The opening track “Song of the Samurai” establishes the vital statistics of this band: speed, guitar pyrotechnics -- stuff I like but not necessarily standout features. Good song, but there’s more to this band. Cherokee Astro generate a good momentum but also a good sense of warmth and emotion in here.

I normally have a rule for what I post on this site: over half of the album has to be instrumental. For Davie I'll bend it: 3 instrumentals, 4 vocal tracks.

Here's a fun project. This is a split LP between Surfer Joe and the Kilaueas, each taking a side on the vinyl version. Most of the tracks on here are covers of The Astronauts, and in a pretty faithful manner (no psychedelic Baja). The few originals are in the style of the Astronauts. For Surfer Joe, that means some deep-ass reverb -- that's the stuff! For the Kilaueas they added another guitarist to mimic the Astronauts' 3-guitar setup.

Crazy Aces have made a name in the surf world, but I think of them as more of a Ventures-styled band -- more twangy than drippy and focused primarily on melody. If you've enjoyed their previous records, I think you'll be all over "Scorpions", "Rudy's Revenge" and "Chop and Channel". It's hard to pick a favorite among them. Then they try their hand at spaghetti western with "Trail of the Mystery Men" which is much more cinematic sounding than I expect from them. They trade off a steady drum beat for for acoustic strumming, strings and background vocals.

The Razorblades have been a staple of Germany's instro scene for well over a decade now and I believe this is their fifth LP. Since I hadn't heard a full Razorblades record since Twang Machine in 2009, I was wondering whether they had changed things up a bit, especially since their video for this album featured a pretty significant amount of vocals.

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 here.

I was a fan of The Twang-o-Matics' Fretboard Mojo but they really let loose on their new LP Rock Havoc! The cover alone suggests a collision of surf sounds and spaghetti western, but there's also moments of the jungle, arab-esque themes, and it's hard to not think rockabilly with that stand-up bass sound. It's meaner, faster, angrier, and packs a bigger punch. Some of this might be from the stellar production (maybe they got some tips from their countrymen Los Plantronics?).

Wow! It's been 7 years since Atomic Mosquitos released their last LP Meltdown, and I've played that one an awful lot in the meantime. I was curious what Bug Music for Bug People was going to sound like. I seem to remember an email a long time ago where they told me that they weren't as happy with Meltdown as I was, and really what CAN you expect a band to sound like 7 years later?

This looks like the first record in about 5 years from the masters of moody surf The Aqua Velvets, and if you were already a fan you should feel right at home. If you're new to them, expect slow, perhaps lonely surf guitar with flamenco touches, sparse percussion, and still plenty of reverb. I'd put them close to a band like Friends of Dean Martinez but still on the surf side. Big Lazy sound similar as well, but the Aqua Velvets predate them significantly.

Alabama is a hotspot for instro music. Louisiana is... well, it has some. Mississippi, to my knowledge, has Buddy & the Squids. This is the second release by the lone Mississippi group, and it's more ambitious than their last, with a progressive Mermen-ish sound to it. Unfortunately shortly after the release of this record the band has geographically split up, with their drummer Daniel Guaqueta heading up to California (where he tells me he's been hanging with The Mermen's guitarist Jim Thomas), and the bassist is in Kansas.