The Mermen - Pull of the Moon
We'll tuck this in at the end of International Surf Day, which is the first full day of summer this year.
These guys were one of my favorite bands immediately after moving to The Bay Area in 1993.
I can't pinpoint exactly where or when I was introduced to their stuff, but I know it was sometime right after I got to SF, from whence they hail.
Did I see them live somewhere, The Haight Street Fair maybe? I know a very close friend of then was way into them, but I am not totally sure it was he who hipped me to The Mermen.
It doesn't really matter, because one way or another I have loved them for over 30 years.
I have a special soft spot for the original trio, the one that made those initial records like Krill Slippin' and Only You.
Way back when, before any of these things were quite so easy to acquire, I had a whole folder of shows, that someone had given me somewhere. I remember them being in the WAV format; this was before bit torrents and so forth made weird music easier to get than herpes in a whorehouse.
I long ago lost that folder, but fortunately these things are, crass metaphors aside, easy to get now. There are dozens of Mermen shows all over the Internet Archive, from all points in their (still active, mostly under another name "The Shi-Tones" lol) career, and all the ones I remember having before such things as an Internet Archive existed seem to be among them.
What do The Mermen do? Well, play the sample song up top, it's super indicative. But if I had to verbalize it, I'd say they play a kind of Spaghetti Westernized, instrumental Surf Rock, but with an accent on the atmospheric and not the jangly, sunny Jan & Dean mode that can get so irritating so fast.
The Mermen
To Surf with Love
Live In the SF Bay Area
1997+98
01 Foghorns/guitar intro
02 Ocean Beach
03 To Be Naked and French Is Always Hard
04 The Silly Elephant Who Stomped to Tea
05 Sponge Cookie
06 Joni Mitchell's House
07 Peach Walk
08 Drivin' the Cow
09 Sway
10 introduction
11 Quiet Surf
12 Varykino Snow
13 Emmylou Rides Clarence West Then South
14 100-Foot Lemon
15 With No Definite Future and No Purpose Other Than to Prevail Somehow
16 Dragonfly
17 intro/Curve
18 Pull of the Moon
19 Miki's Lush Beehive
20 Abalone Daze
21 Honeybomb/Jack the Ripper
22 Splashin' with the Mermaid
23 Slipping the Glimpse
24 Raglan
25 Adventures In Paradise
26 Slo Mo HVO
27 Casbah/Latina
28 The Whales Are Coming & Boy Are They Pissed
29 untitled new song
30 The Goodbye
Total time: 3:03:37
disc breaks go after Tracks 09 & 19
Tracks 01-09: Beach Party @ The Presidio, San Francisco CA 10.10.1997 onstage mics
Tracks 10-22: Todos Santos Plaza, Concord CA 6.10.1998 soundboard + onstage mics
Tracks 23-30: The Edge, Palo Alto CA 6.25.1998 soundboard + onstage mics
Jim Thomas - guitar
Allen Whitman - bass & guitar
Martyn Jones - drums
segments of three of the last concerts of the original lineup of the SF Bay Area institution, The Mermen
assembled, retracked, edited for dead air & song repetition, in some instances remuxed/rebalanced, and all remastered by EN, May & June 2025
1.1 GB FLAC/direct link
As we can see, I sort of composited three sets of the original Mermen at their Poseidon peak in the '90s, so I could cram all my favorite sardines of the original band into the same tin. I'll be back on Tuesday with yet more less-than-fresh catch, for it's those well-worn, antiquated obscurities from the recessed reefs of the forgotten century that can often provide the deepest flavor. All this, provided total, Idiocracy-induced thermonuclear war has not wiped out any vestiges of civilization by then. Until that time, get Into the West, catch a wave and start your summer with The Mermen!--J.
1.1 GB FLAC/direct link
As we can see, I sort of composited three sets of the original Mermen at their Poseidon peak in the '90s, so I could cram all my favorite sardines of the original band into the same tin. I'll be back on Tuesday with yet more less-than-fresh catch, for it's those well-worn, antiquated obscurities from the recessed reefs of the forgotten century that can often provide the deepest flavor. All this, provided total, Idiocracy-induced thermonuclear war has not wiped out any vestiges of civilization by then. Until that time, get Into the West, catch a wave and start your summer with The Mermen!--J.
