What is "Modern Surf"? Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, and it's definitely pretty subjective, but I'm defining Modern as groups that still have a strong root to 60's-styled surf but have picked up a handful of outside influences mostly missing from that era. It's a pretty murky line and my choices as to which groups lie on which side of it will probably be objectionable (I'll probably disagree an hour later) but I think instro music has gotten much more diverse and it's hard to compare some of these bands against each other.

Welcome to the first category of the first Annual Gremmy Awards, in which we'll line up what I consider to be the prettiest surf records of 2014. Any medium is fair game in both the artistic sense and the recording sense. There were a lot to choose from this year and a lot of great ones that didn't make the cut here. If you feel like something got overlooked, go ahead and leave a comment. By the way, given that this award is about art, I'm using the highest quality images I had on-hand, so be patient while it loads.

Did you think I made a huge list of surf releases for nothing? I listen to a lot of surf (though definitely not all of it) and this year I'm going to give credit where it's due by awarding outstanding instro groups with a dinky .png file with their name on it.