Tiger Shark.mp3 (click the link to download the MP3)
Razorback
Psychotronic
Third Stone
Diamondback
Walking Distance
Bengazi
Stingray
Ocean Maid
Re-entry
Volcano Juice
Huntington Beer Dance
77 Gaza Strip
Mig Alley

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Tiger Shark ****

"Tiger Shark" opens the album with finite feedback, which evolves into a heavy growling riff with a very cool chunky melody over the top. This is one of those highly infectious Insect Surfer songs that can be identified as theirs without ever having heard it before. A fine track.
Southwest Desert Surf Instrumental Stereo
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Razorback ****

Pick slides slam into a melodic bluesy progression in " Razorback ," resulting in a desert mystique that projects images of cacti and mysterious moving rocks around which razorbacks search for chow.
Southwest Desert Surf Instrumental Stereo
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Psychotronic ****

Dedicated to B-movies everywhere, " Psychotronic " features the signature Insect dual leads over fine chunky rhythms. The trashiness of the black and whites is self-evident in this fine track.
Southwest Desert Surf Instrumental Stereo
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Third Stone ****

"Third Stone" is an Insect's eye view of Jimi Hendrix 's real message to the world, that the worst fate of man was the passing of surf music, that, for your sins, "may you never hear surf music again." Inspired by, but surely apart from Jimi's tune, this is a totally original and Roswellian epic, with dueling leads and great tension.
Southwest Desert Surf Instrumental Stereo
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Diamondback *****

A rattlesnake shakes it's moneymaker as you roll down the Arizona highway with a picture-perfect sunset looming in your future. That's what you see when you listen to "Diamond Back," with it's rolling rhythms, dual leads, and that snake rattle. This is the third best track on this CD, a 5 star tune!
Southwest Desert Surf Instrumental Stereo
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Walking Distance ***

The lone cover here is the final remnant of founding influence on the original DC version of the Insects. It's a perfectly in-place arrangement of the Buzzcocks ' "Walking Distance."
Brit Punk Surf Instrumental Stereo
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Bengazi ****

The other major influence in the Insects music, after recognizing the Southwest, Surf, and the Buzzcocks, is Middle Eastern melodies and structures. "Bengazi" oozes this sound woven seamlessly into the Insect web.
Southwest Desert Surf Instrumental Stereo
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Stingray ****

"Stingray" features those wonderful dueling Insect leads over a chunky bottom end. It hollers fun and melody.
Southwest Desert Surf Instrumental Stereo
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Ocean Maid ****

"Ocean Maid" sports a very happy melody, which conjures Dave's seemingly boundless energy. Dave is unable to stand still while performing, and he moves more vertically as horizontally. The man is driven, and infectious to watch. "Ocean Maid" should be in a commercial for some sporty imported car. It has a definite open road feel.
Southwest Desert Surf Instrumental Stereo
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Re-Entry ****

A slight detour from the open road of the West is had via "Re-Entry," with it's plinky dual leads, chunka-chunka rhythms, drones, and a bluesy feel.
Southwest Desert Surf Instrumental Stereo
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Volcano Juice *****

King Fuzz himself ( Davie Allan ) lends his bike-o-phonic assault to "Volcano Juice," a towering number with a rolling bass line under a Bo Diddley tom tom cadence and a relentless building series of crescendos. This is the second best tune on the CD, an irrepressible monster! Very tribal and primitive!
Southwest Desert Surf Instrumental Stereo
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Huntington Beer Dance ***

Down Huntington Beach way, there's a tribal line dance ritual thing the surfers do in the taverns called the Huntington Beer Dance . They bounce and slam with beer hoisted overhead, slopping the place up and splashing all within a ten foot radius. The song conveys the event with it's stomp ethic and beer spilling glissandoes.
Southwest Desert Surf Instrumental Stereo
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77 Gaza Strip ****

"77 Gaza Strip" features exotic rhythms and dueling leads. While it's name conjures expectations of the late fifties Warner Brothers Television detective series 77 Sunset Strip , which starred Efram Zimbalist Jr. , and cult idol Ed "Kookie" Byrnes , there the similarity ends. This is a fine Middle Eastern epic surf slam.
Southwest Desert Surf Instrumental Stereo
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Mig Alley *****

"Mig Alley" is an epic number named after the notorious battle ground of the Korean War. It pounds, it rolls, it has an exotic feel, and a unique and unforgettable melody line. This is THEE BEST INSECT TRACK EVER (he says objectively).
Southwest Desert Surf Instrumental Stereo

    "These guys are one of the absolutely finest instrumental bands to be found anywhere, yet they have remained an underground band since their inception in Washington, D.C. in 1979. (They later relocated to Southern California.) It should be noted, however, that they do have a track on the Rhino Records' History of Surf Music box set. They do not just play surf rock though, calling up both punk and rock-a-billy, with a little Raybeats or Link Wray here and there. The songs are varied and tuneful without re-hashing the same riffs over and over.
    "Tiger Shark","Re-entry", and "Volcano Juice" all venture way beyond mere surf progressions. Arnson and Sullivan's guitar lines squirm, shake and recoil all over the map. They even cover the Buzzcocks' "Walking Distance". If you like music of any kind, it is hard not to like the Insect Surfers."
Anthony Mark Happel - Chattanooga Free Press - September, 1997

    "I've always figgered L.A.'s Insect Surfers for a tight, musicianly kind of instro surf band (sort of the opposite of Sacramento's Tiki Men). Hell, these bugs have been playing the crap since 1979, you'd assume they'd have their chops down--and they do......Nonetheless, there are plenty of fine moments here, particularly the Dick Dale-derived numbers "Diamondback"and "Bengazi", the latter of which adds shades of Ennio Morricone twang for that lonesome big-sky sound. The "instant atmosphere--just add reverb" credo is taken to its extreme in "Re-entry", and a few layers of analog delay are then heaped on to blast it back interstellar. "Huntington Beer Party" is exactly what it sounds like: sloppy-drunk sax growls and uncontrolled staccato picking, all frothing over tranced-out tiki tom-tom work."
John Pecorelli - Alternative Press - April, 1997

    "After a slight drummer attendance delay, veteran instrumentalists, The Insect Surfers, impressed the Hotel Utah gathering in lessons on tight instrumental execution. Songs included 77 Gaza Strip, Stingray,....Polaris, Bouzouki and more. Never-to-be contained wildman Dave Arnson gave the crowd his lesson in Jumpology 101 which no doubt was given to HIM by Pete Townsend. Cheers to these veterans......a swell group of people and superb musicians. Enrico would be proud. By the way, we missed you Monica, by the way : ( Come back and play again, gang!
    The Insects had played earlier in the evening LIVE from KFJC aboard Phil Dirt's Surf's Up radio show and also got a late start. They hid the fact that they were tired real well. Late '97 CD rumors here too, folks. :-)"
excerpted from COWABUNGA Surf Discussion List

    "L.A.'s Insect Surfers have never been obsessed with slavish imitations of vintage sounds so much as recapturing the proto-punk abandon of early instrumental rock. Like San Francisco's Mermen, the Insect Surfers often veer into heady psychedelia,generating euphoric washes of reverb, twang and crashing cymbals on Death Valley Coastline"(Marlin Records)
Guitar Player December '96

    "Forget about Jimmy Hoffa. The pyramids? Ha! You want to solve a real mystery? Then figure out why Insect Surfers haven't been signed. It's not for lack of historical significance. The Insects were one of the most important bands in the '79-'80 surf revival. It's not for lack of talent. These guys are upper echelon players and they have their own idenitfiable sound. They had to wait forever for this CD to see the light of day, and after forever, they gave up and put it out themselves. Shame on the industry. But at least it's and it's something else. David Arnson and Dan Sullivan are the balanced pair of guitar greats from left to right in your (hopefully cranked) headphones. They each have a clear understanding of how psychedelia should be woven into surf instrumentals.
    Songs like "77 Gaza Strip" and "Mig Alley" carry the beat and the feel of surf into exotic, but heavy, new territory. This is a style of surf that I find very magnetic....... Besides being important as a surf album, this is a very important guitar album that demands careful listening. If young guitarists hole up in their rooms and learn all these tunes, the future of the genre looks bright. I know it, lots of other people know it, and after one listen, you'll know it."
DJ Johnson - Cosmik Debris Ezine

    "...the dueling leads add the interest and complexity necessary to propel surf style instrumentals into the next generation..."
Tiki News #9

The Insect Surfers are being sponsored by Body Glove.