The Tornadoes Bustin' Surfboards '98 (CD)

(Garland) 14 tracks (41:48) 1997 recordings, mastered by Steve Hoffman.

In 1993 Sundazed Records reissued The Tornadoes only album, the 1964 "Bustin' Surfboards."
The band was shocked to receive new fan mail from all over the world. "We didn't know anyone remembered us" says Gerald, "espe-cially in places like Europe, Japan and Australia". By coincidence, in late 1993, Gerald received a call ask-ing if The Tornadoes would like to play for a concert in Huntington Beach with Jan & Dean, Dick Dale, The Kingsmen and The Surfaris. With only one month to prepare, all S original members got together and played the concert.

"It was a total blast", says Gerald. "We were completely blown away with the way we were received. Here we had been away from the scene for close to 30 years and peo-ple were yelling for Shootin' Beavers, Inebriated Surfer and lin-ing up for autographs. We discov-
ered that surf music never did really die - that die-hard surf music fans still existed in numbers all over the world and, miracle of miracles, they remembered us and our songs!"
The band enjoyed themselves so much and received so much support from the local press that they decided to stick together and play some more concerts.

Then a LTA' miracle happened. "Bustin' Surfboards" was chosen to be on the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction. Suddenly surf music was popular again and The Tornadoes were riding a new wave of populari-ty along with other surf bands on the soundtrack: Dick Dale, The Lively Ones, The Revels and The Centurions. At last count sales of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack was approaching 3 million units and critics hailed Tarantino's use of surf music as the work of a genius. All the soundtrack's artists received platinum records and The Tornadoes thought they had died and gone to heaven.

Rolling Stone's review of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack states "...terrific twang-bar rockers, The Tornadoes... form the funky sun around which such campy planets as The Statler Brothers and Urge Overkill (singing Neil Diamond) revolve." Since 1994 The Tornadoes' songs have been used by TV commercials, movies and TV shows. "We're having as much or maybe even more fun this time around" says Sanders "and we intend to keep on playing as long as people want to hear us."

In late 1994 the band's original sax player, George White, left the band and veteran saxophonist
Ernie Tavizon was asked to take his place. Ernie has played with such artists as Sonny & Cher, The Righteous Brothers, The Lively Ones, and The Marketts.

Bustin' Surfboards '98 represents The Tornadoes' first recording efforts since their 1964 album and like their first album, is different from the average surf album. For example, it contains two vocals and some slow songs, and their original songs cover a wide range of styles. The band has asked some of their friends from other bands to be guest artists on the album and two of them have even contributed original songs.

The band says playing concerts and recording with friends from the "old days" has been one of the most rewarding and gratifying aspects of what has happened.