Bandcamp groups are weird. Here we have a group with a name and cover art that suggest nothing spooky, playing subdued Halloween songs with "jive" in the title, plus vintage sound clips of horror films. I know nothing about this band, but I'm digging it all the same.

Thee Imperial Royales have only released one Halloween EP, and they're back again with two Halloween songs. I can dig it. Their bandcamp page says "This is the latest communique from those inside The Black Lodge. It will start with one song, when we say it starts. When you've forgotten, another song may be added. Then another. Soon the story emerges"" Not sure if that means they'll be tacking a few songs onto this? As far as I know this is digital-only so it's a possibility. Give it a listen.

I wouldn't normally post a single song (the other song on this EP is a vocal track) but this is an excellent Halloween song that never gets covered and WJLP released a pretty excellent instro album for free a while back. Enjoy!

I always thought surf and noise rock should hang out more, and that's certainly the case here. ROMANTIC aren't normally a surf group, there's usually a lot more noise and a lot more goth and sometimes a few words, but underneath it all I can confirm that there are surf songs on this EP: especially Misirlou under "blacksurf ii". Check the bandcamp stream out and let me know what you think

Lately I feel like I've been seeing more cassette releases than 7"s. Off the top of my head, there's these guys, Double Crown just released a comp, the Del-Vipers... OK that's all I got right now. Anyway, this one is a bit different from their last LP: I hear less MOAM? influence, and a lot of tempo changes and strange structures that make me think Shadowy Men. There's a few vocal tracks, but mostly instrumental. Also they get some props for being the only Iowa surf band I can think of. Give it a stream here or order a cassette at their bandcamp page.

I'm a little late on this one, the album was released September 27th, but it just hit Bandcamp today which is how I found out. Condor Gruppe released an excellent EP of otherworldly-though-kinda-groovy surf-tinged instrumentals last year, and this sounds like more of the same. Definitely on the out-there side but I love instro music because it's so different, not because it's the same. Click Read More for a stream

It's been a slow week for surf releases, but Sao Paolo's Os Brutus have given us a three-song EP to help us out. For those of you that don't speak Portugese (including me), Google Translate says the album title means "Dirty City Clumsy". Eh, I don't know. Love the take on the Dead Kennedy's album cover. Great heavy sound on "Nabila", looking forward to hearing more from them.

From checking out their facebook page, it looks like the Tiki Creeps tend to play with a lot of burlesque groups. Despite that, this isn't exactly a Las Vegas Grind sound, but instead reminds me more of French groups like the Irradiates, Taikonauts, and Demon Vendetta - aggressive wtih a big overdriven guitar sound, and great production. It can get a little creepy too, though I guess that's implied by the name. There are a few slower tracks to round it out too. 

It's important for your band to have a memorable name, and I think MILS has that on lock. Another way they're a bit of an oddball: very prominent cowbell. I think it works though, and the rippin' guitars and tight playing certainly help. Definitely worth a listen and I'm looking forward to hearing an LP.

Marshall and the Martins hail from Australia and were very recently known as Slowpoke Rodriguez. In fact, they very recently released an album called The Purple Thing only two months ago under that name. Two albums in less than three months --- clearly not slowpokes. A pretty nice trad surf album. On a quick listen my favorite is "Dammit Ferricks"