The Fabulous Stingrays "The Lost Surf Tapes" 2006

Great summer driving music! Always in the vehicle player. Play it driving down the highway with the windows down and the air conditioner on high. My son bought a copy for his car as well. - John DThe Mysterious History of the Fabulous Stingrays…

It was the summer of 1961. JFK, the boy president, held court in the new Camelot while across the country on southern California’s sunny shores, bikini-clad beach bunnies and bronzed Adonises, glistening with cocoa butter, were catching the wave of the nascent surf culture. A little ways down the coast in Laguna Beach, a new sound was emerging-an edgy, pulsating, tremolo-laced concoction to match the primal urgency of the rituals being performed under blankets and in the back seats of woodies everywhere. Cresting this “new wave” were the Fabulous Stingrays, three high school freshmen from a dune side trailer park just off the Pacific Coast Highway. Nobody even knew their real names. They just went by the monikers, D-man, Little Stevie Traps and Jungle Jimbo. Their breakthrough gig was to be at Big Daddy Stickleback’s Surf Shack. It was toe-jammed to the rafters, moondoggies in Huarachis and bushy-bushy blonde hairdos abounded. The vibe was electric. Every record exec worth his salt was there, vying to ink a deal with the three prodigies. But the boys never made it to the club that dark, moonless night. Some say they lost it on “Dead Man’s Curve”, though no twisted wreckage was ever found…

Where did the Fabulous Stingrays go? How did they surface all these high tides later? Where can you get the lost Stingray vibe?

Read on...

As described in the full-length liner notes of “The Lost Surf Tapes”, we don’t really know. We do know, however, that Calgarian Doug Waite, rhythm guitarist for local favorites The Ramblin’ Ambassadors, and vetran bass player Jim Neve got excited phone calls from their drummer pal Steve Shawcross - author of #2 bestselling novel, Runaway Summer. Steve had been in California renovating a small, beach-side bungalow in the early months of 2006 when he came across a dusty box of ½ inch tape which held a lost gem – the final rehearsal session for the legendary Fabulous Stingrays!!

Doug, Jim and Steve, surf music lovers, felt they had to share their find with the world, and so transferred the lost sounds into digital format, and in the process, learned to play the songs themselves...

Now you too can dig these early surf sounds, on The Lost Surf Tapes by the Fabulous Stingrays... - Album Notes

trax:

01 A Date With Gravity 02 Wait! Don't Walk 03 Tacos & Tequila 04 Bend! Don't Break 05 Kevin and Karrie Do 06 Padded Room 07 Yao Surfer 08 Long Time No Sea