Established in 1989, The Mermen are a uniquely San Francisco-based, psychedelic surf power trio made up of founder, guitarist and composer, Jim Thomas, bassist Allen Whitman and Martyn Jones on drums.
"The best rock and roll is poetry in motion, with or without words — and some of the best records of the year came without. The Mermen play an extreme brand of surf music; the trebly turbulent and black minor chord moods of guitarist Jim Thomas are like a rough ride on the icy seas of the mid-Atlantic. Hints of Dick Dale filter through the cracked sidewalk wave forms of Sonic Youth. Thomas sounds more like Neil Young at the wheel of the good ship Crazy Horse." --David Fricke, Rolling Stone
"The Mermen are an all-instrumental band from San Francisco whose sound harkens back to surf music of the 1960s, but is altered by a blues-psychedelic fusion a` la Neil Young and by devastating spasms a` la Jimi Hendrix, thanks to guitarist Jim Thomas' flights of imagination. There is more than style in Mermen's music: there is an almost fanatical kind of genius.
--Piero Scaruffi"
"Genre-bending and transcendental, the MERMEN make a music that the Los Angeles Times says: "refuses to be pigeonholed by soaring in all directions--from pretty, atmospheric psychedelia to electrifying Hendrix-esque soloing to punchy punk inspired riffing..."
