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!

Another Bandcamp Friday where 100% of your purchase benefits the band. Admittedly this one snuck up on me, so forgive me if the reviews are a little hasty, but there's a good chunk of them! Here's some releases that I think warrant your attention. In no particular order.

This category is for surf groups that represent the state of the music today. They're not focused on sounding authentic, they're about making a good surf record while accepting and incorporating the roughly 60 years of music history that happened since the birth of surf music. This description covers most surf bands releasing music today, and it's always really difficult to choose a winner. I cut a lot of great records from this list just to bring it down to this many -- easily the largest category this year! I feel that all of these albums are at the same level as each other, and I'll happily recommend any of them to anybody.

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.

In 2015 Los Freneticos’ album El Sonido Que Perdura was anointed with my Gremmy award for best Trad Surf record of the year (man, I was playing fast and loose with the word "trad" then...). It’s a record that bursts with energy, exuberance and playfulness. Teletransportacion is the follow-up to that record, and though it keeps much of the same sound, it chooses a different style. If El Sonido Que Perdura is an action-packed Saturday afternoon in the sun, Teletransportacion is Sunday at the same spot, cold drink in hand.

What constitutes trad surf? After all, a lot of the bands on here won't often be mistaken for 60's recordings, there's definitely kind of a modern trad sound.  Without getting too deep into it, these bands love that surf sound. Some bands would rather be called instro, not something as limiting as surf. Not a problem for these guys. I think of it this way: You, trad surf artist, walk up to the lunch lady wearing your baby blue suit:

Los Freneticos' previous LP "El Playa" was a great little surf album with plenty of nice tunes, but I didn't see a hint that they were heading towards something as ambitious as this. The description on their bandcamp page calls this "a lesson that reviews the A to Z of contemporary surf rock sound" (translated) and they certainly do make an effort towards that. I believe Los Freneticos are a quintet, but they frequently stretch out a bit further than that with an extensive cast of guest musicians playing flamenco, pedal steel, trumpets etc.