The reason that I subdivide the Gremmy Awards into so many different categories is because reverbed instrumental guitar music can be and always has been so many different things. "Latin'ia" has a different appeal to it than "Bombora". I often refer to this category as the music with more of a punk and metal influence "added into it", but isn't that circular? You're not going to find much music with the same dark intensity as "Misirlou" before it, and if you ask me you won't find a whole lot of that intensity for a while after! This is not some sort of infusion to weaponize surf music, it's following surf music further down a path that it started. 

SurfGuitar101 is back and, to embrace cliche, bigger than ever. This year organizer Jeff "BigTikiDude" Hanson partnered with a few other organizers, dropped the moniker of Convention, and moved to the 3-day weekender model, held at the Golden Sails hotel, where I failed to get a room before it filled up.

It's been 4 years since The Irradiates' last LP Revenge of the Plants and though we've had some Arno de Cea & the Clockwork Wizards albums to keep us happy in the meantime, it might be a little disheartening to see that this is a collection of rarities, unreleased tracks and live cuts if you were expecting an album.

2015 is done, and it was pretty damn good. But there's already some things looming on the horizon for 2016 to get really excited about.

The Coffin Daggers

Why not start with the one we'll likely see soonest? Coming in February, The Coffin Daggers have their next LP Aggravatin' Rhythms (above) ready for preorder with by far their silliest album art to date. Loved everything they've done so far, so I'm in line.

Throughout his work in Stef & Arno, Antena Tres, The Irradiates, and Arno De Cea & The Clockwork Wizards, Arno de Cea has proven himself to be one one hell of a psycho, frantic, and all around excellent guitar player. At some point calling it "surf rock" sounds too leisurely, not desperate enough, no matter how big the imaginary wave. From the very first note of "Bug Terminal" it's loud, huge, bold, and so hyperactive that I struggle to come up with some sort of activity that this would be suitable for. Catastrophe rock? Apocalypse rock?

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.