Surf's up

The Strangemen and the Fathoms

Cellars by Starlight by Brett Milano

Imagine this scene: a crowded main street in the middle of Key West, the city long celebrated by Jimmy Buffett and associated with a certain laid-back atmosphere. But one afternoon last month, traffic was stopped for a few blocks outside the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum by the unusual prospect of five spacemen wearing silver lamé suits and mile-high pompadours.

The quintet were Boston's own surfin' extraterrestrials, the Strangemen, who spent their spring break playing a week of gigs at Buffett's club Margaritaville. "We were treated like rock gods," reports bassist Dick Vitalis back at Cambridge's 1369 Coffeehouse. "We got written up in the newspapers twice, and people said they drove eight hours to see us. It was the most fun I've had with my pants on. I could break up several relationships with the details."

The Strangemen's unlikely alliance with the Buffett camp began last summer when they got to open his shows at Great Woods. He'd asked the promoter to find a surf band, and the Ray Corvair Trio turned down the gig. "We played in front of a bunch of Parrotheads and it went over," Vitalis reports. "Somebody told me backstage he was Buffett's tour manager. We said, `Yeah, sure you are, but here's a CD just in case you're not lying.' "

The Strangemen continue on an interplanetary roll with their first CD, Channel 2000 (on the new Omnipotent label), which does a good job of capturing the spirit of their on-stage mayhem in the studio. You can't see the costumes or watch six-foot model Amazona do her usual snake dance, but the disc proves there's a solid rock band behind the outer-space shtick. The three big S's -- surfing, stripping, and spying -- form most of the band's musical inspiration. Yet the Strangemen also pull off Cramps-style trashabilly ("Hitchhike UFO" could be Lux Interior and company in a more jovial mood) and a bent-metal number, "Space Train." Heck, it doesn't even bother me that "Grandpa Was an Alien" and "Killer Wave" are nicked, respectively, from Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" and Dick Dale's "Mr. Eliminator." Singer Captain Summertime preaches the gospel of Elvis and outer space. The rhythm section truly cooks.

Of course, the shtick is still a large part of the fun. And when you talk with the Strangemen, you have to remember that you're dealing with guys on a top-secret mission to save the world (don't ask what from: that's part of the secret). Vitalis bears a striking resemblance to Richard Haughey, a local who played lead guitar in both the Slaves and the Prime Movers. Drummer Johnny Odd is a journeyman rocker who moved here from Seattle a few years back aiming only to get into a rock band. He didn't know what he was in for. "I was abducted by the band," Odd recounts. "Everything before that is a little cloudy." Vitalis adds this to the tale: "I remember bright lights and a surgical table. But they did explain that it was the best for humankind."

Is the band's secret mission succeeding so far? "Yes, we're duping more and more of the population," Odd says. Vitalis adds, "If you look at the fact that we've appeared and the millennium is just around the corner, it can be no coincidence. We all know that it takes a strange man to run the world."

Any rivalry with Boston's other wig-wearing concept band, the Upper Crust? "I was hoping you'd mention that, but they're simply not in our income bracket," Vitalis says. "They only run the world. We've got the solar system. But the fact is, I have great respect for what they do. And I really like their music as well.

He continues, "Seeing the Strangemen is like seeing a Star Trek episode directed by Quentin Tarantino on acid."

Say what?

"I'm not sure, but [frontman] Captain Summertime [who's away at a family reunion] told us to make sure we said that. And if he doesn't see it in print, there's gonna be trouble."

Now Vitalis gets serious: "We've gotten certain vibes from people that we're a joke band. But the fact is that we're serious about putting on the show: we take other people's fun very seriously. There's a need for bands to entertain more and preach less. I've always believed that. And it's not just because I know I have nothing to say."

If the Strangemen represent the cosmic side of local surf, the Fathoms are on the traditional side. Vitalis even acknowledges that "we're not a real surf band. The Fathoms are." The Fathoms play surf the way the Racketeers play rockabilly and Skavoovie & the Epitones play ska: with reverence for the tradition, but loose enough to remind you it's still fun music. Their new Overboard (MuSick Recordings) could have come from a different era: Frankie Blandino plays a '64 Fender Jazzmaster and has that bitchin' guitar sound down pat. The songs are all short, punchy instrumentals that could be long-lost surf nuggets, though only one (the Astronauts' "The Hearse") actually is.

Blandino is emerging as the local Big Kahuna of surf guitar -- and on the face of it, he's an unlikely man for the job. Neither a spring chicken nor a longtime ho-dad, he's a well-seasoned R&B player who fronted Little Frankie & the Premiers during the '80s and did a couple tours behind Big Mama Thornton (who did the pre-Elvis version of "Hound Dog"). More recently he's played rockabilly with the Cranktones, who'll also be releasing an album this year. So after two decades on the local scene, Blandino finds himself at the front of two happening trends, rockabilly and surf, without really trying.

"I think it [the revival of those styles] is good for music in general," he points out. "It's more musical, rather than just hitting people over the head with energy and angst. I don't want to take credit for the rockabilly revival, but what's really weird is that when we started the Cranktones, the pompadour-and-poodle-skirt crowd was in our audience for the first three years. Now they all have their own bands."

Essentially a side project that took off, the Fathoms benefit from Blandino's ability to write vintage-sounding tunes. "I have a knack for that. The only formula is that I sit down with my guitar and say, 'We need a spaghetti-western tune.' Or, 'We need a bump-and-grind thing for Dave [saxophonist Dave Sholl, ex-Barrence Whitfield's Savages] to play.' Or sometimes we'll need something that sounds like the Astronauts or the Lively Ones."

Told of the Strangemen's compliment, Blandino responds that "I'm not trying to be a surf Nazi, if that's what they mean. I think we have humor in some of our songs, but I don't want to have a shtick, like having to wear the same thing all the time -- but more power to anyone who can get over with whatever they've got." And he doesn't deny being something of a purist. "A lot of that early surf music was mysterious, dark, and moving. I like the melody and the atmosphere of it. A lot of that was overlooked the first time; it was pretty short-lived."

Still, being one of Boston's leading surf bands doesn't get you everywhere: when the Fathoms opened for the Ventures at the Middle East last month, Blandino was disappointed that the California guys didn't want to hang out and hang 10. "When the band got there, their roadie made us leave the dressing room. It didn't matter because all I had was a suitbag hanging there. But these guys have been heroes of mine since I was 12, and here they are kicking us out of the dressing room. After so many years, you'd think I would be hardened to this shit."

DANDO'S BACK

Prodigal son Evan Dando has quietly wound up back in Boston, where he's recording a duet with Juliana Hatfield for a forthcoming Gram Parsons tribute album. But the word is he may be sticking around for a while. And if that means we'll get to see him perform on a regular basis, so much the better. Dando's homecoming show April 21 at the Middle East was one of the rare "secret" shows that really was a secret -- at least until the last minute, when promoter Billy Ruane let enough word out to fill the upstairs room -- and it was a treat for those who were there.

Sporting a shorter haircut than in the past, Dando played a half-hour solo set that drew largely on Lemonheads material. He opened with a new one, "Arise," which stands out as one of the prettiest things he's written, marking a change from the darker tone of the last Lemonheads album, car button cloth (from which he played only the single, "If I Could Talk I'd Tell You"). Doing less between-song chat than usual, Dando apologized for the haircut and gave a more haunting spin to a few Lemonheads oldies, including "It's a Shame About Ray" and "My Drug Buddy." The latter was dedicated to his sometime collaborator, the late Epic Soundtracks, whose brother Nikki Sudden closed the night with a full-band electric set. Opener John Felice added to the night's there-and-back mood with a new tune, "Detox Queen," that sported its share of gritty detail.

COMING UP

Tonight (Thursday), hot guitarist Duke Robillard is at the House of Blues, Girl on Top and Pete Weiss are at the Middle East upstairs, Amazing Royal Crowns are downstairs at the Middle East, and the Spooky Ghosts (including Boston-bred guitar whiz Duke Levine) are at the Lizard Lounge . . . Tomorrow (Friday), there's a strong bill at the Middle East with the Shods, Flying Nuns, the Nines, and Blake Hazard, a strong one at T.T.'s with Orbit, Red Telephone, Pistola, and Toyboat, a CD-release show for Love Sauce at Mama Kin with El Camino and Settie, Lisa Loeb at the Paradise, and Chuck at the Phoenix Landing . . . The week's big punk event is the Dictators at the Middle East with the Upper Crust, Johnny Black, and Rich Parsons's Band 19 on Saturday. Also that night, Splashdown, Betty Pageboy (a/k/a Women of Sodom), Double Dong, and Jack Drag are at T.T.'s, and retro-rockers can catch Robin Trower at the Paradise . . . On Sunday Madder Rose come to T.T.'s, and the annual Rock 'n'  Roll Rumble kicks off upstairs at the Middle East while Gary Numan, of all people, plays downstairs . . . And on Wednesday it's the nifty power pop of the Liquor Giants at T.T.'s and England's Bevis Frond at the Middle East.