Leave it to Rubber Pants, a local trio with a sense of humor and adventure, to record a CD that sounds like a lost album from a mid-’60s Southern California garage band. "We wanted it to be experimental," said Pants spokesman Brian Hunsicker, 35, during a telephone interview. "And not too highly studio polished." Called "The Meltdown," the CD features 14 original songs housed in Waring blender of musical styles – surf-rock, punk, jazz, ambient and roots-rock – that address such subjects as surfing, unpredictable women and daily frustrations. "We mostly write about stuff we know," said bassman/vocalist Hunsicker, who surfs. Rounding out the band are Tom May, 36, on guitar and vocals and Jeff Jahnke, 45, on drums and vocals. The trio – which for live shows also puts a retro spin on tunes by, among others, Bob Dylan, the Monkees and Fleetwood Mac – plays Friday, Jan. 22, at Ocean Boulevard in Kitty Hawk. On the debut album, which was recorded in Norfolk, there’s raw, punk energy without the anger. The mostly three-and-a-half minute songs fly by, with decidedly tongue-in-cheek lyrics and unabashedly tuneful melodies churning like the Atlantic Ocean with a hurricane offshore. "Bandida" is a sly little tune about an appealing girl who turns out to be high-maintenance.
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Leave it to Rubber Pants, a local trio with a sense of humor and adventure, to record a CD that sounds like a lost album from a mid-’60s Southern California garage band.