THE MERMEN AT THE HAUNTED HOUSE

“…with the 12-minute ‘Pull of the Moon,’, you can tell that guitarist Jim Thomas is not of this planet. He coaxes some of the most sensuous tones in the galaxy imaginable from his axe, stroking and bending his strings with a lover’s attention to nuance…’The Whales Are Coming and Boy Are They Pissed’ interpolates traditional surf classics…(with) Martyn Jones opting for some polyrhythmic wizardry that must be heard to be believed…Clearly, ‘reverential’ does not appear in the Mermen’s contract.”

–Fred Mills, Rave Reviews

…’Pull of the Moon’ is 12 minutes of building terror…The 60’s…instrumental ‘Casbah’ is dragged into the 90’s with tremolo drenched feedback…’Into the West’ has standout sparse guitar lines and nice drum rolls and cymbal work…feedback and the psychedelic pyrotechnics of guitarist Jim Thomas…”

–LiveWire

At The Haunted House is a live recording made during producer Phil Dirt’s KFJC-FM radio broadcast. Creating a visceral listening experience with their left-coast instrumental sound blended with a healthy dose of psychedelica, the trio (Jim Thomas (guitar), Allen Whitman (bass) and Martyn Jones (drums)) also manage to blend in a number of quotes into their original tracks. “The Whales Are Coming & Boy Are They Pissed” is a good example of this, with musical quotes such as Jaggar/Richards “Paint It Black” and the traditional “Hava Nagila”, among others. At The Haunted House could be considered a true ‘beat the boots’ album; documenting the Mermen live, with better fidelity and performances, than the dozens of bootlegs floating around today.”

–Guitar 9