The Torquays - A Date With ... (1998)

Guitar repairman extraordinaire Steve Soest, and his three Orange County, CA surf/ho-daddy cohorts, strap on and plug in to the vintage gear, delivering a set of strictly instrumentals that sound like they were all cut in 1962. There's a real unpretentiousness and straightforwardness about the group's playing on this 17-track collection that gives their retro take on the material here a refreshing edge; they're playing this music this way because they're into it and have the form fully mastered. There are highlights galore with great takes of "Journey to the Stars," "Ghost Riders," "Shake 'N' Stomp," "Bumble Bee Twist," and the fuzzed-out-to-the-max "Nervous Tic," closing things out with the beautiful acoustic-based "Peace Pipe." There's retro and then there's just flat right and the Torquays truly deliver the goods on this disc. Consider this the great lost Del-Fi or Capitol surf album for the late 1990s.
Review by Cub Koda