Spaghetti-Surf Music Comes of Age
by Brian Parrish

The Cadillac Hitmen
The Assassin

various artists
Spaghetti: Duck You Suckers!
One Million Dollar Records

Back in the early 1960's, Hollywood movie studios exhausted the concept of westerns. Hollywood westerns displayed rather tame action: a chase on horseback, a few bar room brawls, and the showdown at high noon became the cliche. Actors like Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart and American icon John Wayne played characters with bravado but little emotional depth. Enter Sergio Leone, the Italian director who revolutionized the way western movies were shot, produced, and sounded. Leone brought in new, unknown Italian and American actors. Most famous of these is Clint Eastwood, who played Manco in the "Man With No Name" trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly) of movies.

Named "Euro-Westerns" or "Spaghetti-Westerns" by the public, these movies used a noir, more convincing style of filmaking. Gritty, sometimes fallible characters added to the realism of the picture. Now enter composer Ennio Morricone, the man who wrote the score and themes for many westerns (including A Fistful of Dollars, Guns Don't Argue, Two Guns For Ringo, among others). Leone, who was inspired by the German Composer Karl May, gave the viewer a sound of the "real" American Southwest, despite the fact most of Euro Westerns were shot on location in Spain. Sweeping epic-like themes soon appeared in Spaghetti-westerns and American westerns as well. Morricone incorporated electric guitar into the movie score, giving a modern touch to the films' music. Part Flamenco and part surf guitar, the music has probably become most associated with Spaghetti-Westerns as well as imitate. In the three decades since the decline of the genre, "Spaghetti-Western" surf music has evolved a "toughguy" reputation in the world of instro guitar rock 'n roll with it's outlaw/pistolero posing and "Morriconesque" sound.

Since the first real resurgence of surf music in the early 80's, surf bands had a few spaghetti-surf songs in their repertoire. Songs like the Insect Surfers' "Diamondback,"the Mermen's "Quiet Surf" or Man Or Astroman's "Cowboy Playing Dead" revamped the spaghetti sound with harder, driving guitar melodies and not caring about looking like pancho-wearing cowboys. Now enter the Cadillac Hitmen, a modern instro band who combines the look and the sound in one package.

The band's debut album, "The Assassin," takes the sound into modern surf. The opening track, "Black Hills," slithers with coarse punk rock growl. In contrast, the second song "Desert Floor (Mirage)" is slow and foreboding. On "Desert Floor," lead guitarist Jeff Morris's deep Gretsch guitar glides slowly across the landscape. While songs like the title track, "The Downhill Side," and "Bullwhip" combine a Link Wray-meets-Carlos Santana approach: sometimes ferocious and improvisational, sometimes slow and meticulous. "The Assassin" presents listeners with a new breed of instrumental music.

In 1996, guitarists Robert Garceau, Morris, bassist Tina Marconi, and drummer Steve Toland formed the Cadillac Hitmen in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Calling their music "desert surf" music, the Hitmen quickly rose to prominence in Portsmouth's live music scene. The band's music began appearing on local radio station WHEB's commercials shortly after the release of "The Assassin." This on top of the favorable airplay the Hitmen received. Guitarist Garceau started Hellhouse Music last September as a platform to promote "The Assassin" album and the band independently. Garceau broke with tradition (at least with other surf bands) while making the album. Opting for high fidelity recording, minimal overdubs, quick live recording sessions and savvy world wide web marketing, the Cadillac Hitmen epitomize modern instro-surf with both sound and persona. On the cover of the album, female bassist Marconi aims a .357 Magnum at the viewer while standing against a deep rust-colored desert backdrop (Perhaps she'd feel comfortable with Texas' concealed handgun law).

"I think we scare other instro bands," said Garceau in a recent email interview. "They don't know what to make of us around here. We don't fit in some neat little category." Garceau believes it's the band's unusual approach to instro rock that's gaining them notoriety first in the North East and soon around the world.

Across the Atlantic, Germany's One Million Dollar Records label released "Spaghetti: Duck You Suckers!" compilation late last year. The album features many native German, European, and even a few American bands in the spirit of spaghetti-western noir films. The album cover itself features an illustration of actor Lee van Cleef (an actor who like Clint Eastwood benefited from his appearance in the movies).

"Duck You Suckers!" begins with the distorted buzz of Hank Ray and His Executioneers' "Outlaw Kill". Ray, whose song "There's A Pale Moon..." serves as the albums finale, is best categorized by the German label as "Mainstream Death Country". Songs like the Hellbenders' "Have A Great Funeral," the Charles Napiers' "A Fistful of Pasta" and the Space Hobos' "Mexas" capture the true feel of the album. From France, the Falcons bring their rich, heavy surf groove to "El Nino." The only song featuring vocals belongs Sweden's Daytonas. "Baked Beans & Chicken" displays the Daytona's brand of Beach Boys-style pop and beach party surf.

The single biggest surprise of "Duck You Suckers!" was hearing Death Valley's "Larry Storch Song Trilogy." The twangy spaghetti tune first appeared on the band's 1994 debut album "Que Pasta!". Unfortunately, the Austin, Texas-based spaghetti-surf band broke up in mid '97. I'm proud to say the band released one of their best recordings for this CD. Grant it, spaghetti-surf music is more than just the ever-present Morricone influence. But, Death Valley made a science of the spaghetti-western sound without it sounding stale.

"Duck You Suckers!" is a consistent album that should appeal to the non surf music fan and the instro fiend alike. Especially when the music you hear that the soundtrack often serves as the inspiration for so many movies as well as it's most endearing memories. This formula worked in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction in 1994 as it did for Morricone's classic '60s film scores

This is music with a (borrowing the song title by the Cadillac Hitmen) "Lone Star State of Mind." One that should appeal to the outlaw in all of us. The best thing is that there's more of it out there!

The Cadillac Hitmen on the WWW: http://www.spwa.com/thecadillachitmen or Study Spaghetti-Western 101 at...

"Spaghetti: Duck You Suckers!" can be ordered in the US by San Fransisco's Subterranean Records at: