The only thing that anybody seems to know for sure about this music is that it was recorded in October 1964 in Studio E of United Recorders in Los Angeles, CA.

Nobody knows who played on it, though Al Casey is nominated as the likely lead guitarist. Apparently The Woodchucks was a band name that Hazlewood used for several recordings of instrumentals executed by session musicians of the day, ienvitably referred to now as The Wrecking Crew.

Almost all of the tunes are by Hazlewood and several will be familiar to fans of surf music.

The immortal "Baja" is here, split into two parts with half on each album side. It's interesting to note how slowly the band takes this song. It might be half the speed of the famous recording by The Astronauts.

"Movin'" is also taken much more slowly than probably every other recording of it you've heard. These performances don't sound sluggish, though, more atmospheric.

This possible emphasis on atmosphere might explain why there are three versions of Les Baxter pieces here, the singature "Quiet Village" and the lesser known "Bangkok Cock Fight" and "Cricketds of Karachi".

Quiet Village is taken at a similar tempo as "Baja" and "Movin'" but only the B section is really recognizable as the Baxter tune. The "Bangkok Cock Fight" is an uptempo, driving surf raver that doesn't really sound, to my ears, much like the Baxter piece at all.

"Crickets of Karachi" is a fairly straightforward interpretation of Baxter's original, midtempo and a nice piece.

The exotica theme presumably includes "Torn Sarong", credited on this CD to "Y. Roche". I don't know who that is or what the original of this might be. But it's another cute kind of singsongy tune, very similar to "Crickets of Karachi".

Going back to Hazlewood's own pieces, "Johnny October", is a genuinely haunting piece, suggesting the theme for a surf western, if only such a thing existed.

"The Nomads", with "D. Cole" as co-author, is another surf gem, also somewhat haunting in both its sonic feel as well as its chords and melody.

We get another rare uptempo, driving number with "The Man", which sounds as much like a hot rod piece as it does a surf piece. Those two flavors are often mixed together.

Next is a very Link Wray sort of tune, "Angry Generation", a slinky and sneaky sort of "Rumble" like tune. The bass player really shines on this one.

Finally there's "Batman", another much covered Hazlewood piece. As played here it sounds like most other takes on it that I've heard.

This band is great, whoever's actually in it. Cruisin' for Surf Bunnies is one of my favorite surf albums. And it only took 54 years for it to come out!