This is a category for things that don't fit into other categories or that I feel need to be mentioned as notes about the year. Some of these show up year-to-year, some don't. It's freeform!
Label of the Year
Hi-Tide Recordings
There have been years where this has been a tough call. This year it was pretty plain. The Babalooneys and Surfrajettes won Gremmy Awards, Scimitars and Messer Chups were honorable mentions and I put some thought into including Bloodshot Bill's LP too. No other label came close to that sort of output. I haven't been keeping score but I'd reckon they've won this more than any other label. I'd seen some speculation online that Vincent and Magdalena's focus had shifted with the creation of a soul label, the decision not to do another Summer Holiday, and the opening of a record store, but this sort of output strongly disagrees with that notion.
Best Trend
More zines!
I've remarked to people about how well remarkably well organized this music is. We've got a bunch of radio shows, several websites, multiple international festivals, and we already had at least two print zines with a long-running history: The Continental and Pipeline. I'll admit that I'm a pretty infrequent reader and I often don't get around to reading those cover-to-cover, but I better up my appetite because now we have two more! There's the impeccably designed Reverb International, springing from the new House of Tabu label, sort of a sister mag to Exotica Moderne. And then you've got Colorado Instrumental Fanzine, which Matthew Clark has truly thrown himself into -- I believe he's already on his 4th issue in a smidge more than a year. It's a Colorado fanzine in the same way Storm Surge of Reverb is a New Orleans surf show, so basically it's all-encompassing.
It is kinda funny to me that we have four print magaizines and I'm the only guy out there writing stuff on a website, but I guess this is a retro-styled music. It's called the world wide web guys, there's room for more of us on here! Anyway, I'm a big believer in more more more, and that's what I like here. There was nothing that I thought needed fixing with The Continental and Pipeline -- I'll still try to grab each and every one -- but I'd rather have too much than not enough.
Worst Trend. Possibly Ever.
AI Surf Music
The article I wrote about AI surf music has been among the most shared things I've written. I've appreciated seeing people on facebook basically shout these people out of the room, and I'm pleased to say that while I've seen plenty more since writing that article, I don't think its pace has accelerated. That said, I've seen gray areas like somebody playing guitar over an AI backing track, and I've heard something that would might have fooled me if not for them being transparent enough to put "Created in Udio Music" at the bottom. I might write a follow-up at some ponit.
I should reiterate a point from that article however: the sort of people it affects most is me. I don't think AI surf music will gain enough traction to sell over 100 copies. With zero live shows, no chance of an interview, they forfeit a lot of the most typical means of promotion. It confounds the people that are looking everywhere for surf music and bringing it to everybody else.
Best False DIck Dale
Mick Beaulieu - Seashore
Great track that somehow sounds like early and late Dick Dale at the same time (despite ending with Rumble). Thunderous lows, the same sorta grit, and high notes sharp as hell. Whole album is a lot of fun, even if it strays from that sound.
Best Actual DIck Dale (By Default)
"Rhythm Surfer", "Rhythm Surfer Intro" and "Inside the Set"
Did you know there were "new" Dick Dale songs this year? Obviously he's pretty dead at this point, but here he is on a 2024 release on tracks he recorded in 2013. "Rhythm Surfer" and "Rhythm Surfer Intro" of course feature Dick Dale on guitar, though not exactly a surf song. If you've seen or heard Dick Dale speak for any amount of time he'd let you that he has always seen himself as a drummer as well, and that's what he's doing on "Inside the Set", accompanied by Dave Catching on guitar.
He's just a part of this concept album and it's not really essential surf, but it's something you ought to know about!
Best Surf Music Video
Fifty Foot Combo - Golden Hour
Admittedly, I rarely watch surf music videos. But this has gotta be the one, right? Five minutes long, all animated, psychedlic, hypnotic, inescapable mood, and the song is excellent too.
Best Sounding Surf Record
The Babalooneys - Late to the Party
I think this album is phenomenal, and it really seems like many people agree. But one thing that I've noticed as a reviewer is that I don't give a bad sounding record a fair shake... and I can get very wooed by a great sounding surf record. While I *really* think these are well written/arranged/played songs, I also kind of feel like... even if it were just a beautifully engineered surf record, isn't that enough? If it *sounds* like surf bliss, well sound is the only thing we're dealing with here!
Late to the Party doesn't go lo-fi to masquerade as 60's (there's plenty of great sounding 60's surf anyway). Every instrument sounds beautiful, clear, and close, scooping you up and showering you with surfsound.
Guillaume Chiasson was the recording engineer, and I couldn't find a great list of bands he's worked with, though he's a member of an indie rock group called Bon Enfant. Mixing and mastering was done by a familiar one though, Mr. Shorty Poole, the Short of Shorty's Swingin' Coconuts!
I think that's all I've got for this year. Just one more category from here: Guest Gremmys!
