Tikiyaki 5-0 are a smaller, more portable and guitar-focused version of The Tikiyaki Orchestra. While Tikiyaki Orchestra had no problem finding fans in the surf crowd, this is more surf than exotica, even when they're covering Arthur Lyman's "Taboo", which manages to finish with a rousing crescendo -- definitely a favorite on this EP. That said, "Song of Delilah" and Les Baxter's "Enchanted Sea" keep a bit more of an exotica mood. For the surf nuts, there's a cover of Zorba and the Greeks' "Shockwave" and a killer original "Supernova" that is 100% pedal-to-the-metal surf.

These are groups that have surf somewhere in their DNA but have reshaped it into something much different. What falls in and out of this category is pretty subjective to my own whims, as most of it is going to fall into "not really surf". Some of them are familiar cousins to surf, some are somethin' else altogether. Let's just get rolling with it.

Honorable Mentions