Another Storm Surge Splash, where I cram a bunch of things into a newsletter of sorts so that I can cover a lot of ground instead of bogging myself down with a ton of long articles. It's been a bit since I've done one of these, but they're helpful to me and hopefully to you, so let's dive in!
First of all, I recently got back from a big long trip that started in Chicago and then went from LA up to Mendocino along the PCH. Despite so many views of incredible surf, my California trip was largely irrelevant to surf music. My record store experiences were mostly bust (save for one in Sausalito where I stocked up on some post-glory days Ventures, but that doesn't qualify). I did find a few Lively Ones LPs along the way, but I've already got nice copies. Oh well.
But before I went to California I went to Chicago for my niece's baptism, and I happened to notice a surf show that aligned with my short time up there. I saw The Swongos, who I caught a snippet of at Surfguitar101 last year, and got to see in extended form this year. Unsurprisingly they weren't touring with a gigantic vibraphone setup, but my ears couldn't tell the difference. They told me a lot of the point of this was to get good at playing new songs, and I really liked the new songs I heard.
Here, I tossed a video of them doing Misirlou onto Youtube.
Unfortunately it was getting way too late (my kids were likely going to wake up at 6am) so I only caught a few songs of The Breakers. Jim from The Breakers knows I have family in Chicago and has been trying to make a meetup happen for years, so I'm so glad I finally got to catch them, even if it was just for a moment.
Buuuuut this is all a nice segway into an upcoming very surfy trip to California where I'll see The Breakers play again. SG101 Festival is THIS WEEKEND. Apparently Saturday is close to selling out. I'm booked, ready to go, and looking forward to seeing people and music. Every year I not only see mind-blowing acts, but feel renewed love for this strange pocket of the music world. Getting to cross Los Straitjackets (with Danny Amis and Pete Curry no less) off my list is pretty huge.
Click that image for more details.
Naturally, expect a write-up and tons of pictures here afterwards.
Before I get into a ton of reviews, I want to talk about some of the things on the radar. This year is already pretty heavy on fantastic surf releases, but we're also looking at new stuff from
- Draculina (will be on sale at SG101)
- The Tremolo Beer Gut (probably will be too)
- Les Agamemnonz (I've heard this one and it's great)
- The Phantom Surfers
- Slacktone EP
- The Bradipos IV 30th Anniversary compilation
- The Volcanos were in the studio over a year ago, so hopefully soon?
The Gremmys are going to be a bloodbath!
I recently wrote reviews for the following and didn't really post about them on social media because I wanted to focus on writing this. But don't miss them!
Micro-Reviews
Death Valley - ¡Que Pasta! (reissue/comp)
Every year in the SG101 lineup there's at least one act that feels like festival organizer Jeff "BigTikiDude" Hanson is fulfilling a personal wish, and I get the sense that this is one for this year. Whereas The Hellbenders are a special band for me because they introduced me to Spaghetti Surf, I had never really listened to this album until now, and I think this holds that same foundational importance for Jeff. Not only is this a great album merging surf and spaghetti western sounds, but this reissue packs in material from 7"s and early unreleased material to push the whole thing over an hour!
Arno de Cea - Don't Mess With Cestas
The heavyweight of heavy surf releases a solo record, and it both is and isn't a departure. It starts with a nice acoustic vocal track, but then boots you back into loudness. There are bits and pieces here like hearing xylophone on "Bing Band Inverse" that certainly do feel like a big step outside of Clockwork Wizards territory, and "Put a Coin in My Jukebox" is a whole other thing entirely, but I also feel like he's built enough experimental leeway within The Retrofusime series that most of this doesn't feel too unrecognizable for fans of his other work. As usual, I think it's great, and I wish I had a bit less to listen to so I could spend some more time with it. And it's pay-what-you-want.
The Del-Vipers - Live In The Yard
The Del-Vipers haven't released a moment of music that I don't like, but unfortunately there's not enough of it. While obviously, I'd prefer a new LP, I'll take a live album without a thought. Their second LP Los Del-Vipers was one of my favorite releases that year, but it was a COVID album, conceived and assembled at a distance, and what they lost from that is the practice-born intensity of their first LP. It made up for it with variety, but what I appreciate about this live album is that you get most of that non-stop impact from the first LP on every song, including a few from the second LP. And then even a few we haven't heard, like a cover of "Rawhide" and "Man of Mystery". Del-Vipers forever.
Orchestral Maneuvers in the Sun
JUDODOJO reached out to a few friends and made a great compilation of surf covers of classical tunes. Some of my favorites are JUDODOJO's take on "Nocturne", "Dirty Licks" doing "Abdelazar" and Beach Bomb showing off with their mashup of Paganini with Mr. Moto. As comps go, it's pretty short at 10 songs and about 25 minutes, but it's free and most of these are otherwise unreleased, and really I think its short length keeps you smiling before it gets old. And if you need more then check out the comp on Sharawaji records from 2021.
The Squadron Leaders - Beach for the Sky
These guys have been at it for a while but still maybe flying under the radar a bit. I think they've got a great surf sound and can really bring some noise, but let me give you a big asterisk: you gotta appreciate sax. And you've gotta sometimes be able to appreciate sound over melody, like on "Carter" which is a track that I quite enjoy but almost goes free jazz for a moment. I think this is a real fun album that can get uniquely wild, but it may not be for everybody.
Scathodick Surfers - Retrofuturism
First of all, I looked up "Scathodick" and all I could find was this band, so your guess is as good as mine about why that's their name. Scathodick Surfers are a band with often fast and technical guitar put at the forefront, and maybe some Zappa-esque song structuring. Kinda prog-surf. At least half of these songs go past 4 minutes, with three in a row longer than 6:30. While I can't say this always did the trick for me, they were interesting enough that I bet this is exactly what somebody's looking for.
The Sea-Jays - A Touch of Terror II
Much like the first EP, this is about a 50/50 mix of covers and originals. There's a little bit of smoky noir feeling to them, but it's not really that these are super out-there arrangements, they're just very good! It's engineered super well but not over-produced, and sound very engaging while never feeling like they're reaching for some sort of extreme. I gotta give them some kudos on the song choices too: the White Lotus theme and the Laura Palmer theme (instead of the main Twin Peaks theme) are not done that often, and I got calls on my show about both when I played them. Funny too, I raised an eyebrow seeing Sam Bolle on bass, and he's got quite a surf resume, but Corky played guitar on "Sk8er Boi" and other hits, while drummer Matt Laug tours in AC/DC and played drums on about half of Jagged Little Pill.
The Krontjong Devils - Music From the Stars, Vol. 2
Another LP of covers from these Dutch legends, and just like the last one a lot are pretty niche! I think I only recognize the songs by Blondie, Massive Attack, and New Order, of which "Teardrop is my favorite cover". Therefore the rest of the songs are kinda just normal songs to me, and they're a lot of fun. It's been WAY too long since we've heard a full LP of instrumentals from these guys, but I'll take anything.
Shorty's Swingin' Coconuts - Mai Tai Hi-Fi Vol. 2
If you've read my reviews for The Babalooney's records, I think Shorty's got an ear for a great surf recording, and we have more evidence here. All four tracks on this are so much fun and very distinct from each other. And I like Star Trek.
I'm gonna cut myself off here for the sake of moving on, but for further listening maybe check out
- Gyotengo - Seatopia Banished
- Jalmari Olavinpoika - Kainuun meren rannalla (kauan sitten)
- The Breakers - Midnight Shoreline
- Doyley and the Twanglords - Reverbatron
- Los Twangheads - Stone Guardians from the Red Planet
Not Surf
Sonido Gallo Negro - Cumbiavision
Years ago, SGN felt like a psychedelic combination of cumbia and surf that we'd never seen before. While they kept being great, other bands sprung up around them doing similar things very well, and they've gotten a bit more electronic, and on this band we've got a few vocal tracks too. Still strange and psychedelic, and doing things that feel fun in a now-crowded cumbia genre. While they are less relevant today, I'm still a big fan, and I'm so glad they got to swing by New Orleans last year so I could meet surf artist extraordinaire Dr. Alderete in person. By the way, it seems like they don't really do bandcamp anymore. The most reasonably priced FLAC download I could find was here.
And if you want to hear an example of one of the great similar bands I referenced, I was loving this album by Cabeza de Chivo today.
Hidden Gems
Xavier Cugat & His Orchestra - Bang Bang
I'm thrilled by this recent thrift store pickup. Xavier Cugat is typically associated with Rumba and frequently lines the thrift stores. While I've quite enjoyed the records of his I've picked up, I think he was sort of the artist that was exploiting the jet-setting listener's thirst for the exotic, destined for thrift stores because of quantity over quality mentality. But look at this album cover! Can't leave that on the shelf!
And here's the thing: there's some fun guitar on here! I wouldn't call it surf by any stretch, and it actually has the sort of tone that I assign more with South American instrumentals. But mostly it just has this latin meets mod go-go between-genre weirdness that's very peppy and fun. It doesn't sound like Esquivel, but if that's your mood I think this can do it! I wouldn't be surprised if this is a bunch of session guys tossing it together on the spot, but they had fun that day.
That's it for now. See y'all in California!
