It's hard to beat surf music in Southern California. Surfguitar101 was ostensibly a meetup for online forum members with a nice lineup of 10 bands, Today it stands as the premiere surf event of the US and possibly the world, with a globe-spanning lineup of over twenty bands, and I believe Saturday night was the biggest I'd ever seen it. Organizer Jeff "BigTikiDude" Hanson, modest pool cleaner by day, has been slowly tweaking the event and his support team to grow the event organically into something uncompromisingly accessible and genuine.

The final chunk of the Top 100 Surf Records of the 2010s is here, with plenty of longstanding surf heavyweights but also some great new upstarts. Thank you to everybody that voted on this list and I hope you're satisfied with the results!

The final stop of my 2019 tour of surf music festivals brought me to Asbury Park New Jersey for the newly named Hi-Tide Summer Holiday. The previous Asbury Park surf festivals boasted excellent lineups, and Magdalena and Vincent have done a fantastic job of building not only a label, but a brand that seems to be widening the appeal of surf music and culture. I was really excited to finally get a chance to see it for myself.

It's time to take that yearly trip over to the west coast for the premiere Surf festival in the US: The Surfguitar101 Convention. After a nice day on the El Segundo Beach, a nice meet & greet, and a warm-up at The Purple Orchid on Friday, I woke up Saturday ready for a day immersed in surf music.

I learned from past experience that I should have cash in-hand and show up at least an hour early. I took a half-second to behold the strange and wonderful sight of the Alpine Lodge, and proceeded inside where I paid my admission to familiar friendly faces.

First symposium was an overview of surf music in Italy, hosted by White Seed. A topic so obviously relevant I was surprised it hadn’t been done yet! Furthermore, it was one that I felt shamefully unaware of. While I knew of several bands within the past 10 years or so, I knew of nearly zip in the 60’s. So we had a few choice examples, including some vocal surf pop from back in the day, through the 80’s (including a mention of Dome la Muerte from Friday).

This was my second year at SG101 and tell ya right off the bat: it's a ton of fun and if you've ever thought about going you should go.

Insect Surfers have been around since 1979 and somehow still manage to sound progressive while true to their sound. Datura Moon has that signature out-in-the-open guitar sound and a tendency for what seems like a semi-straightforward surf riff to drift away into a psychedelic whirlwind.