The Cocktail Preachers - Spy-Fi

The Cocktail Preachers have a very apropos name. Every song is an attempt to channel the Playboy Mansion through your speakers. I'm not talking about the house that plays host to the likes of John Stamos and Howard Stern. I'm talking about the original mansion in Chicago, circa 1963, when Hugh Hefner was an icon of cool, and Playboy After Dark was not just another adult pay channel. It was where urban jazz met sexy cool. It mixed surf music and beach bunnies with martinis and cocktail dresses. The Cocktail Preachers may call Indiana their home, but their musical home is a Chicago where Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby are still struggling as stand-up comedians and people still dress up to go out to dinner.

The Cocktail Preachers made a national splash with the release of the Surf Monsters compilation from Del-Fi which included the fast paced Albatross Joe from their debut release Nothing Much was Happening. The compilation, which also featured other Surf illuminaries such as the Bomboras and Satan's Pilgrims, became a "must have" for Surf aficionados and college radio stations across the country. They continued their instrumental explorations on their 2000 release Spy-Fi. The straight forward Bailout is an outstanding track with clean crisp licks that would make Dick Dale smile. For the most part, though, this second release failed to live up to the promise of the first. Yo Quiero Talento lags. It fails to have the same full-throttle punch we expect and demand from this genre. The jazz explorations on Preacher Stomp are repetitive and fall flat. The sax is not nearly as crisp as it should be, while on Spy-Fi, it sets a cool laid back mood that once again channels that 60's Americana cool.

It will be interesting to listen to singles from their latest release, Open Bar Confessional when they play on June 2, at The Cooler Lounge. I just regret that they couldn't have gotten a gig at Venus, where their vibe would fit into the early sixties decor right down to the atomic blast on the wall.

Gobi