Surf

New album: The Krontjong Devils || Music From The Stars Vol 2

Surf guitars between stardust and disco lights

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For anyone wondering whether there was enough fuel left for a sequel to 2022’s Volume 1, The Krontjong Devils answer with a fearless yes. Music From The Stars Volume 2 continues the Groningen legends’ mission of of transporting forgotten and overplayed pop tunes to a twangy surf rock universe where coolness, kitsch, and class are not opposites, and vocals are unneeded.

Eleven songs, including Blondie’s Atomic, Patrick Hernandez’s Born To Be Alive, OMD’s Maid of Orleans, Massive Attack’s Teardrop, Marianne Rosenberg’s Ich Bin Wie Du, and New Order’s Blue Monday, receive the full “Oetsound” treatment, sounding both familiar and strangely futuristic. Once again, the melodies more than hold their own as instrumentals, floating somewhere between retro-style cult movie soundtracks and late-night space disco.



Music From The Stars Vol 2 is out digitally and on vinyl LP through Topsy-Turvy Records. Note: this is the first Krontjong Devils album featuring the original line-up since 1998’s On Tour.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Soundflat

New album: Mick Beaulieu || Nightmare Twang

Riding a retro cult-film vibe

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Without any fanfare, French musician Mick Beaulieu returns with Nightmare Twang, following 2024’s Seashore LP. Doing what he does best, he lets his guitar do the talking. In the slipstream of pioneers like Duane Eddy, Link Wray, and Dick Dale, he performs ten original surf rock instrumentals that sound as if equally inspired by haunted drive-in movies and sun-bleached California highways.

The album blends reverb-drenched licks and splashing organ melodies with a modern production touch that keeps the sound fresh rather than nostalgic. It’s stylish and energetic, vicious yet playful, a testament to the skill of an artist who makes the stars in the dark sky shine just a little brighter.



Nightmare Twang is out digitally via Crash! Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Kitty & The Rooster || Get The Clap

"Banging on a cock, banging on a cock, banging on a cocktail drum"

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Remember Kitty & The Rooster? If you’ve seen or heard the human-like animals before, you won’t have forgotten them. On their third album, Get The Clap, Jodie Ponto (cocktail drums, vocals) and Noah Walker (guitar, vocals) go all the way to confirm what makes them such a blast: blown-out rockabilly riffs—they probably call it cockabilly themselves?—and storytelling ripped from the van after a long, underpaid gig.

The Vancouver duo keep things loose but sharp, turning everyday musician struggles into explicit (or ambiguous) punchlines that undoubtedly will guarantee a good laugh during live shows, sometimes with a poignant undertone and often with pop culture references (or in combination: “Fred Durst did all for the nookie // Bryan Adams did it all for love // ​​I did it all, did it all, did it all for a hundred bucks”).

The ten original songs are rough, funny, and weirdly heartfelt, and I actually like them more than I should, but that odd mix of skills and wit lands exactly right. There’s a warm, even intimate charm in this infectious cocktail of 60s surf worship, hip-shaking garage rock, enchanting doo-wop, and seasoned DIY grind (so yeah, I sing along loudly to the final track: “Encore, encore, give me more, give me more!”).



Get The Clap, recorded and mixed by Corwin Fox(!), is out digitally (self-released).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

Dusted || The Best New Cover Songs Of April 2026

By / / Alternative Rock, Blues & Roots, Country & Folk, Funk & Soul, Garage Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Power Pop, Punk, Surf / Leave a Comment

Not all new music is really new, as many artists cover songs. Sometimes these are songs by their favorite artists, e.g. as a tribute to such a musical hero for a special reason, or they simply feel that a song deserves to be dusted and polished to reacquaint fans with great songs from the past. Other times, bands cover songs as a parody. Regardless of intent, some of those cover versions are so good or so much fun, we’d like to put a spotlight on them. Chosen from a wide range, here are—in a kind of random order—a bunch of successful covers from last month—links to pages where you can add them to your wantlist included.

Fade To Black (Metallica) by The Tubs — digital track (Merge Records)

Don’t Look Back (The Remains) by The Peawees — from More Scraps LP (Wild Honey Records)

Problem Child (AC/DC) by Neo-Magics — from Leaving on a Jet Plane EP (Half A Cow Records)

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New album: Playa Colérica || Caleta de la Santa Rabia

Sun-bleached riffs and melodic turbulence

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If you long for a quiet summer day, avoid Caleta de la Santa Rabia, where the waves are wild and the noise is loud. Leave that to Rancagua, Chile-based surf rock outfit Playa Colérica, to create an imagined South Pacific shoreline where colorful otherness and sunburnt nostalgia collide with untamed energy and extravagant fun. Safe to say, these aren’t the polite kids of surf class, this is the genre cranked to full throttle.

The eleven songs here tap into vintage ’60s instrumental shimmer, but scuffs it up with raw punk urgency, a scrappy DIY spirit, and plenty of infectious shouts. I’ll admit, after the first two cuts I wondered if the four musicians could keep that voltage running for a full album, but they never let it dip. Each tune plays like a vignette, half-memory and half-myth, where guitars crash and glide in equal measure. In short, you can also opt for melodic turbulence this coming summer.



Caleta de la Santa Rabia—recorded by Juan José Sánchez Elizalde, produced and mixed by Francisco Fernández Gallardo, cover art by Marcelo Omegna Bustos—is out now digitally (self-released). Featuring Julio Aguilera Delgado, Michael Sánchez Lara, Ricardo Espinoza González, and Cristian Benítez Cádiz.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: The Berns || On The Run

A genre-blurring debut fueled by nostalgia and raw inspiration

By / / Alternative Rock, Indie Pop, Surf / Leave a Comment

I’ve been enjoying On The Run, the genre-defying first EP from Ottawa-based indie band The Berns, for two weeks now, and chances are you’ll like it just as much. In five versatile songs, Joe Edgerton and Liam Mastersmith pull out all the stops to show what they have to offer. Guitar-driven storytelling full of mood, melody, and memory make a compelling debut.

Opening track Circles Around the Sun is a country-tinged, radio-ready track that feels expansive, loose, and lush. From there, it shifts gears into the rocking Roadrunner and the surf-soaked To Shoot an Elephant. Then Easy brings these threads together, before winding down with the bluesy ballad Get What You Give.


The On The Run EP, mixed and mastered by Nolan Bell, is out digitally (self-released).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: The Volcanics || In 3-D

No frills, just thrills

By / / Surf / Leave a Comment

Californian surf rock trio The Volcanics return with a new full-length album, In 3-D, a technicolor blast of instrumental power that stays true to their no-frills origins while dialing up the spectacle. More than 20 years into their career, so they know exactly how to digest the raw DNA of proto-punk and pub rock into an exciting surf sound, bursting out of the speakers with optimal effect.

There’s a playful, cinematic theme running through the 12 new tunes (including one sung by Jarrod Keith, Spin Out—furthermore, the vocals are limited to shouts and sound bites), but the core remains loud, fast, and unapologetically fun. It’s a retro-soaked ride along original melodies, with swagger in overdrive. Guitars snarl, rhythms surge, hips shake.



In 3-D is out digitally and on vinyl LP through Hi-Tide Recordings. Featuring Frankie De La Torre (guitar), Jarrod Keith (bass), and Ben Marazzi (drums).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Hi-Tide

Dusted || The Best New Cover Songs Of March 2026

By / / Alternative Rock, Country & Folk, Funk & Soul, Garage Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Power Pop, Psych, Punk, Surf / Leave a Comment

Not all new music is really new, as many artists cover songs. Sometimes these are songs by their favorite artists, e.g. as a tribute to such a musical hero for a special reason, or they simply feel that a song deserves to be dusted and polished to reacquaint fans with great songs from the past. Other times, bands cover songs as a parody. Regardless of intent, some of those cover versions are so good or so much fun, we’d like to put a spotlight on them. Chosen from a wide range, here are—in a kind of random order—a bunch of successful covers from last month—links to pages where you can add them to your wantlist included.

Can’t Seem To Make You Mine (The Seeds) by Sky Saxon — from The King Of Garage Rock LP (Cleopatra Records)

Working Too Hard (Paul Collins’ Beat) by SOFTJAW — digital track (Dandy Boy Records)

Put the Message in the Box (World Party) by Mary Chapin Carpenter & the Mountain Goats — from Put the Message in the Box / Migrations 7″ (Cadmean Dawn)

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Dusted || The Best New Cover Songs Of March 2026Read More »

New album: Les Robots || Intermission | Optigan

Analog daydreams from a malfunctioning future

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After 2022’s 2-LP Exploring the Boundaries of the Multiverse and last year’s collector’s 7″ on Robo Diddley and The Rockin’ Robot, Dutch duo D.V.R. (aka Dave von Raven) and R-JoHN (aka Arjan Spies) have returned to the semi-metal housing of Les Robots. Their brains are full of vintage soundtracks and the discographies of Joe Meek, The Ventures, and Jean Jacques Perrey, yet their output is completely original, on the cutting edge of crazy and genius.

Intermission | Optigan is a delightfully oddball instrumental set that leans into the wheezy, off-kilter magic of a battered Optigan, an electronic keyboard that was brought to market by toy maker Mattel in the early 70s (don’t worry, there are guitars too). The twelve new tunes—between An Alarming Start and The Last 3 Minutes Of Mars, a glowing series of escapist ideas passes by—are not really rock, surf, or exotica, nor gimmicky, cinematic, or clever, but actually it all applies. This is retro-futurist space age pop, library music kitsch, and sci-fi lounge drifting through a haze of tape wobble and analog quirks. Vintage kitsch meets cosmic cool.



Intermission | Optigan—recorded, mixed, and mastered by Arjan Spies—is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Topsy-Turvy Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Soundflat

New EP: Grouse || Surf Shop Pop

A catchy coastal mood where time slips and nothing quite matters

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Moonta Bay, South Australia-based singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Bowie Williams—we previously wrote about his other band, Bird Island—releases his debut EP under the moniker of Grouse. The four tracks from Surf Shop Pop are so much fun that I didn’t want to keep them from you. Although sun-drenched beach life takes center stage in everything (“My Piña Colada, ah la-di-da-di-da, ah la-di-da-di-da-di-da-da-da”), sound-wise we find ourselves in the realm of weathered but uplifting garage rock. Sun-soaked escapism meets restless small-town nights, youthful euphoria stabilized by a flicker of disorientation (“Well I got no idea at all. Hey!”).


Surf Shop Pop, recorded by Lachy Pitcher, is out now digitally via Bay Road Records. Featuring Bowie Williams (vocals, guitar, bass) and Aidan Manning (drums).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

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