These guys may trace their roots to a surf sound, might even call themselves surf sometimes, but their sound is undeniably modern and often unto themselves. Surf isn't a code to live by, and Instro is a genre of possibilities meant to be explroed and tinkered with.

There were no shortage of good records for this category, and it was extremely difficult for me to choose between them. I'm looking forward to publishing this so I can stop agonizing and be done with it!

This is my own terminology here, but the rad category is for the instro bands that thrive on adrenaline. Moreso than the other categories, a lot of these show punk and metal influences. It also rhymes with trad, and I like it more than "aggro".

Honorable Mentions

What constitutes trad surf? After all, a lot of the bands on here won't often be mistaken for 60's recordings, there's definitely kind of a modern trad sound.  Without getting too deep into it, these bands love that surf sound. Some bands would rather be called instro, not something as limiting as surf. Not a problem for these guys. I think of it this way: You, trad surf artist, walk up to the lunch lady wearing your baby blue suit:

We're kicking off the 2015 Gremmy Awards with the least musical award, but one that I love. Despite my love of Bo Diddley, I DO judge a book by looking at its cover, at least initially. Perhaps instro gets a little too wrapped up with the aesthetics and tropes that have been used since the 60's, but there are absolutely plenty of bands using art that's fresh and alluring. Enough that I had to make some hard decisions about who NOT to include.

2015 is drawing to a close which means it's time for the second annual Gremmy Awards, where I espouse my very personal opinions on all the surf/instro music I've heard this year. There's issues with doing something like this: I've listened to a TON, but I haven't listened to all of it, and I have probably listened to each one less than a normal person would listen to any album they've purchased.