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MMUSICMAG.COMJULY/AUGUST 2012 ISSUE

JULY/AUGUST 2012 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE

GUANTANAMO BAYWATCHChest Crawl

guantanamobaywatch.com

Surf rock didn’t need Quentin Tarantino to make it sound badass. Long

before Pulp Fiction, the genre’s best instrumentals paddled into pretty dark

water, suggesting after-hours intrigue down at the shrimp shack. On its

second album, the Portland trio Guantanamo Baywatch offers a particularly

trashy take on this venerable ’60s sound, ripping trebly Ventures guitar runs

with violent garage vigor. On tunes like “Barbacoa” and the title track, the

trio hangs 10 amid B-movie sea monsters and tatted-up, gum-smacking

mermaids. The demented malt-shop ballads “Sad Over You,” “Diana”

and “Frizzella,” meanwhile, find sometime singer Jason Powell behind the

mic, making like Dion possessed by demons. Dig the depravity, daddio.

‘The Portland trio Guantanamo Baywatch offers

a particularly trashy take on this venerable ’60s

sound, ripping trebly Ventures guitar runs with

violent garage vigor. Dig the depravity, daddio.’