It's been 10 years since my first Surfguitar101 Festival/Convention, which is not to say that this was my tenth, but I haven't missed one yet. While last year's was fantastic, the sting of two high-profile foreign bands dropping off due to Trump's immigration nonsense forced the event into safe mode this year -- all American bands, and reverting from Long Beach's Golden Sails hotel to the Garden Grove, CA Elks Lodge location last used the year before I first attended. That said, it wasn't that much of a backpedal -- Still a three-day weekender with a secondary stage, and with some very heavy-hitting bands on the bill, like former headliners The Bomboras and The Boss Martians in addition to top-tier gets Los Straitjackets and Slacktone.

60's surf music is magical, and while countless people have modified it and expanded it, nobody has ever replaced it. For some, it's a guiding light to strive towards. I think that was the idea behind these albums, at least to some extent.

Los Straitjackets were, and perhaps still are, the biggest band in modern surf music, regularly finding their way onto large festival lineups that actual non-weird people went to and making several appearances on Conan O'Brien's show. And then... nothing changed. They continued playing, there were some health issues, but they never really quit.

The final chunk of the Top 100 Surf Records of the 2010s is here, with plenty of longstanding surf heavyweights but also some great new upstarts. Thank you to everybody that voted on this list and I hope you're satisfied with the results!

Generally I keep this page relegated to playlists, reviews, etc and I try not to do sales and promotional stuff. But I feel like y'all need to know about this.

Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets have been friendcrushin' for a while, with LSJ having joined Lowe as a backing band on a few occasions. That leads us to this album of instrumental Nick Lowe covers. Not too familiar with Nick Lowe? Me neither, but these translate very well and don't simply feel like guitars "singing" vocal parts. Los Straitjackets have long ago expanded their sound past the 60's surf vocabulary, so the latin percussion on "Checkout Time" (for instance) gives you a song that doesn't sound like Nick Lowe or The Surfaris, and "I Read A Lot" takes major cues from exotica. It's a pretty subdued album, often moreso than the originals, but LSJ's musicianship should make this feel fresh no matter what angle you approach from.

Dr. Ike's bi-annual Rock & Roll record collectors' concert extravaganza is back this weekend, a BIG event for us music nerds down here. Though for the most part the lineup is pretty light on surf (Los Straitjackets are backing up Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon), the Sunday night afterparty features none other than Davie Allan and the Arrows, King of the Fuzz Guitar! Hopefully regular listeners are pretty familiar with him, but if you're not he's responsible for the soundtracks to a lot of biker movies.

Disclaimer: I hate Record Store Day and Black Friday, and if it weren't for the fact that they make a lot of money from it, your record store would hate it too. However, it often does bring a few surf records into the world, and I've found in previous years that they're not exactly the hottest items, so you can probably drop by your store at your leisure rather than hop in line at 7 AM. Regardless, I've found a few things that might be of interest to surf nuts.