Experiment in Terror

NEXT SHOW...June 25th

El Segundo, California  June 25th
Jetpack 9:30 - 11PM

JETPACK starts 2016 Huntington Beach Surfing Museum Concert Series

 

THE FURY from PLANET REVERB live

 

AGENT J from PLANET REVERB live

COMANCHE by The Revels live 

 

EL CUMBANCHERO by Rafael Hernandez live

Here's video from attendees at Surfin' Sundays at the Huntington Beach, CA pier. JETPACK was the band to kick off this year's annual event hosted by The Huntington Beach Surfing Museum.

THIS SUNDAY!

SEE JETPACK SATURDAY!

 The Automobile Driving Museum 

610 Lairport St, El Segundo, CA 90245

The Museum's site says the tickets are $30. That is for those showing their cars.
They do request some donation for enjoying the festivities. 

See JETPACK SUNDAY !

click image for more details

The Cinema Bar

3967 Sepulveda Blvd, Culver City, California 90230

8:30-11:00 FREE

April 10: 60 years of causing VIBRATO to be confused with TREMOLO

That really would be a first!

Leo Fender was a radio repairman.  He started building amplifiers and then guitars, but he didn't play. This was evident in the patent for the Stratocaster Vibrato as he called it tremolo.  Of course, it follows that the dial on a Fender amp for tremolo is mislabeled as vibrato. He had several top artists around him at any given time. Why they didn't correct him is unknown. Maybe they did. Did he think it was a minor difference not worth correcting? Did he do it to stand out from the competition that had tremolo equipped amps?  Years later,  the vibrato unit was correctly labeled on one Fender: The Mustang student guitar. What is certain is they are in fact not interchangeable terms, but Fender has stuck with them to this day. Vibrato means changes in pitch. Tremolo means changes in volume.  

FAN PROFILE: Cold Enough for You? Meet Erik Wilkie & the Surfers of Lake Superior

Erik Wilkie and Bob Tema

 I recently heard from Erik Wilkie who wrote to ask if he could buy a copy of Planet Reverb and if I was okay with Jetpack songs he has put behind his surf videos. I was pleasantly surprised to find he had used songs from Surfin' to No Doubt, which was a CD I was contracted to do. I had assumed he had used songs from Planet Reverb he found online. When I asked him how he came about the No Doubt surf CD he said it was what he found for surf tunes in a shop in Duluth. That's right- these guys and gals (such as Vonnie, his wife of 31 years) surf in the icy waters that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald! What do midwesterners know about surfing, you ask? Let me inform you that it was Erik's and Yours Truly's fellow Wisconsinite Tom Blake who is considered the founder of California surf culture and inventor of the fixed fin. 

Erik, however, moved across the country in reverse to Blake. He says he is "an Anaheim transplant" who wears a spring suit over his full suit as he gets cold easily. If that's the case, we have different ideas of "cold" and "easy". I would wear a full suit in California summer and still think it could be warmer. What I'm saying is: this crew is tough. 

Air temp: 17 degrees!

Erik states, "Although we can get waves anytime of the year, we’ve learned, that the best waves on Lake Superiors’ North Shore/Stoney Point come with, or right after, the coldest, snowiest winter storms." About the local scene he says, " It's like a brand new generation of surf nostalgia in the making." Of the surfers themselves he says, "With such a small crew here, everyone knows everybody else." He believes it is akin to "emerging surf lifestyle scenes...from many decades ago." 

Randy Carlson is a university water instructor, which is obvious.

Check out Erik's videos on his YouTube channel HERE and check out the Stoney Point Surf Spot Facebook page HERE. But before you do, you may want to put on a sweater and grab a hot drink.

Erik's '71 Snow Bus