While I love doing the Gremmy Awards, I hate that so much weighs on my own quirky opinions. Every year there are some great records that don't make the lists but that I genuinely enjoyed, and that feels like a snub. So I started asking a few other people to help out, spread out to different point of views. People that I know are very involved in surf, are following new releases closely, but don't have a platform of their own to espouse their opinions. Three surf nuts from all over the globe have stepped forward. I've given them full reign on how they want to do it.

That's right, every song in today's show was released in 2016. And that's with a lot of good stuff not making the cut. Really excited about this one!

Here's last week's

12/26/26

Instro is imaginative and open-ended, and the album art can absolutely affect the way we listen to and interpret an album. Here are some of my favorites from this year.

Honorable Mentions

Hypnotzar - Cold Streams of Taiga

Surf is no longer the same music that the kids in California were making. It's drawn in influences from all over the place to make its own more open sound. Some of these bands seek to establish new boundaries in what instrumental rock & roll can be, some just make the sound that makes sense to them. Here are the ones that stood out most to me, in no particular order.

This is the stuff that doesn't seem to fit into any other category. The stuff staking out a sound of their own. Not always difficult listening, but definitely fresh.

What is "Rad instro"? Well, I made it up, mostly because "Rad" rhymes with "Trad". There are other words you could use: "aggro" or in the college radio world there's "loud". This is the instro music that's all about power, speed and adrenaline.

Honorable Mentions

Los Tiros - Expertos En Cagarla

Every year the Gremmy Awards gather up and sort out the best of all the surf/instro releases. This prestigious award (a .png file for you to right-click-save-as) is only given to one band (or entity) per category, though there can be any number of Honorable Mentions. There's no real criteria except my own personal nitpicks, biases, and whims -- no voting committee. However, towards the end we'll have a few Guest Gremmys.

Here are the categories.

As I get ready to sum up my favorite surf and instro releases of 2016, it's helpful and fun to make a big ol' list of them, good and bad. Inevitably I've missed a few, so feel free to point them out so I can add them. They're in no order whatsoever

LPs (over 6 songs)

2015 is done, and it was pretty damn good. But there's already some things looming on the horizon for 2016 to get really excited about.