Just two months ago Blackball Bandits released their debut demo, which I thought was too good to be called a demo. They've also called this one a demo, and at this point they're really pushing it. This is a little bit different than the last one: not as rough-and-tumble, less punk and less spaghetti western.

Earlier this year we got a surprise album dropped on us by Swami John Reis of Hot Snakes (backed by the also excellent The Blind Shake). Pounded by the Surf aren't as outward about their alter-ego, but there was enough here to be suspicious: their album is exceptionally well-produced, came out of nowhere and they're touring both the US and Europe...

The Illumignarly come out swinging with the quick and powerful track "Beeriodic Table of Sharks" but as you get a little further into that you hear a moment of spaciness that hints at the couple of prog elements that come out in "Neo Rubicon" and "Cannibal Castration" (a vocal track). "Tall Can" and "Dude I Like Your Shredder" are 100% surf rock shredding material. This is a pretty impressive EP with a lot of ideas in it and a whole lot of oomph.

Par Avion clearly love the surf sound, but don't let it get in the way when they have other ideas. "Unchained Melody" has a great Duane Eddy meets modern-surf twang to it and sets the tone well for the rest of the album. But then the song "Par Avion" has a less motivated, more post-punk melancholy to it. Then the next song features a cello, the next one has a great orchestral spaghetti western sound to it, but then there's a pretty straightforward cover of Misirlou.

It's been 50 years since Apache '65, the first LP by the Arrows, and Davie Allan has released TWO albums to commemorate this. He explained this in the interview I did with him the other day: he was working on the 50th Anniversary album and was worried that the people at Curb records were taking too long to clear the rights to those songs, so he went ahead and started working on King of the Fuzz.

Should I post demos as releases? Yes, because I'm digging this. Blackball Bandits clearly have a Western angle to them evidenced in their (great) medley of Ennio Morricone classics, but it also evokes the west in that wide-open-road way on "Azteca Verano", AND in the Roswell, New Mexico way on their opening track. It's got a great mean edge to it that sometimes reminds me of Speedball Jr, though maybe that's just name association. A lot of disparate sounds coming together naturally and sensibly and, most importantly, enjoyably.

From what I can tell this is the first release under the Surfaris name since 2005's Wipe Out (which seems to be a completely different version from the 60's version we all know). The lineup here includes original guitarist Bob Berryhill. Haven't been able to dig up information on any other members, but this doesn't include Jim Fuller.

You gotta be careful looking for surf rock on Burger Records. They're home to an awful lot of the bands that are muddying up the term. You know, garage bands with a lot of reverb on the vocals, stuff derived from Wavves, Black Lips etc. And right from the first track one might think that's the case here, with summery girl-group-garage sing-a-long vocals, but I urge you to stay! The next track is "Swedish Fish", a rippin' surf instro with punchy, splashy percussion free of pretention and all about fun.

The Tiki Creeps' debut last year was definitely a standout, so I'm glad they've kept that momentum up by releasing a followup. They haven't shaken up the formula much: a solid mix of cool low-tempo numbers (perhaps the tiki part of their name) and a few with the guitars howlin'. "Ride Creeps Ride" is actually a bit of a twistin' number, something missing from their last one.

Ever since they released the video for Tunak Tunak Tun on Youtube over a year ago, I've been getting more and more excited for the release of The Tomorrowmen's new album. Looks like tomorrow became today hur hur. Their Double Crown Records debut "It's About Time" was the exactly the sort of forward-thinking brand of instro that keeps this genre alive. It's immediately apparently that that spirit was kept intact on Futourism, and that a tremendous amount of thought and love was poured into this.