Though the Phantom Operators never keep you waiting long for more material, this is the second full-length from the Tennessee-based group. When listening to them, there's one word that comes to mind: desolate. The guitars go on and on, but with a bit of a melancholy and not so much of that California brightness. It fits the desert theme that runs thoughout much of the Phantom Operators' material.
That's not to say this is a moper: "Haole A-Go-Go" and "Cannibal Run" are more party-...Read more
Here are 11 originals from Italy's Surfoniani. They've got upright bass, some very drippy guitar and drums, which gel into a bright and sunny modern trad sound. They've got a fair amount of beach party shakers like "Bikini", "Mai Tai Girl", and "Tiki Twist" though also a few cooler ones like "Red Waves". Give it a listen!
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Amphibian Man released an LP less than three months ago, so I certainly wasn't expecting more from them, but I'm glad we got this one. "Speed Power Turbo Racer" also happens to be the name of all four tracks on this, and they all get the point across - this is 100% about speed and power to an almost overwhelming extent. Once you get settled a little bit, there are actually some good melodies driving these songs, and at 4 tracks it's over before it's too much -- unless you find it's too much...Read more
The Kanaloas are the latest group to be brought into the Double Crown gang. Though they've been around for a good while, they stuck to 7"s up until this point and might have passed you by (admittedly, this was the case for me). Now they have an 11-song LP under their belt with a simple but pretty choice of album art that broadcasts one thing loud and clear: "Trad". The Kanaloas perform in suits, and serve up 60's styled originals and a few obscure covers. I haven't gotten a copy of this yet...Read more
The Coffin Daggers' self-titled LP was a mainstay on Storm Surge of Reverb back in the WESU days. It struck a really great balance between loud, thundering power and traditional surf sensibilities. As I've suggested about The Madeira's first record, it would be very difficult for them to ever dethrone that effort due to my...Read more
I've picked up a few Hang-ten Hangmen EPs a while ago and enjoyed the melodies that came through their goofball lo-fi horror sound. Maybe I missed the switch, but this EP seems to have shifted in a more modern trad direction. Not that I didn't like the old version, but the clips I've heard sound like the change has suited them well! It's punchy, bright, bouncy, and well recorded. You can download it from CDbaby...Read more
I don't know too much about Kozyol - despite being based in Portaldn, I'm guessing at least one of their members is Russian, which would explain why some of these songs are in what I assume to be Russian. Definitely pretty funny for me, writing this on a trip to the nation of Georgia and having just gotten back from the Stalin museum. That really doesn't have anything to do with anything.
Kozyol play a loose, jazzy, flamenco-ish surf. Kinda makes me think of Dead Combo or Big Lazy,...Read more
The Moths keep at a pretty quick pace both musically and in terms of a release schedule, with 3 releases since last January. Like those others, this is aggressive, loud, and rude. The Moths are only a 3-piece, so they rule with tight playing and power rather than intricacy and composition. And that's fine, they do it well. Free download, give it a try.Read more
Though recently released, this one is actually pretty old! I'll go ahead and quote their bandcamp page here.
Here is our Incredably difficult second release which has taken nine years to actually release. We got carried away with the recording by using way to many mics on the guitar amp and way too many takes multi tracking and adding extra instruments computers were a lot slower nine years ago and we ended up with an over welming 26 Gigabytes of sound files.
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Spaghetti Western and surf have become closer and closer friends in the 2000's and onward, to the point where by now surf groups have taken the guitar parts of Morricone, broken them down and rearranged them so much as to have built their own vocabulary with them. What I'm saying is that while there's a recognizable Spaghetti Western sound to Los Tiros, nobody is mistaking them for a Sergio Leone soundtrack. It's much wilder, much less restrained, more horsepower (hee haw), more punk than...Read more
This is the debut album from The Syndicate, and it features a slew of covers from punk legends like the Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Seeds, The Dictators. Despite those clear influences, the resulting sound is definitely more surf than punk, full of reverb and twang and adding a brightness and spaciousness to songs that often didn't have them in their original form. If you didn't know what you were listening to, you might not even realized it's a cover the first time you hear it --and that's a...Read more
As far as I can tell this is the first non-demo release from Mexico's La Venganza de San Carlos. It's some good ol' no-bullshit high-energy surf with a punk influence. It's there to make a racket and hopefully get you to spasm a bit. Sometimes that's all I really want from surf -- that was often the case in the 60's, and even though it sounds different today there's still some people out there making the same unassuming but fun stuff. Give it a listen, have some fun, it's a free download!...Read more
Mike Barbwire has been busy with rockabilly outfit The Dragtones for a bit, and while there have been some good n crunchy instrumental bits for us to enjoy there, it's his work with The Barbwires/Blue Ocean Orchestra that really make me lose control. The Barbwires' Searider is a desert island disc for me, and the subsequent 7"s have been just as frenzied, lush, and memorable. So here's another one!
Here's what I know: it's a 7" on blue vinyl. It's on Sleazy Records, and it's...Read more
I believe this is the debut EP from Germany's Toxic Mutants. Fittingly, their sound is dirty and growling. It gets especially sludgy on "Formicula" and "Attack of the Killer Funghi", both of which culminate in a satisfying meltdown. Even their most upbeat tune has a dirty rumble to it. This all comes across very well thanks to time well spent in the studio, so that sludge is nice and crisp just how I like it.
Free download on bandcamp!
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It's funny that the two surf albums I find today both have hand-drawn covers (the other being Los Pollos Caipiras). The wafflers are a pretty easy-going and upbeat trad group with a slight tiki influence. There's two vocal tracks on here that are probably more laid-back than the rest of it, as well as a uke track and a...Read more
More from Brazil! Here we have the debut EP from Los Pollos Caipiras: 6 originals with an aggressive, modern, semi-Astro-man sound. As much as I tend to go for the wilder songs like "Praia da Estação", I think the winner on this one is the bendy, lurching "Surfando na serra do cipó".Read more
The Aloha Sluts have a brand new 7" out on Tombstone Records Holland. It's got 4 songs on it and features some great-as-usual artwork from Shawn Dickinson. The only thing I've heard from it is from the preview below, but the rest of their material to date has been punchy and fun -- surfy enough for trad fans, but pretty loud too.Read more
Per Mutations has eight members listed. I'm not sure if that's all at once but their sound is diverse enough that I might think so. Surfing in the Phenomenal World has moments of reverby surfy-ness, but less than they suggest, with flashes of shoegaze, spaghetti western, maybe even some Tom Waits... all the while sounding pretty fun and cohesive. Reminds me a bit of The Tomorrowmen's Futourism in its non-pretentious adventurousness. A...Read more
If you've been listening to The Fathoms, you've been playing it safe! Ugh, sorry, I'm pretty sure this band has nothing to do with The Fathoms, these guys are out of Austin, TX playing horror-surf. While mostly comprised of originals, there's some choice covers of Famous Monsters, The Ghastly Ones, and MOAM. The gloomy, creepy guitars get charged up by some surprisingly explosive and eager drumming. If you're a horror-surf fan, point your ears this-a-way....Read more
I had recently been wondering what happened to noisy instrumentalist BRANKO, and after a four-year absense he returns! Not much different since then, 2 noisy weirdo instros. I hope this means there's more to come.Read more
