The Unnaturals VS the 50 Ft Bettie

 

We caught an Unnaturals set in New Orleans a couple of weeks back when they gigged with two of our friends' bands from Vegas while we were all on vacation there and I was pretty blown away by the Un's wild'n'heavy take on surf music. Their tag line is "definitely not your grandfather's surf band" and they certainly do update the sounds with plenty of 70's rock riffs and phenomenal playing all around.

This trio - two guys and a female bassist - all throw licks around like they are going out of style - sometimes almost veering into prog territory, but with enough surf/rock'n'roll energy'n'style to keep it from getting overbearing. This is all more obvious in a live setting, but some of it spills over to the studio, as well.

The CD revs up like a hot rod ready to rumble with "Sex Wax", which does sounds fairly traditionally surf with plenty of reverb, stacatto pickin'n'bends but with lotsa original twists'n'turns. The oddly titled "If Only Keith Richards Could Surf..." has no discernible Stones' influence, but they do throw in all kinds of riffs'n'licks and flashy leads - way more than Keith would do! This veers back'n'forth from trad sounding to truly heavy guitars along with rollin'n'tumblin' bass lines and drivin' drums. 

"Redneck Riot" combines surf with a jump blues, "Dead Man's Hand" is kind of a spaghetti western with some unexpected variations, clarion call chords announce "Tequila Mockingbird" which again goes through many changes'n'styles in a fun'n'wacky way, showing off everyone's musicianship. "Ballad For a Rebel" is indeed a tear-jerker of a ballad, even without lyrics, sounding like an instrumental take on an early 60's girl group number. They follow that up with the intense "Rumblebee" (clever title!) which (also cleverly) utilizes "Flight of the Bumblebee", "Unnatural Progressions" actually uses pretty straight forward progressions for a groovin', bouncy blues-band tune, "Tsunami!" shows the three locking in with matching/alternating riffs to good effect, the semi-title track, "Attack of the 50 ft Bettie" is a fast-paced, melodic, surf-oriented number followed by a sultry, slow "Beware the Falling Angels" before closing out the album with a fairly ferocious "Whiskey Surf", which again shows off everyone's flying fingers!

Not dissimilar to LA's fantastically original Black Widows in their mix of styles while sticking with a surf-instrumental feel overall, the Unnaturals give a fun'n'flashy take on the genre. Certainly worth checking out, at least as long as you're not an anal purist! :)