Akron, Ohio gets a lot of credit for being LeBron James’ hometown. More impressive still is the fact that we’re also home to the world’s heaviest surf band, The Beyonderers. Not too shabby considering Lake Erie is our only surfable body of water. Put a championship ring on that, why don’t you?

Beginning with drummer Anne Lillis’ (Samantha Crain, AS IF) thunderous floor tom pattern, “Science Friction” is a turbulent four minutes of whitewater surf rock shreddin’. Buoyed by Lillis’ splashy drumming, brothers Andrew Rich (bass) and Dave Rich (guitar; Doug Gillard, Houseguest) hang ten on a tough surf instrumental punctuated by Dave’s masterful whammy bar technique, including what may be the first recorded pinch harmonic divebomb in the history of surf music.

To achieve the touch sensitive, high gain sound required for squealing pinch harmonics while retaining the string-to-string clarity and twang required for surf music, Dave stacks the White Light, Speaker Cranker, and Bellows overdrives - each contributing its own character and compression to the mix. The Levitation reverb remains engaged throughout, its bright spring and/or plate style reverb forever a staple of the genre. For extra ambience during the verses, Rich steps on the Space Spiral modulated delay for a little slapback and modulation, courtesy of its variable waveshape LFO.

To situate himself in the mix, bassist Andrew Rich uses the Speaker Cranker for extra harmonics and grit, while the Tone Job EQ guarantees that the key frequencies of his tone are just as much in the pocket as his playing.

The Beyonderers’ Estimate of the Situation is available now.

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