The sophomore release from De Surfures has me wondering why I didn't pay much attention to their first. This album is full of punchy modern surf instrumentals with a great grit and momentum to them, with a few fun twists thrown into the mix. The mix on this is a little funky, with the percussion way up there and guitars at sometimes nearly subliminal levels, and it feels like that mixer is moving around pretty often. It takes some getting used to, but in the end I think I like it. It's a unique sound and it doesn't lose that core rock & roll feeling.

After 4 years this New Orleans local surf punk band has put out their third release. Every Bills release has sounded better than the last, and this one lets you know it right from the first loud and heavy note of guitar. And they're proud of it; even though half of this album is vocal, the guitars are always just as loud.

After their promising 2016 EP "Here Come the Delstroyers" these Seattleites have thrown together a longplayer for us. And it's a lot of fun.

The Quaketones caught me with my pants down. I had only heard about them a day before this poped up on bandcamp despite them being from New Orleans.

Las Vegas Grind is a compilation series put out by Crypt records featuring bawdy instrumentals that were more about honkin sax than reverbed guitar. That series helped identify a different style of rock & roll instrumental that might have otherwise been shrugged off we came to get a little more obsessed with genres and focus on this idea of "surf music". If you need a reference point, Tequila would fit nicely into Las Vegas Grind, though I'd suggest just grabbing those compilations, they're really great.

Mark Malibu and the Wasagas were a second wave surf group up in Toronto that have recently reformed. I won't pretend that I already knew that, but I believe this is their second LP and their first recordings since 1981!

Here's the latest from everybody's favorite Russian instro group. While their general sound isn't much different from their recent albums, it's not all draculas and coffins: you've got some pleasant steel guitar thrown into "Hula Drag-u-La", and you've even got a batman theme on "Chupacabra vs Batman". For whatever reason, we get another version of Popcorn with "Children of the Popcorn" (Zombie Shopping had "Popcorno"). I've listened to it a few times but all I really have to say is that it's Messer Chups -- you know what to do.

This is the second longplayer from Tsunami Experiment and though it plays less long than their last one (8 tracks vs 15), I get a better sense of emotion here.

Argentina's Megatronadores impressed me with their first EP Wedwedn. It had a great wide open and free-floating feeling to it while still keeping a significant heft and drive. I had a feeling that with their follow-up they would only expand and try new things, and sure enough the result is a expansive, extremely creative work that makes for a wonderous listen even if its tether to surf is pretty thin.

When I saw people talking about getting this album from The Southern Surf Stomp this past weekend, I was wondering how long it would be until I could get a copy. Not long it turns out!