Surf is usually a very analog type of music, but Mexico's Los Jinetes Del Terror chose to ignore that. The entire record has an electric buzz (and fuzz) to it. They're not afraid to put their keyboards, drum machine or any digital effects front and center. But make no mistake, the guitars are loud, fuzzy and frantic as hell, and the end result is nicely balanced I think. It might need a bit for surf fans to adjust to, but sometimes those are the best records in the end.
They've...Read more
Vacations hail from the ever-musical Athens, Georgia. Nightmare Beach appears to be their debut EP and it's got 4 quick-picked, adrenaline fueled instros on it for you to sink your teeth into.Read more
Wild Cat Stomp is a nice little one-man production from one half of Momo-Sei, a lighthearted rock duo from Japan. I hadn't heard of them before but I got a kick out of this video...Read more
It's been a good while since Los Plantronics' excellent 2011 LP "Organic Voodoo Soup", so they've gotten the ball rolling again by releasing a new 7" called Shortnin Bread. The namesake of the 7" is the same Shortnin' Bread you've heard plenty of times (with vocals) but it also includes "Navajo" which is exactly the sort of big-production high-energy surf I love to hear from these guys.
There's a video for Shortnin Bread on the way, but perhaps more importantly they've promised an LP...Read more
Thankfully not much similarity to the similarly named Lou Reed record, Knoxville's Phantom Operators have been drip-feeding single songs for a few months now and have scooped them all up into a 9-song LP. Some songs like Tiki Patrol and Charlie's Point are pretty trad, but it finds a darker place as it moves on. Definitely get a bit of an Insect Surfers/Derangers vibe.Read more
Hodaddys play some fun-in-the-sun trad surf with a bit of a hot rod touch to it. Gotta love all the Rat Fink styled art this band has courtesy of Chainsaw Chuck. Based on the samples at newreleasesnow.com, this...Read more
Here we go, 2015! The Sub-Vectors gave me a preview of a few tracks off their new album back in December and I found them mighty tasty. It's big (huge even), loud, of the MOAM school of guitar tone, and really packs a punch. The name (and art) of the CD comes from how Soviet music bootleggers would sometimes press records onto X-Rays. In that vein, the...Read more
Here's one from a continent you don't see too often in instro: The Moths hail from South Africa and their sound reflects the look of the album cover here pretty well. It's raw, ragged, and punk-styled. This three-song live EP and their LP from last year are free to downloadRead more
Mambo Jambo are not a surf band. They've got a sax heavy sound that seems to be aiming straight for the sound that record collectors have collectively dubbed "tittyshaker". There's also some definite jazz and exotica bits to it too. If, like me, they only recently walked into your mental library of instro groups, they've convenvienly put a good chunk of their library on bandcamp.
You can give Esquivo a listen here or purchase it...Read more
I wasn't really sure if Steelism was the sort of group this site should be concerned with when I saw that their LP "615 to Fame" was coming out. I saw it at Louisiana Music Factory and thought "what the hey". Glad I did, it's a pretty great album. Obviously there's a good helping of steel guitar, but they definitely also carry pretty heavy surf influences, with flashes of jazz, country, spy, and there's a surprising amount of fuzz too. It's clever and diverse stuff.
So hot off the...Read more
Based on this and the Speedball Jr 7"s that came out in 2014, there must be some sort of discount going on at a record pressing plant for doing 2 different 7"s. Nobody's complaining though! Russian weirdo surfers The Messer Chups have kicked off 2014 with two 7"s named Jokermobile and Church of Reverb
...Read more
These Chilean folk definitely don't sound like every other band. While the prominent saxophone may be historically common, it's always a little surprising to hear in modern groups. More surprising is the sitar and the Street Fighter "HADOUKEN". But more importantly, their tone is much different, sometimes definitely not always sticking to the major chords, sometimes sounding a little atonal (I'm assuming intentionally).Read more
Plain ol' Peanut-butter-n-Jelly surf instros with an upbeat vibe from Argentina. I found all six tracks enjoyable, and the drummer seems especially eager. Give 'em a quick listen!Read more
Khruangbin have released 3 EPs this year, two of which were teetering on the edge of surf/rock & roll -- and I decided they were over the edge. This one I think is far enough in our camp, and I think they all deserve a listen if you want to hear something different. They're a little surfy, a little jazzy, dreamy, some krautrock in there...
This one is all (mostly obscure) covers and a little more tight than their other EPs. I'll just go ahead and post them all belowRead more
Surfin' Fariseos hail from Chile and love to make a racket. They've got 10 loud and fast instumentals here including 3 covers -- though currently missing an album cover. I think that's a mistake, but sometimes it's nice to listen to something without an album cover telling you how to listen to it. Just me telling you it's pretty raucous. And available for however much you want to pay.Read more
Once I only knew about maybe three Mexican surf bands (Lost Acapulco, Telekrimen, Twin Tones). I always thought it seemed a bit low considering the great things I've heard about the crowds at Mexican surf shows. Bandcamp seemed to open the floodgates, and among other groups, Dr. Tritón came out. This EP is a handful of dark and moody instrumentals to match the album cover. My favorite is probably Pistolera Lady MamacitaRead more
As we head on into December, naturally it's fun to corral all the releases of the past year and do a little retrospective. Which means culling together what's been released. That's what this is. The amount that I have published here is 71 LPs, 44 EPs, and 4 reissues. And it's probably missing a LOT of stuff; I almost forgot to include The Madeira's Sonic Cataclysm so if that slips through, who else knows what did.
So I could use your help! If you know that something's missing, leave a...Read more
If you haven't heard Spindrift before, you better get on it. They've made some absolutely killer Spaghetti Western records and put on an excellent live show. They're not always instrumental, but usually they are, and the one preview we've got here appears to be as well. This appears to be a few extras from their soundtrack to Ghost of the West (which I haven't heard yet!), looks like only three tracks. More than anything, I'm excited to see this on Burger Records, a light-hearted punk label...Read more
Evil Waves hail from Valpraiso Indiana playin' trashy, dark lo-fi instros. They're saying that Vol 2 is following shortly behind in early 2015. Give it a listen!Read more
Tuareg have an interesting thing going. Two guitarists in Middle Eastern garb (from Spain), no other bandmates, with both their album covers depicting them surfing on a wave of feces. That may not be 100% clear on this one, but it is on their previous album cover, where the brown wave comes straight fromthe toilet. It's unique, I'm pretty sure of that, and I don't think anybody's going to steal it. As you might expect, this isn't supposed to be relaxing, it's meant to be loud!Read more
