Here's another fun tune from Ttïmm and me, called "Brainwave Surfin'." I've posted an mp3 version on my Songs page for your listening pleasure.

Songwriting

Performance

The Story. Ttïmm had been talking for years about writing a song called "Brainwave Surfin'." One afternoon we decided to write it, and it came out very quickly once we got started. It took about a half hour to write, and we spent the rest of the day recording.

I don't know what Ttïmm knew about surfing at the time (or even now, come to think of it), and everything I knew came from Beach Boys songs. At one point in the song we needed to refer to some popular surfing site. In "Surfin' USA" the Beach Boys mention Doheny Way, and we made up a rhyme for that. If you listen carefully (and of course you're listening carefully!) you can hear that I mispronounce it "Toheny".

Adam Sherman's Strat-o-caster was lying around — Private Lightning had broken up, and Scott Woodman and Adam Sherman were considering starting a new band, and were rehearsing on weekends in Ttïmm's house — so we used that rather than my Ibanez Musician.

Ttïmm played like a madman on drums. He'd recently bought an old reverb unit. It had a very funky sound and had one of those green eye tubes that old radios and tape recorders used to have. We ran the drums through that, and liked the "empty high school gymnasium" sound.

We did our best to emulate the Beach Boys, but... well... they're the Beach Boys and we're us.

Instruments

Recording. Recorded in 1982 on a TEAC four-track stereo reel-to-reel.