Raybeats - Roping Wild Bears

Name: Raybeats
Album: Roping Wild Bears
Year: 1981
Style: Instrumental Surf
Similar Bands:Man or Astroman?, Ventures, B-52s, Los Straitjackets
"One-Word" Review: Space Surfing Spy Soundtrack
Based Out Of: NYC
Label: Don't Fall Off the Mountain

Cover & Record

Record & Back

Roping Wild Bears (1981)

1. Searching 3:34
2. Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt 2:54  (Shadows cover)/ 
3. Tight Turn 4:00
4. Tone Zone 3:37

Album Rating (1-10): 8.5

Members & Other Bands:

• Pat Irwin - Sax, Acetone, Guitar (8-Eyed Spy, Command V, B-52s, Foolish Virgins, PI Power Trio, Love Tractor, Lydia Lunch, The dB's, Rage to Live, Lucky Pierre )
• Jody Harris - Guitar (James Chance & the Contortions, Loose Screws, Band of George, The Golden Palominos, Syd Straw, Matthew Sweet, ImpLOG, James White & The Blacks, Lester Bangs, Colin Bryce, John Zorn, Victoria Williams, Richard Hell, Freedy Johnston)
• Danny Amis - Bass, Guitar (Los Straitjackets, Overtones, Thee Phantom 5ive)
• Don Christensen - Drums (James Chance & the Contortions, Philip Glass, Cadillacs, New Action Army, Loose Screws, Band of George, impLOG, James White & the Blacks, Angel Dean & the Zephyrs, Change of Heart, Waitresses, Bush Tetras, Laurie Spiegel)
• Dan Dryden - Engineer
• Trace Rosel - Cover Credit
• Lisa Rosel - Cover Credit
• Joe Stevens - Back Cover Photo
• Bob Singerman - Mgmt
• Ruth Polsky - Special Thanks

Unknown-ness: Never heard of this band. But based on the album name and cover art, I get the impression that they are wacky, perhaps embarrassingly so. So I imagine this will be some sort of silly nerdy new wave band, like Pet Clams or the Rave Ups.

Album Review: This is an ep of 4 instrumental tracks, that feature elements of blues and soul, surf, and spy themes. Allmusic is quoted as calling them "the soundtrack for a James Bond movie directed by David Lynch" and that is spot on. Pat Irwin went on to scoring TV and Film, including his big break with the quality work he did on cartoon Rocko's Modern life.

Stand Out Track: Tone Zone

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