Los Plantronics are a gift from the Norse gods. Their previous record "Organic Voodoo Soup" was a knockout, but also a bit experimental. Often that means strange and moody, but I really mean it wasn't strictly surf, dipping into soul music, boogaloo etc. Check out the song "Cin-a-Delico" from that album for a surf track that tries to be a whole lot more.

The Wrecks House appears to be the brainchild of Leon Daniel, who played for the Monterreys. This is definitely a departure from that sound: much spookier, slower, and mysterious-er with a whole lot of spy sound.

Luau or Die have been a part of the Toronto surf scene for a good while now (there's videos going back to 2009 on Youtube) but for us way far away from Toronto, we can dig this EP. "Dead on the Floor Vol. 1" is comprised of four originals and a cover of "Llorando Se Fue" (I had to look up the original) with quickly picked guitar and tight playing. It's a live album, but very clean and honestly better sounding than an awful lot of surf rock studio recordings.

Recently I talked about how excited I was to hear a new EP from Travelers of Tyme. What I didn't realize at the time (tyme?) was that that was just a prelude to a brand new LP. True to their form, Chronomads is eclectic, mysterious and strange, with all sorts of instrumentation and sounds unique to each song.

Always great to see a surf band with a hefty brass section! Los Coyotes are about equal parts 3rd-wave ska and surf, a combination you don't hear very often. And I think it's working! This is a fun EP, though only 3 songs. Looking forward to hear where a combo like this goes next.

I like to think that I do a pretty good radio show, but having a surf radio show in New Orleans hasn't really started a movement or anything. I know of only 4-ish surf groups in Louisiana, and that's counting some of them as halves. One of those is Baton Rouge's Rondo Hatton (who I'm 99% sure formed with zero influence from my radio show).  

Demon Vendetta's previous LP "Guardians of the Bitter Sea" was absolutely excellent, with one track "Black Skull: Master of the Dark" that will probably be a mainstay on my Halloween show until forever. I had listeners genuinely tell me they were creeped out by it!

The Compadres hail from Ecuador playing fun-in-the-sun trad surf rock. It's got a nice helping of reverb, some nice use of whammy bar here and there, a lil' farfisa, the sound of waves on the shore... all contributing to music for a nice day. While I definitely tend to lean towards the fast and loud songs in most bands, I really think their slower track "Atardecer en la punta" is doing something interesting.

You can give it a listen on bandcamp as well as Google Play, iTunes, Deezer etc.

Intóxicos have been playing live since 2013 and have finally released their first LP "Vila Velha Todo Dia". It's got a wide range of themes and ideas with solid guitar work throughout. I particularly got a kick out of their attempt to make Intoxica more intoxicated in their self-titled track "Intóxicos".

They've also got a pretty fun pixel art video poking fun at the old California Games video games.

For those with weak spanish, these 9 songs were recorded live at place named "Pub Interview" in Bariloche, Argentina. So don't expect an interview, expect fast, loud, and chaotic surf tunes. For a live recording everything comes out sounding pretty nice and gives them a rawness that might have been missing from some of their previous material.