The WRVR Sessions '65

Album Review

If you were in a garage band during the mid-'60s, chances are you found yourself playing more and more Beatles covers, as they had just begun their global takeover. But there were still remnants of the surf music craze, and this is the exact style that Malibooz specialized in. When you think of surf bands, images of the west coast and blonde-haired surfer dudes come to mind, but Malibooz were the complete opposite — they called New York City their home, and most of its members were (gasp) dark-haired. This didn't stop the group from entering a WRVR studio in January of 1965 to lay down tracks for their first ever professional recording. Keep in mind though, a 'professional recording' back in the early- to mid-'60s often resembled nothing more than a band playing in a basement with a single microphone, and that's a fitting sonic description of the three tracks that comprise The WRVR Sessions '65. What you get are a pair of covers — Chuck Berry's "Nadine" and a track that Dick Dale popularized, "Miserlou," as well as an original, "Goin' to Malibu." While it's a fun listen, it's an extremely brief one — the whole thing is less than ten-minutes-long.