Review: 'The Best of the Trashmen'

In 1962, four Minneapolis kids decided to cash in on the surf craze, and a year later, they bashed out one of the genre's defining records. "Surfin Bird" has that wet, wild sound surfers craved more than the clean-cut harmonies of The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. It is two and a half minutes of pure rock and roll insanity with its squawked chant, jackhammer pounding, and cheek-wobbling gibbering. It is punk fifteen years early, and a disc that drives my crazy in the best, best, best way.

If the Trashmen kept up this madness, they may have scored more classics, but they often played it safe with songs more in line with Jan and Dean's corn. When they sang in their natural voices, which they did tend to do, there wasn't too much to get jazzed about aside from Tony Andreason's jugular-puncturing lead guitar. When they shut off the vocal mic for instrumentals like "Tube City" and "Malaguena" or used it for unnatural purposes on whacked-out shit like "Bad News" and "Bird Dance Beat" (their only other Top-100 single), The Trashmen were fulfilling their true purpose with the throttle set to full.

Sundazed's new compilation, The Best of the Trashmen, captures the good, the not-so-good, and the BLBBBBUBBBBUBBBBA-PA-PA-PA-PA-PA-PA!!! on translucent orange vinyl. The sound is mighty, clear, and mono. It makes even their corniest recordings ("True Love"? Oof!) sound pretty punchy.