It's been, oh, 60 years since the surfquake and music has changed significantly. Everybody reading this website recognizes that there was something special in surf music, but it can also be crossbred to make new amazing sounds. You don't have to be trying to forge something new, sometimes you're just making the music that makes sense to you. No matter the case, here are the standouts in modernized surf music this year.

I think album art is important. It can not only grab your eye and coax you into listening to a record, but it can inform the listening experience. Surf has developed a strong library of iconography over the years, not to mention a stable of excellent go-to artists. I always enjoy taking a moment to look into who these artists are and recognize them for giving a little more life to this music.

The Del-Vipers shot out like a rocket with their debut LP Terror of the Del-Vipers, then carried that momentum onto the more musically diverse EP Cannibal Safari. So you might be a little a little startled by how unstartling this album starts: with with friendly, sweet Shadows-ey guitar. On their second LP, The Del-Vipers have crafted a much more global, expansive sound that does more than just rip... but also still rips.

Well I thought today would be Bandcamp Friday. I typed up this whole article and then checked isitbandcampfriday.com and apparently the next one is in September. It's nice to have a roundup of reviews anyway. Here's some notable stuff to come out since the last one of these I made.

Here are the next 20 selections from our Top 100 Surf Records of the 2010s chosen by surf fans. Admittedly, as with 100-81 the vote counts weren't quite high enough to determine heirarchy easily, so my own input certainly comes into play, though things will get more clear-cut as we go. Enjoy!

Saturday March 23rd we're having a night of wild guitar action at the tiki bar Portside Lounge here in New Orleans. All $12 of your money goes to WTUL and therefore to support Storm Surge of Reverb.

Rad is a dumb term I use to describe more loud, aggro, punk influenced surf. I chose it because it rhymes with trad.

In 2014 the Del-Vipers came out of nowhere (technically Austin, TX) with the relentlessly charging Terror of the Del-Vipers, one of my favorite surf records of the 2010s. It's hard to believe it's only been 4 years since we've heard anything new from them, but Cannibal Safari is a welcome return. The opener "Cobra's Fang" is exactly the stuff from Terror, an aggressive first strike with pounding surf beat. "Kapu" is a bit more of a stomper, not quite subdued but dialing the tempo back from a 10 to an 8 or so.

Welcome to the first category of the first Annual Gremmy Awards, in which we'll line up what I consider to be the prettiest surf records of 2014. Any medium is fair game in both the artistic sense and the recording sense. There were a lot to choose from this year and a lot of great ones that didn't make the cut here. If you feel like something got overlooked, go ahead and leave a comment. By the way, given that this award is about art, I'm using the highest quality images I had on-hand, so be patient while it loads.