Amphibian Man

Surf music has been infiltrated by artificial intelligence, and it's probably going to get worse.

Shitty AI generated image using the prompt "an electric guitar is smashed by a computer comic styling"

I have a compulsion to check for new surf music on bandcamp using their tag system. It's how I find a lion's share of what I play and review on my show and website, and I monitor it closely enough that I sometimes have bands send me promo codes only to find that I've already bought their music before they got the chance.

In April I found a record by God of Surf. It's a presumptuous name, but I have to admit the music did feel ambitious and interesting.

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Bandcamp Friday May 2024

The Nebulas - Euphorion

It's May and not only have I not finished the Gremmy awards, but I've barely written anything about the slew of remarkable surf releases. So since it's Bandcamp Friday, which is when Bandcamp doesn't take a cut of sales, let me tear through them and give each of these fewer words than they deserve.

Apparently there won't be another Bandcamp Friday until September! So I guess I better get back to just reviewing stuff normally. I've wanted to do that anyway.

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Amphibian Man - Path

Amphibian Man -Path

Back in 2016 Amphibian Man came out of nowhere with eight fantastic, high-energy releases in the span of about a year and a half. Things have changed a lot since then. The one-man project turned into a band, played shows, released a few more albums that were more of an instrumental skate/post/punk sound. And of course being from Ukraine there's there's the aspect of having your homeland invaded from Russia, a topic that I don't think I can begin to wrap my head around.

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Gremmy Awards 2022: Best Rad Instro Album

Best Rad Instro Record

The Gremmys are a stupidly complicated thing, slicing up surf music into imaginary categories just so that I can make sense of things in my head. It's messy -- there are things in this category that could be in another category and vice versa. But the judging criteria of this one is delightfully simple:

Does it rip? How much?

This is a category for surf/instrumentals that aim to get your adrenaline spiking, maybe inspire some headbanging or fistpumping. I call it "rad" because it needs a name and it rhymes with trad. Let's go.

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Here's your Bandcamp Friday Surf Roundup for April

Girl Over Planet

It's the first Friday of the month, which means if you have the bandcamp app you might be getting 24 hours of notifications. For the uninitiated, it means that bandcamp doesn't take a cut of albums sold today, so it's a nice day to support the artists. It's also my own self-reminder to scoop up some of the best surf releases in the past month.

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The Top Surf Records of the 2010s: 60-41

Gremmys 2019: Best "Rad" Instro Record

Best Rad Instro Record

Arguably, surf was the first type of rock & roll to really focus on a feeling of power and aggression, playing songs faster and louder. As punk and metal rolled around, a lot of bands absorbed those influences into surf to really ramp up the ferocity. For the sake of categorization and rhyming, I've called these bands "rad" instro groups.

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Amphibian Man - Shapes (Side A)

Amphibian Man - Shapes (Side A)

3 releases in less than a year, perhaps Amphibian Man is getting back to his previous furious pace. Though went back to slapping some reverb on that guitar, these 7 songs are about as dry and punk-sounding as they've ever been, to the point where I'd consider this instro-punk instead of instro-surf.

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