The thing with really good bands is that it's almost never just one creative force. The Madeira were a really good band, and though as lead guitarist of the group Ivan Pongracic was sort of the figurehead (Space Cossacks pedigree contributes too!) , I think I've even seen him point out how many songwriting credits go to Patrick O'Connor. In the time since The Madeira cooled down to apparent hibernation, Patrick's been in several garage-pop groups catering to the sci-fi con crowd, most prominently The Shake-Ups (who have been around for twenty years!). But now he (along with some members of The Shake-Ups, lest I ironically single out Patrick as the sole creative force) are back to surf with Thee Leviathans.

So it's May and my attempt to finish the Gremmys earlier each year is clearly going in the opposite direction despite this being the easiet category. I barely have to do anything! I simply call upon some friends in the surf world and see what they think of this year's crop of surf music so that they may either validate my opinions or alleviate the guilt I feel from omitting certain releases. I'd like to point out that the blame for the tardiness lies on me, and that a few of these were submitted 1-3 months ago.