The Amazing California Health And Happiness Road Show

It's been decades since Jimi Hendrix advised the world that they'd "never hear surf music again." But the Mermen (who take their name from a Hendrix song) not only prove the venerable guitar god wrong, but make a compelling musical argument here that if Hendrix were alive today he might well be sitting in with them on these moody, musically expansive tracks. Just as Jimi was reinventing himself at the time of his death, the Mermen tweak surf-instrumental clichés beyond recognition--that is, when they're not trashing them altogether. Guitarist Jim Thomas's influences range from (of course) Hendrix to Dick Dale, Django Reinhardt, Ravi Shankar, Neil Young, Clarence White, and his own hometown heroes, the Dead Kennedys. Listen closely and you'll hear them all (and more) in a progressive collection that offers a surprise at nearly every turn, whether it's the soaring steel guitar flourishes of "Unto the Resplendent," the sitar colorings of "White Trash Raga," or the spacey Floyd-isms of the 13-minute-plus noise-symphony, "Burn." Like his heroes, Thomas never lets flash block the path of illumination, delivering his rich palette of tones and influences with an ocean-bred sense of grace and destiny. --Jerry McCulley