Dave Myers

by Richie UnterbergerOne of the better Southern Californian instrumental surf groups from the heyday of the genre circa 1962-63, Dave Myers and the Surftones issued a decent LP for Del-Fi in 1963 in the style of Dick Dale, though not as raunchy. The similarity to Dick Dale is understandable, since the group took over from Dale as the house band at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, California. Also Myers and his men, like Dale, used the same kind of equipment, in particular Fender guitars and amps, which helped create a powerful reverb sound. Myers, and all but one of the Surftones, were music majors in college, which put them ahead of many rival surf bands in skills. Myers himself played tenor sax, trumpet, bongos, and steel guitar in addition to electric guitar, which he played on a specially made Mosrite that was designed to look like flames. Myers and the Surftones Del-Fi album, Hangin Twenty, was a cool and varied, though not stunning, set that included R&B-driven tunes with sax, moody minor-key cuts, and languid ballads with the kind of middle eastern-informed melodies also employed by Dick Dale. In 1964 they renamed themselves Dave Myers and the Disciples for a vocal single, and then went back to instrumental music, but changed their name again, for the album Greatest Racing Themes (which was billed to the Dave Myers Effect). Myers didnt record again, although he continued to work as a professional musician until the end of the 1960s. One of Myers and the Surftones stronger tracks, Moment of Truth, appears on Rhinos Cowabunga! The Surf Box Set.