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The Obsidians - Notre Histoire

The Obsidians - Notre Histoire

After feeding myself a pretty ample helping of Bomboras while writing , it was pretty nice to jump from such a high energy level to one that could compete! The Obsidians aren't exactly high profile: No label, simple album art, basic online presence, I believe they don't have members from previous surf bands, and I don't see them mentioned in many festival lineups.

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The Hang-Ten Hangmen - After the Storm EP

The Hang-Ten Hangmen - After the Storm EP

I have some old EPs from The Hang-Ten Hangmen dating back to 2010, playing trashy lo-fi surf with a bit of a dark edge to them. They turned that around with their much more bright and bouncy EP "Destination Saturn", which had some great expensive-sounding production and beach party vibes. They followed that up in 2018 with their LP "This is Boss", which doubled down on the party feeling with big foot-stomping vibes, sax, and keeping guitar tones fairly clean.

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The Surfrajettes - Roller Fink

The Surfrajettes - Roller Fink

The Surfrajettes are the biggest ambassadors of surf music to emerge in a while, largely stemming from the viral success of their "Toxic" youtube video. I've caught them being played on my radio station by other DJs, several friends have sent me the aforementioned video, and my friends at a record store alerted me to this album being in stock when I walked in for Record Store Day without my asking.

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The New Shaker Sex Addicts - We're In This Together EP

The New Shaker Sex Addicts - We're In This Together EP

The over-the-the top party feeling that you get from a band name that seemingly promises you both sex and (presumably) butt-shaking feels kind of ironically imposed when you actually listen to this album. It’s not sad or particularly listless or anything, it’s totally danceable, but there’s a sour and strange feeling to this. My first thought was a sort of vaporwave via surf, but I think something closer would be a Twin Peaks comparison. Not so much directly to Angelo Badalamenti, but the feel of the show itself.

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The Head Henchmen - Oh No! It's the Head Henchmen

The Head Henchmen - Oh No! It's the Head Henchmen

This music isn’t about commercial success, so just about everybody’s in it for fun. So it feels kind of wrong to judge a band by how much fun it sounds like they’re having, but damn if these guys don’t sound like they’re having a little more fun than the rest.

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CARLO release CARLO LP

Go to their bandcamp page and it says released January 18th and I've been listening to this one since then, but they told me their album release date was March 30th so I waited a bit. With that extra time I've been trying to nail down what it is I like about CARLO but it remains elusive. It's hard to even pick out a real standout track, as I've found this record is best taken as a whole. It's the mood really, laid-back and adventurous at once, like a day trip to a swimming hole.

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The Cavaleros release Atomic! The Album

The Cavaleros - Atomic! The Album

After a series of great EPs, The Cavaleros have finally gone and put an album together. If you've been following them this far, nearly all of these will be familiar to you. Heck, half of them are covers, so that might still be the case if you've never heard them. Still, there's reason to be excited, because The Cavaleros are exciting! Their loud and raw sound is fast and punchy and just the right amount of lo-fi. It takes a special breed to do a Link Wray cover that doesn't just make you want to hear the original and The Cavaleros do that twice. Their originals fit in perfectly too.

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The Catamounts release St Nuomatic

The Catamounts - St Nuomatic

This is the second LP from Winnipeg's The Catamounts. Though there's plenty here for the guitar nuts among us, there's an equal helping of organ - not the fun, mod go-go kind, but more of a crazed, mysterious, atmospheric kind. So now it's sounding like a horror surf record, and yeah it could probably sit well on your halloween playlist, but they're more about intrigue and mystery - hence covers of The Sicilian Clan and You Only Live Twice. It's not too deep in the fog -- there's a cover of The Wedge that isn't too far off the map.

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