September 4th, Daikaiju posted an image on social media announcing the final week of their tour. I can't find it, but I thought I made a comment along the lines of "You'll be back in a month". October 2nd, they announce the beginnings of a 3-week tour with four dates in Louisiana. I'm here getting excited about seeing Surfrajettes touring New Orleans because nobody tours all the way down here. I mean Surfrajettes are one of the slim few surf groups with enough clout to manage a tour outside their region. Except Daikaiju. Multiple times a year. They're the exception to the rule. They feel like an exception to every rule.

Daikaiju have been around for 20 years and in that time have performed... I'm gonna take a conservative guess and say 2000 shows. And yet in that span they've only released three albums. That isn't a suggestion that they should *do more*, because they're about as active as any band I know, it's just surprising.

We're getting near the final picks of the top records of the decade as voted upon by surf fans around the world, and this partincular chunk has a lot of the heavyweights of today's modern surf scene. I was also pleasantly surprised to see how many newcomers on the scene found their way in! You can see the rest here. 

Instro is imaginative and open-ended, and the album art can absolutely affect the way we listen to and interpret an album. Here are some of my favorites from this year.

Honorable Mentions

Hypnotzar - Cold Streams of Taiga

While this blog is mostly focused surf fans worldwide, I can't not let Louisianans know about a few things this week.

Daikaiju's shows are absolutely nuts. While I think it's best that you go in blind, here's a video in case you need convincing.

The Unnaturals will also be there in case you haven't seen one of our finest instro groups already.

Facebook page for the event here