Quite a Party!
Record review
Reviewed by David Fricke, Fri., April 21, 2006
![Texas Platters](/imager/b/newfeature/359273/f6c1/music_phases-34438.jpeg)
Quite a Party!
24 Great Instrumental Bands Play the Fireballs (Ace)
Their biggest hits were popcorn: 1963 No. 1 "Sugar Shack" and '67 boozer's cartoon "Bottle of Wine," both with singer Jimmy Gilmer. Yet the Fireballs' best recordings and there were dozens, including "Torquay," "Bulldog," "Gunshot," and "Vaquero" were pioneering electric-guitar classics, mostly written by lead guitarist George Tomsco, with a dry-plains economy and open-road reverb that reflected the band's New Mexico origins and set the trebly agenda for contemporary twang as far away as Malibu Beach and London's Abbey Road Studios. Named after a 1961 single and curated by Austin guitarist Burnin' Mike Vernon, Quite a Party! is a unique successor to Ace's 1990s reissue of the Fireballs' Fifties and Sixties studio labors for producer Norman Petty: two dozen covers, ancient and modern, mixed together with surprising cohesion. The big difference between the now wow Bill Kirchen's alarm-clock Telecaster in the title song; the Nortons' sprint through "Chief Whoopin-Koff"; Vernon's Fender-bending of "Las Vegas Scene" with 3 Balls of Fire and early-Sixties tracks like the harmonized double-lead sparkle of the Lively Ones' "Rik-a-Tik" is technology. The fresh stuff has a crispness that highlights the almost vocal quality of Tomsco's melodies, but the jubilant ruggedness of period tracks such as "El Ringo" by the Canadian combo Wes Dakus & His Rebels a Fireballs homage that they covered in turn beats studious respect almost every time. Exception: the '61 "Torquay" by the Electras, an amateur's romp notable only for the bassist, failed presidential candidate John Kerry. Better to spend that time with "Eight Miles Down" from 3 Balls of Fire's own fine release, Chrome and Water it sounds like the Byrds underwater. (13 Guitar Rumble: A Tribute to Link Wray burns Wednesday, April 26 at Antone's with Mike Vernon, George Tomsco, the Ventures' Bob Spalding and many, many more.)