The Desolate Coast's previous album Without a Planet felt like it was destined to be a hidden gem of surf music. While I don't have an issue with calling them "surf music", I found myself thinking "The Cure" more than "Dick Dale". There was a melancholy mood to the record, though not without some explosive pent-up bursts, and a unique approach to a three-guitar attack with a low-mid-high formation.

The Gremmy Awards are bloated and complicated, and the stupidest part is that they don't even work. What I want is to sum up the year as best as I remember by focusing on the highlights, but there's always things that feel missing if we're really taking stock of the year. So this category is here to attempt to pick up all the scraps. There are sub-cateories within this category that come and go. For instance, I couldn't think of a Worst Album Art winner this year, but feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments. It's free-form. It's whatever.

The first Frigidaires album Play it Cool was released on January 1st, 2024, so while we didn't have to wait long for that first good surf record of the year, I wasn't able to give it my full attention as I was consumed with holiday travel and Gremmy Season. Not the case here, though certainly not at an un-busy time (I'm trying my best to keep up with great releases!), Hot Vacation is not only poised before things get too Halloweeny, but it's had time for marinate for those that picked it up early at Surfguitar101 Festival. 

So it's May and my attempt to finish the Gremmys earlier each year is clearly going in the opposite direction despite this being the easiet category. I barely have to do anything! I simply call upon some friends in the surf world and see what they think of this year's crop of surf music so that they may either validate my opinions or alleviate the guilt I feel from omitting certain releases. I'd like to point out that the blame for the tardiness lies on me, and that a few of these were submitted 1-3 months ago.