Davie's picks

Davie picks his favorite soundtracks in Jerry McCulley's article

General Reviews & Previews

Ultimate Guitar, February 22, 2016
LA Weekly, Live Run Release Party, October 6-12, 2000
Rooted, July 1999
TimeOut, New York, July 22-29, 1999
Stomp and Stammer, Atlanta, July 1999
Arizona Daily Star, April 19, 1998

CD/Record Reviews

Retrophonic
NEW! Music Web Express 3000 Review

Fuzz For The Holidays 2
NEW! Music Web Express 3000 Review

Devil's Rumble: Anthology
NEW! Music Web Express 3000 Review
Rolling Stone Review (July 8th issue)

Restless In L.A.
NEW! Review by Music Web Express 3000
Review by Art Thompson of Guitar Player
Review by Phil Dirt of Reverb Central
Review by Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

Live Run
NEW! Music Web Express 3000 Review
20th Century Guitar Magazine, Issue ???
Amazon.com Review
"New" Gandy Dancer, Issue ???

Fuzz Fest
LA Weekly, July 10 - 16, 1998

Loud, Loose and Savage
Option Magazine, March - April 1995

Open Throttle/Chopper 7"
"New" Gandy Dancer, Issue 46
Gearhead, Issue 8

Reviews of Shows
Toronto Club Crawl II, July 30, 1999

Interviews

Ultimate Guitar, February 2016
The Lance Monthly, February 2003
Davie Allan excerpt from tennessean.com
A Bit About Guitar Legend Davie Allan at Bikernet.com
An Exclusive Bikernet Interview With the Wild Angel of Chops and Choppers
KAOS2000 interview
Six-String.com Interview
carbon 14 interview
Cool and Strange Music's interview on the Total Energy Records Web site

In the '60s, Allan's association with Hollywood pop schlockmeister (and future right-wing politico) Mike Curb led to the ax man's lending his distinctive licks to innumerable sessions, ranging from anonymous surf instrumentals to phony psychedelic-fad albums. But Allan is best known for his memorable work on the Curb-produced soundtracks of such teen exploitation flicks as The Wild Angels (which spawned "Blues' Theme," his sole Top 40 hit) I Riot on Sunset Strip, Devil's Angels, Wild in the Streets and Maryjane. Allan and his crack combo the Arrows also released three patchy but frequently terrific LPs that include some of the decade's greatest instrumental rock. Unfortunately, his vintage work hasn't fared well on CD, carelessly repackaged by Curb in a variety of shoddy compilations (though there's an ace bootleg compilation, Bullseye, that isn't hard to find).

Allan's recent mini-comeback has yielded two fine back-to-basics albums, Loud, Loose and Savage (Dionysus) and Fuzz Fest (Alive/Total Energy), as well as Skaterhater (Lookout), a collaboration with retro-surfists the Phantom Surfers. The new material effortlessly embodies the brooding cool of his'60s stuff while adding a harder garage edge that's perfectly suited to his snarling guitar tone.

Word from the West Coast suggests that Allan's recent live performances have been similarly fierce. Amazingly, his upcoming local gigs-the July 27 date was originally scheduled at the currently closed Coney Island High - mark the first he's ever played in the New York area, and anyone who cares about raw, untamed rock & roll should take notice. The current edition of the Arrows is a power trio, with Dionysus chief Lee Joseph on bass and L.A. scene vet/longtime Allan cohort David Winogrond on drums.

If racing kingpin Richard Petty played guitar, he might sound like ax wizard Allan, the man who created the wild sounds on such '60s B-movies as "Devil's Angels", "the Wild Angels", and "Born Losers."

Perhaps even more than surf-music great Dick Dale, whom Tucson audiences have witnessed twice at Club Congress in the last couple of years, Allan boasts a deadly guitar prowess.

When he plays distorted arpeggios through a wah-wah pedal, it's enough to knock down a rhino at 40 paces.

For a fat chunk of the 1960s, guitarist Davie Allan was the undisputed boss hog of biker-movie soundtracks. Pushing the California sunshine of surf rock through Gibson and Mosrite distortion boxes, Allan and his band the Arrows took garage rock straight to Middle America via gnarly instrumental scores for American International exhaust such as The Wild Angels, Devil's Angels and Thunder Alley.

Allan (with producer and frequent co-writer Mike Curb) pumped out nearly twenty B-movie LPs and four under his own name in the five years covered in this snorting two-CD set, so he didn't have time for long solos. The '66 Top Forty hit "Blue's Theme" (from The Wild Angels) is, like most of these tracks, a two-minute paragon of death-race pith, with a straight-line melody soaked in dirty scream.

A big exception: '67's "Cycle-Delic," seven minutes of Allan writhing in rusted-wah-wah agony -- like Jimi Hendrix in "Third Stone From the Sun," with Roger Corman riding shotgun.

He attempted to re-string the Arrows in ’82, but the band’s full resurrection didn’t come until 1994, with the release of Loud, Loose, and Savage. Five albums hence, Allan and crew have released Restless in L.A., a kick-ass collection of songs that spotlight Allan’s majestically fuzzed-out guitar playing and even feature—of all things—vocals on a couple of tracks. But the true essence of Allan’s powerful melodic style is revealed on the purely instrumental cuts such as “Arrow Highway,” “The Toxic Terror,” “Quiver,” the heavily psychedelic “Demente,” and the harmonically ambitious title track, with its haunting, Ennio Morricone-inspired interlude.

Allan slathers on fuzz so heavily that it’s amazing he can focus it to create such clear and dramatic imagery in his songs. But crank up this music and you can almost feel the wind-in-your-hair freedom of a sunset cruise along the California coast, and hear the staccato blast of that stroked Harley that’s speeding you along. Sundazed.

Immense and intense power! Big fuzz and liquid playing. Often hard fast and dangerous, but even in the most relaxed and frivolous mood, Davie Allan's guitar conveys a disquieting menace. That's part of what makes his sound so unique and so attractive. The Arrows are one of the most powerful and overlooked rhythm sections in rock and roll, David Winogrond - drums and Bruce Wagner - bass. The writing is consistently strong and melodic, and the guitar wizardry unsurpassed. No surf this time out, just lots of top drawer biker fuzz as only King Fuzz can make.

Picks: The Toxic Terror, Kick Back, I Had To Much To Dream (Last Night), Quiver, Energized, The Loud, The Loose and the Savage, Wicked Woman, Theme From The Wild Angels, Arrow Highway, Restless In LA, The Stranger, On The Surface, Guitarra Triste, Demente.

His latest fuzz and wah-wah fest on Sundazed Records is titled Restless In L.A.. It should finally set the record straight and give further support of his legendary expertise as a lead guitar man. The album is a grab bag of instrumental diamonds including two tasty vocal numbers, one featuring Davie and Bruce Wagner on vocals, the psych-rock classic by the Electric Prunes “I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night),” and Wagner taking the lead on “Wicked Woman.” Both are well done. Because I am accustomed to hearing Davie play only instrumentals, I was a bit surprised how good they actually were. The vocals break up the albums flow in a nice way and give it more variety along with all the different flavored instrumental rockers.

There is not as much distortion and fuzz on this album as I have heard in the past. What I did hear was a clear-cut precise sharp shooting guitar playing that made each tune a singular six-string journey. It must be hard not to sound the same after 40 years of playing a lot of the same kind of music, so to say I was very impressed with the diversity Davie came up with on this album comes as matter of course. I would be understating the importance of this recording if I did not say that it was another masterpiece of instrumental tracks, and surely, it is. I could get restless anywhere listening to all these shots of driving electrical energy. I do not think I have to be in L.A. to feel the raw emotion and authoritative licks coming off Allan’s guitar. It works for me anywhere.

"His first hit was my Apache '65, and I played on most of his productions for other artists," Allan said of the song released in 1964.

Allan wouldn't say much about his early relationship with Curb.

"I will say that I wish I had followed his lead as far as the business end goes," he said. "If I had, maybe I wouldn't be broke today."

On Wednesday, Curb talked to Allan for the first time in nine years, paying a visit while in California after hearing that Allan's mother was dying. Allan had been trying for years to persuade Curb to produce a retrospective album. Curb said he would do it.