The final day of Surfer Joe started a bit later, which was great because that was the case for me too. Us VIPs were treated to a breakfast more in line with what I would expect from Surfer Joe diner, including pancakes, bacon, sausage, croissants etc. Each day of these breakfasts was great.

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).

Part of what sold me on Surfer Joe was the symposiums. I like having a moment to talk and learn about topics inside or around surf music, and I watched a few of the ones that were posted online in years past. So I registered at VIP level (an extra $30 or whatever wasn’t much in the grand scheme of airfare and lodging) and headed over around noon.

After years of ogling pictures of footage from previous Surfer Joe festivals I decided to go ahead and buy that expensive plane ticket and see the world’s premier surf music festival for myself.

First time it’s a new thing, second time it’s getting official, third time it’s a ritual.

Here's a fun project. This is a split LP between Surfer Joe and the Kilaueas, each taking a side on the vinyl version. Most of the tracks on here are covers of The Astronauts, and in a pretty faithful manner (no psychedelic Baja). The few originals are in the style of the Astronauts. For Surfer Joe, that means some deep-ass reverb -- that's the stuff! For the Kilaueas they added another guitarist to mimic the Astronauts' 3-guitar setup.

Italy meets Brazil! Surfer Joe and The Dead Rocks were touring Brazil together and recorded this impromptu session while doing an interview. Now we get to hear it! 2 tracks of trad surf, one laid back and one bouncy and fun.

They've got a video that explains it in a much more enjoyable way than I can do.

This is the second Messer Chups LP this year and much like The Incredible Crocotiger it's been hard to find. They made a post on facebook saying it's out and didn't respond to the masses asking "where?".

From what I'm gathering, "Cojonudo" translates to "ballsy", which I think explains the near-nude cover of this record. I say near-nude not because of the guitar, but because I think I spy the strap of his tighty-whities at his hip. Then I realized I was looking at this way too hard.