Summer Drive (Part 2)

Today's vacation shot is of Devils Punch Bowl in Otter Rock, Oregon. It's a beautiful stretch of beach known for great whale watching and surfing. During low tide, the tide pools and rocks make for some fascinating investigation, but you don't want to be around the bowl during high tide. The water churns and foams in a most violent way. It's really cool to watch from above. If you're down there, though, your ultimate demise is imminent. During winter storms, the water in the bowl is known to rotate like a toilet in mid flush. How's that for a visual?

We took a long walk from Beverly Beach State Park north to Devils Punch Bowl. Everyone was pretty tired after all of that exploration, and nobody in my family was excited to take the trek back to the park. I seemed like a selfless hero when I suggested I could go it alone to Beverly, hop in the van and drive to the Devils Punch Bowl viewpoint to pick up everyone. Truth is, I wanted to go for a run and listen to music along the way. You steal these moments when you can. Here was my soundtrack of new sounds during the jog:



As you may recall, the comeback LP 'Lunchbox Loves You' was way up on my list of the best albums of 2014. Happily, Tim and Donna don't seem interested in another lengthy hiatus. The duo has quickly followed up with "Smash Hits," a six-song 7" EP that, incidentally, I found quite difficult to spin while running on the beach. I kid, but those turntables do tend to wreak havoc with split times. The songs have been described as having a slightly punkier edge than its predecessor, but I couldn't help but think these 13 minutes sounded like Apples in Stereo during the 'Velocity of Sound' era. Yes, that's a very good thing. Looks like Lunchbox will be vying for a spot on the year-end list once again.



Whether it's Jon Hunter from the June Brides, Dan Pacini from the Brilliant Corners or Fran Dimech from the School, I'm an absolute sucker for pop bands with trumpeters. I haven't acquired enough knowledge of Sweden's Moon Types to know if Mirjam Pettersson's talents on the trumpet are a regular part of their repertoire, but I sure hope so because "Know the Reason" has rapidly become one of my favorite singles of the summer. Even if you would rather take a pass on brass, all three songs on this 7" are filled with enough infectious jangle to keep your head bobbing. I'll be anxiously awaiting their next release. That's enough horn tooting for tonight. There will be a third and final installment of my vacation soundtrack later in the week.