Paul Revere & The Raiders and Little Richard. He also had a little band of his own known as The Spacemen. Jerry Cole & The Spacemen released three albums which were all released on Capitol Records. The second of these, Surf Age, has been reissued by the fantastic Sundazed Music (along with Hot Rod Dance Party) in a limited pressing of 1,000 copies on colored vinyl.
Surf Age is an instrumental surf rock album with your standard guitar, bass, drums arrangement. Songs are occasionally ornamented with organs, sometimes saxophones and lots of percussion. The album was produced by Jim Economides (who also wrote about half of the material) and it's a nicely recorded/produced album. The material is sometimes danceable in an old-school way. It's definitely a wonderful relic of its' time. I personally like the bass saxophones but I could do with out the sax solos - they're the one thing on the entire recording that "date" it, oddly enough. Whereas the standard guitar-bass-drums surf rock set-up is fairly timeless. The riffs are great but the material as a whole is somewhat on the forgettable-side.
However, these releases are a guilty-pleasure of mine as I'm way into this period of music (especially surf rock from the West Coast) so I'd recommend this to other like-minded fans as well.
Jerry Cole was an in-demand session musician from the 1960's Los Angeles, California scene. He was a member of what was subsequently dubbed The Wrecking Crew, who played on Phil Spector's hit records and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and SMiLE albums. He was the band-leader on the 60's variety shows Shindig! & Hullabaloo. He's been inducted into the Rockabilly Hall Of Fame & the Capitol Records Legendary Performer Hall Of Fame. He also worked with Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Isaac Hayes, Paul Revere & The Raiders and Frank Sinatra to name just a few. He also had a band of his own: The Spacemen, who performed regularly on the Sunset Strip and released a trio of albums on Capitol Records in 1963 & 1964.
The final release of these albums, Hot Rod Dance Party is produced by Jim Economides (Dick Dale & His Del-Tones) and was originally released in 1964 by Capitol Records. At the time, Capitol was producing surf-rock albums by the dozens, either by actual surf-rock bands, or studio-created "bands" such as The Super Stocks, The Kickstands & The Ghouls.
"MUSIC WITH A DRIVIN' BEAT THAT PUT ANY PARTY ON WHEELS"
Hot Rod Dance Party is a horn-driven, classic reverb-drenched guitar instrumental album and is very danceable (in an swinging, twisting, old-school, guitar-based way). It's Hot-Rod Music/Surf-Pop (although "Hot Rod Music" is really just surf rock with lyrics about cars and racing as opposed to waves and surfing). There aren't any particular standout tracks, truth-be-told. The material is sometimes bachelor-pad infused with hints of tiki exotica and lounge with great guitar lines courtesy Mr. Cole. At times the material falls into a sort of generic surf-pop realm, that really isn't made anymore. This being said, the recording itself is very nice (and so unmistakably Americana of the mid 60's as well). And if you're a fan of surf rock guitar playing, you'll probably love this record. One can only imagine how the surf pop vocals of The Beach Boys or Jan & Dean on top of these instrumental tracks would have potentially elevated it commercially, but I digress.
It was reissued In a limited pressing of only 1,000 copies in 2010 by the fantastic reissue label Sundazed Music based out of the Catskills in New York. Sundazed has long-since taken the mantle from Rhino Records as being the greatest vinyl reissue/authentically vintage label currently in existence. The vinyl is beautiful clear-black-marble and is a nice piece for anyone who is a fan of this sort of thing (i.e. instrumental surf pop on vinyl, auxiliary Beach Boys session musicians, etc).
