old school

I was thinking vocal mics in live situations. We mostly used a variety of Shure dynamic mics way back when. Like those in my posted pic. Many through the amps which posed a host of problems. (Feedback) but we had little choice as PA’s were few and far between. All punchy mid range vocals. Like Surfer Joe. CrewC

WoW!!! That’s a hell of a rig you’re playing Dan. Beautiful. It must sound fantastic. I wish we had a recording of us but no one I knew had a recorder. It never entered our minds to record our selves. Just didn’t seem a possibility or a thing to us. No band in our sphere did a recording. Looking back I’m not really sure why some kid in our town wasn’t a recording hobbyist. To busy surfing or looking for “chicks”, or cruising with our older siblings to do that? I’ll never know. Does your band rock any vintage mics from the era? An often overlooked component of the “Surf Sound”. CrewC

Can’t believe i remembered that (sort of). Big fan of the Clash and Joe Strummer. I hope it goes. I’ll buy a ticket. CrewC

Nice. I wish more directors would practice all the elements of film making before they direct. In theory you only get better every time out. They both sound pro which I’m sure your re recording skills helped make possible. I see Sharman mixed Daycare. Did he use any Deity mics? He did a good job as usual. Also I’m sure you two shared your interest and experiences making short films. He and Steven Morrow did one called “Living with Lou” that I’m a big fan of. Do I recall you have a Joe Strummer or Clash project? Probably someone else but for some reason I think it was you. Doesn’t matter. I wish you the best on your next one. CrewC

Sounds good. Looks and sounds boom able. What was your final mix comprised of? Nice short, though it could of been shorter by a touch IMO. I’d be cool to see and hear other shorts from your team. CrewC

And to show before I go, Surf Music is alive and well and WorldWide. CrewC

Here is a picture of Richard (far right in shades). Check out the amps. 1964 is my guess. This is a Jr High Dance at Fern Drive Grade School for Thursday Night Dance which was once a month as I recall (I could be wrong). This wasn’t Garfish Soup, I think this is Young Generation (an earlier band). Every band in Fullerton had this gear more or less. Sometime the Bass amp wasn’t a Fender Bassman but an Ampeg B15 instead. A Farfissa organ was found in most of the bands too. The guy to the left of the drummer is playing one. Singers all had a tambourine to bash. Most bands didn’t have that many mics because getting even one good singer was hard. Probably still the case. CrewC

Hey Jim, great video. Richard Smith is the man when it comes to Fender and its history. I’ve known him forever. He is a year older than me and lives 2 blocks away these days. He was the best guitar player in our era in Fullerton. His band was called Garfish Soup. He has a great coffee table book called “Fender: The Sound Heard ‘Round the World”... Check it out. He also curated the Fullerton Museum exhibit about Leo Fender. And if that isn’t enough, he has Leo’s work bench at his house/garage. Very cool dude. He found his calling. CrewC

I forgot to mention we did go by the backdoor of the Fender company (pre CBS) when it was on Harbor Blvd in Fullerton and got free grill cloth out of the trash. Never found any treasure but the guys were friendly and it was a trip to see the guitars and amps in various stages of completion. CrewC

Fun topic Dan. Glad you’re a fan of the genre. Surf musics glory days were short lived in SoCal (Surf music is a 2 headed beast in that instrumental and vocal songs are very different). The Beatles and Stones et al killed the scene locally. Only The Beach Boys carried on but mostly as American versions of the Beatles and their favorite inspirations (Think Chuck Berry). The biggest difference pre and post Beatles is Pre it was a singers game and their name was on all the songs (like Richie Vallens and Elvis Presley and Fats Domino) they had bands but who cared who the Crickets were, everyone wanted Buddy Holly. After the Beatles everyone wanted to be in a band (a gang or family really) and LA/SoCal had them by the boatload. Buffalo Springfield, Love, Byrds, Seeds, Steppenwolf, etc and all the unknown garage bands like mine who wanted to be like the Beatles and be a unit. Thanks to the Recording Industry and pros like the Wrecking Crew, the region had an incredible modern sound. All regions of the US had a unique sound like San Francisco, Detroit, NYC, the South...., but locally Surfing and Cars and Girls were the setting for the stories/songs until Vietnam and Psychedelics became the story. Another factor is that besides Fender, Richenbacker was formed in Orange County and played a huge part in the sound of Surf, Country, and Rock music in its many forms. I’ve seen many shows in my time. I’ve been to the Rendezvous Ballroom (Dick Dale, Hoyt Axton, Tim Hardin) in Newport Beach. In Huntington Beach there was a fantastic club called The Golden Bear, (the Byrds, Paul Butterfield Band, Chambers Brothers, Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, Hoyt, Honk, Steve Martin, Dick Dale, and many others). The Anaheim Convention Center was an early big venue in the mid 60’s. I saw the Ike and Tina Turner Review at a car show there. I saw The Airplane, Doors, Steppenwolfe, Blue Cheer, at the Convention Center. In 68 the Fabulous Forum opened in LA and I saw Deep Purple open for The Cream on their farewell tour that year, it was also the first time i took LSD). I saw CSN&Y there (twice) and Juthro Tull all before 1970. I love music and have seen many acts over the decades and plan to see many more. The thing I miss most is the smaller scale of shows then as compared to now. I saw Van Halen in 75 in Pasadena at a wet T Shirt contest at The Ice House before they broke out of the hometown hero stage and became a name. Crazy to remember there was ever such a time, Ididn’t even pay a cover charge. Now days it takes a whole lot of money to see average bands. Sorry to ramble on (going with old age). As for amps (remember I’m a drummer and a Uke player) I love the late 50’s early 60’s Fender Tremolux amp for “the sound” you and others seek. CrewC PS, sorry about the cats.

As someone who grew up and was involved in SoCal culture as it happened, I find it hard to segregate its elements. Hot Rod music and Surf music and East LA rock and the 50’s rock n roll of Chuck Berry et al and the Beatles and Stones version of his songs are all intertwined into the fabric of the era. The explosion of garage bands throughout region in post ww2 SoCal and the glue of top 40 LA radio bred so much cross pollination that everyone influenced the other. Cars, Music, Girls, Surf, and yes more Girls is what we all shared together. Add Leo Fender and the fantastic products his company made shaped the sound of SoCal like it did country music. I grew up in Fullerton where Fender was started and made its most iconic guitars and amps. Our every evolving band had gear that would cost $100,000.00 in todays market, but then every band did. More than the gear, the energy of our youth culture erupting were creating genre’s heard far and wide. One thing they all had in common was they were made to dance to, which the girls did and therefore we did too. CrewC

Big fan of Auerbach and what he’s doing at EasyEye. CrewC

I forgot about this topic. I feel expression or POV can be important even when it’s done only for oneself, or many. If it feels good to create, do it. This is from the sidewalk across the street on the 5th of July. The others are just from my ProCreate files. CrewC

Very interesting article.. I’ve yet to seethe series but motivated after reading this. Way to go Jan. CrewC

Indeed not an easy business to be in as a father or mother, but I must say, being a father is what I've enjoyed the most. Cheers to all the dads worldwide. CrewC