The Ziggens

Pomona Lisa (Skunk)
by Scott Hefflon

Leaping from instrumental surf to cow punk to surfabilly to snarl punk to swingin’ jazz to gritty rockabilly, The Ziggens have two themes that follow them wherever they go: talent and humor. Pomona Lisa (almost called Stand by Your Van, Rage Against the Vending Machine, and Janesadictionary) opens with “Surfin’ Buena Park,” saunters through a couple other interesting tunes, then launches into the surfpunk ditty “I Took My Mom to the Prom.” Then there’s a relaxing surf instrumental followed by the goofy “I’m Tryin’,” a song playing with the pronunciation of words and their natural syllabic breakup in order to make it fit the song. And the yelling of “break!” when they do that stop/start thing reminds me of the old four-track daze when another Scott and I (in one of many creative excuses not to do schoolwork) did a version of “Wipeout” called “White Out” in which the only lyrics were the yelled names of the chords we played during the drum rolling “chorus.” In other words, Pomona Lisa has all the giddiness of over-productive musicians who can’t take anything too seriously (except playing well) and make a self-indulgent CD filled with goofy fun. The main difference is, they play far better than I ever have, and they got The Cars’ Elliot Easton to produce their record. Other great songs include the surfstrumental “Can’t We All Just Get a Longboard?,” the punky “Pony Up” which states the dangerous of not tipping properly, and “The Spy Who Dubbed Me.”
(16572 Burke Ln Huntington Beach, CA 92647)