The Church of Surf was founded sometime in June of 2006 by Eugene Gray, owner of Eugenios Restaurant on SE Division Street in Portland, Oregon. Eugene originally hails from Ventura California, but has spent his life traversing the Pacific Northwest, Southern California, and Hawaii in search of good tunes and good times. In addition to having opened his own successful restaurant, Eugene has also spent his life amassing an incredible record collection of surf and ska tunes, both popular and rare.
In January of 2006, after a successful bout with intensive guitar instruction for playing classical guitar music, Eugene returned to his hobby of learning surf guitar through 'guitar lick repair sessions,' under the guidance of the esteemed Tim Ellis of the Kung Fu Bakery Recording Studio. (The studio is known for recording several gold record selling artists including the Decembrists, Pink Martini, and Stephen Malkmus of Pavement,). One day in early January of 2006, Eugene took a break from slinging killer espresso and meatball sandwiches to play a few solo surf tunes on his acoustic guitar, much to the pleasure of his regular diners. By March, two of his employees, Mike Oppenheim and Jason Christensen began to 'noodle around’ on their instruments with Eugene, with their respective guitars and bass guitars.
Eugene began to teach the guitar riffs he was learning to Jason and Mike so that they could play the real songs together when taking short, periodic, thirty minute breaks from work. By June of 2006, this trio could play about nine surf rock cover songs note for note, and had donned the name The Church of Surf.
Just a few weeks later, the venerable Omar Steinberg was added to the lineup for his percussion and keyboard abilities, and Eric Dorsett, of local death metal fame (DeathSaw), was introduced as a permanent replacement for Jason Christiansen on the Bass Guitar.
By the Fall of 2006, the legendary John Koonce and Dave Lazzaroni each became official members of the "Kings of Coda," which means that they alternate their appearances with the band on drums. In July of 2006, the locally famous Portland trio, Sneakin Out, asked The Church of Surf to open for them at their own CD release party at Mississippi Studios.
After this first show, The Church of Surf quickly realized that the band could now expand and began to play regularly in Portland, and so they began to play around at local venues, including Dante’s, Devil’s Point, Duff’s Garage, The Chelsea Ballroom, and The Blue Monk. In the true spirit of Surf Rock and the communal aspects that genre represents, the Church of Surf has established itself as a house band for The Blue Monk (located at 34th and SE Belmont St. in Portland, OR), where they play a fresh set of Surf Rock Tunes on the first Saturday of every month.
Sarah Hendrickson, remains the head of the Chakra Surfers, as she was the first beautiful Surfer Girl to strap on a pair of go-go boots for the Chelsea Ballroom show, in September of 2006.
The Church of Surf began with a vision, and as time progresses, so does the vision, but the music remains true to the source; it's about the hot sun, the crash of the waves, and avoiding "the nar." The Church of Surf encourages everyone to join up with them as they continue to write their own surf saga.
As of 2008, the current active lineup for The Church of Surf is:
Eugene Gray – Lead and Rhythm Guitar
Mike Oppenheim – Lead and Rhythm Guitar and Vocals
Eric Dorsett – Bass Guitar
Omar Steinberg – Keyboards and Percussion
Jon Koonce – Drums
Dave Lazzaroni – Drums
Sarah Hendrickson – Head Chakra Surfer
|
