Hypnotide's debut LP Landlocked was a surprise favorite from 2015. With only 6 tracks, Hypnotide can't possibly show the same flexibility with their sound that they did on the LP, and they don't really attempt to.

There's been a torrential downpour of surf releases lately including TWO releases from Arno De Cea within 48 hours. They've teamed up with Demon Vendetta (whose last LP won my coveted Gremmy award) for a split cassette of classic surf covers.

It brings a smile to my face to see that Sandy Nelson is still at it... and he really wanted a smile out of this record. Unless I missed something, the last we heard from him was 2008's Nelsonized by Sandy Nelson and the Sin City Termites. If you haven't heard it, stop everything and do that by any means necessary. It's louder and meaner than anything you've heard from him and it's great all the way through.

Aaron and the Burrs have been quiet for a little bit... missing out on some synergy opportunities with the broadway hit Hamilton! Eh, probably not.

I don't know too much about Kozyol - despite being based in Portaldn, I'm guessing at least one of their members is Russian, which would explain why some of these songs are in what I assume to be Russian. Definitely pretty funny for me, writing this on a trip to the nation of Georgia and having just gotten back from the Stalin museum. That really doesn't have anything to do with anything.

Despite the near-Halloween relaese date, this isn't much of a horror-surf record, though it does have an air of mystery to it. Man... or Astro-Man? is definitely a bit of a jump-off point here with with similar dark tones, sound clips, and "extra" sounds abound (one member plays "extra guitar", percussion and keyboards). But all of those parts come together really well and with a lot of creativity. I think this is definitely worth a listen!

Double Crown had been teasing a mystery EP in a few of their newsletters and I confess I had no clue. It turns out it was a new outfit with Sean Berry, Mr. Double Crown himself, in the lineup! He's joined by Jonny Browning of Jonny and the Shamen/MOAM and Hollis Pilling. It's a modest collection of songs, not terribly loud or aggressive, more quirky and creepy, but the MOAM lineage definitely comes through. Three of the tracks are originals, but I actually really like their take on the Ventures' VampCamp where they've sped it up to a less creepy tempo. Sounds like a new song!

You gotta be careful looking for surf rock on Burger Records. They're home to an awful lot of the bands that are muddying up the term. You know, garage bands with a lot of reverb on the vocals, stuff derived from Wavves, Black Lips etc. And right from the first track one might think that's the case here, with summery girl-group-garage sing-a-long vocals, but I urge you to stay! The next track is "Swedish Fish", a rippin' surf instro with punchy, splashy percussion free of pretention and all about fun.

OK I think the pun here is that normally Huckleberry Finn has Two N's, whereas this band has one making them sea creatures. I don't know a whole lot about these guys, other than that they seem to have been playing shows around NY state for one or two years now. They've got the full range of purchasing options available: LP, Cassette, CD, and digital download. You can any of those from their bandcamp page.

Well here's something else for ya. Surfin' Krautlifornia is an odd mix of synthesizers, sound effects, psychedelic meanderings, and strange thoughts standing on a foundation of surf guitar bubbling underneath. With an airplane, a storm trooper, graffitti, and a cool-lookin' dude wearing shades on the cover, I'm not even going to try to piece together what they're after. Maybe it's just to get you to approach this thing with some curiosity.

Apparently they've got cassette and vinyl copies out there, but you can also listen to it the ol' bandcamp.