Spaghetti Western and surf have become closer and closer friends in the 2000's and onward, to the point where by now surf groups have taken the guitar parts of Morricone, broken them down and rearranged them so much as to have built their own vocabulary with them. What I'm saying is that while there's a recognizable Spaghetti Western sound to Los Tiros, nobody is mistaking them for a Sergio Leone soundtrack. It's much wilder, much less restrained, more horsepower (hee haw), more punk than Morricone would ever even think about. And that's not only fine, it rules.

This is the debut album from The Syndicate, and it features a slew of covers from punk legends like the Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Seeds, The Dictators. Despite those clear influences, the resulting sound is definitely more surf than punk, full of reverb and twang and adding a brightness and spaciousness to songs that often didn't have them in their original form. If you didn't know what you were listening to, you might not even realized it's a cover the first time you hear it --and that's a good thing.

As far as I can tell this is the first non-demo release from Mexico's La Venganza de San Carlos. It's some good ol' no-bullshit high-energy surf with a punk influence. It's there to make a racket and hopefully get you to spasm a bit. Sometimes that's all I really want from surf -- that was often the case in the 60's, and even though it sounds different today there's still some people out there making the same unassuming but fun stuff. Give it a listen, have some fun, it's a free download!

I believe this is the debut EP from Germany's Toxic Mutants. Fittingly, their sound is dirty and growling. It gets especially sludgy on "Formicula" and "Attack of the Killer Funghi", both of which culminate in a satisfying meltdown. Even their most upbeat tune has a dirty rumble to it. This all comes across very well thanks to time well spent in the studio, so that sludge is nice and crisp just how I like it.

Free download on bandcamp!

It's funny that the two surf albums I find today both have hand-drawn covers (the other being Los Pollos Caipiras). The wafflers are a pretty easy-going and upbeat trad group with a slight tiki influence. There's two vocal tracks on here that are probably more laid-back than the rest of it, as well as a uke track and a goofy percussion number.

More from Brazil! Here we have the debut EP from Los Pollos Caipiras: 6 originals with an aggressive, modern, semi-Astro-man sound. As much as I tend to go for the wilder songs like "Praia da Estação", I think the winner on this one is the bendy, lurching "Surfando na serra do cipó".

Per Mutations has eight members listed. I'm not sure if that's all at once but their sound is diverse enough that I might think so. Surfing in the Phenomenal World has moments of reverby surfy-ness, but less than they suggest, with flashes of shoegaze, spaghetti western, maybe even some Tom Waits... all the while sounding pretty fun and cohesive. Reminds me a bit of The Tomorrowmen's Futourism in its non-pretentious adventurousness. A pleasant surprise and over way too soon.

If you've been listening to The Fathoms, you've been playing it safe! Ugh, sorry, I'm pretty sure this band has nothing to do with The Fathoms, these guys are out of Austin, TX playing horror-surf. While mostly comprised of originals, there's some choice covers of Famous Monsters, The Ghastly Ones, and MOAM. The gloomy, creepy guitars get charged up by some surprisingly explosive and eager drumming. If you're a horror-surf fan, point your ears this-a-way.

This is the first I've heard from Amphibian Man, though it appears they actually had another release earlier this year. These Ukrainians play some aggressive lo-fi surf with some big growling bass guitar while still managing to sound pretty trad.

I had recently been wondering what happened to noisy instrumentalist BRANKO, and after a four-year absense he returns! Not much different since then, 2 noisy weirdo instros. I hope this means there's more to come.