Surf

New album: Shorty’s Swingin’ Coconuts || Surf Shack Shindig

By / / Garage Rock, Surf / Leave a Comment

The band name, album title, cover art and record label leave no doubt about what to expect. More importantly, they also deliver: this is the danceable surf sound that completes this summer. Californian Tiki outfit Shorty’s Swingin’ Coconuts debuted last year with the Mai Tai in Hi​-​Fi, which the veterans of the scene now follow up with their first full-length album. For Surf Shack Shindig, Shorty Poole (steel guitar, rhythm guitar, piano), Randall Stanton (bass, electric upright bass), Mike Sobieski (lead guitar, organ) and Santos De Leon (drums, percussion) recorded fourteen fresh and diverse steel guitar surf instrumentals. The skilled musicians link original melodies to appealing hooks and a cinematic atmosphere, ideal for shaking your hips on the dancefloor, but also for dreaming away to hold on to that holiday feeling for a while.



Surf Shack Shindig is out now digitally and on vinyl LP through Hi-Tide Recordings.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs || Hi-Tide

New album: Surfin’ Lungs || Last Wave To Surfsville

By / / Garage Rock, Power Pop, Surf / Leave a Comment

UK surf beat combo Surfin’ Lungs have been playing rock ‘n’ roll in loud shirts since 1981, but fortunately their formula of surf guitars, Farfisa organs and lush harmonies hasn’t really changed. On their new (ninth) studio album Last Wave To Surfsville you’ll hear fourteen sunny songs for A Summer To Remember, that were eagerly inspired by the surf pioneers of the 60s, but also tend to power pop at times. Holiday-related topics are addressed (from the Beach Patrol and Z-Cars to a Giant Scorpion Attack and a Date With Danger), and an important question is also asked (What Would Elvis Do?), but everything is equally infectious and uplifting. This is a golden formula.



Last Wave To Surfsville is out now digitally and on CD. Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Supertubos || The Fourth Drive

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Those looking for a soundtrack to footage of Portuguese beach break Supertubos, famous for its tubular waves, should opt for the obvious solution. The Spanish band of that name, featuring Eduardo Marco (rhythm guitar), Ricardo Alvarez (lead guitar), Iñigo Crespo “Pony” (bass), Jesús España (drums, percussion) and Jorge “Stereo” (keys), play instrumental surf rock which is just as exciting as the impressive pipelines. Their new (indeed: fourth) album The Fourth Drive brings eight splashing guitar-driven tracks that stand out thanks to a swinging organ and groovy percussion. Cinematic and thrilling.


The Fourth Drive, recorded/mixed/mastered by Jorge Muñoz Cobo, is out digitally and on vinyl LP through Sleazy Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Sleazy Records

New album: Surfasaurus || Dino​-​Might!

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Just when you think that all guitar melodies must have been invented at some point, you hear so many cool new ideas that you immediately let go of that thought. Let me introduce you to Surfasaurus, an instrumental surf pop band based in Miramichi, New Brunswick (Canada). On their very entertaining debut album Dino​-​Might!, John William Bowie and his crew deliver fifteen original and surprising instrumentals that mix up your carefully modeled hairdo with a refreshing summer breeze.




Dino​-​Might!, recorded/mixed/mastered by Jack Bowie, is out now digitally via 10 Buck Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Not Yetis || A Cautionary Tale

By / / Garage Rock, Indie Pop, Punk, Surf / Leave a Comment

When I discovered that members of Shitty Shitty Band Band, Hi-Fives, Hondettes, the Ogres and Brentwoods have teamed up for a new musical project, my interest was definitely piqued. Then I read that Not Yetis (Oakland) formed “around the idea of performing a budget rock opera telling the story of mythical creatures taking on human identities in order to escape persecution and eventually seek fame,” and I was somewhere in the middle of curious, worried and confused.

Now that I’ve pressed play on the 26-song (!) A Cautionary Tales my expectations are exceeded. Not Yetis may have dropped their ambition to have the songs presented in a small theater run, but the accompanying record has lasting value. What a diverse, quirky collection infectious, bouncy, surfy pop songs fueled by a DIY 924 Gilman St. punk spirit throughout!

The LP of A Cautionary Tale comes with a comic book that illustrates the lyrics. There are worse, much worse ways of spending your money.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: The Akulas || Inundated Land

By / / Garage Rock, Surf / 1 Comment

The Akulas are a garage rock band from Belgium, featuring Ruben Haerens (guitars), Willem Bekers (bass), Benjamin Verschaeve (organ) and Udo Vanhoonacker (drums). They play instrumental surf music on vintage instruments, music that’s mostly cool but also cheesy at times, and that’s fine too. On their sophomore LP Inundated Land you’ll hear fourteen danceable tunes that are as original and diverse as they are entertaining and vibrant. Their own songs are just as fun as the covers (Sounds Incorporated’s The Spartans, Krisjan Hatlelid’s Grand Prix Circuit, The Tornados’ Costa Monger, The Shadows’ Bombay Duck and Raymond Lefèvre’s Les Grandes Vacances), and that’s a great achievement.



Inundated Land is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP through Green Cookie Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New album: Kitty & The Rooster || Ain’t Pussyfootin’ Around

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A pussycat and a cock walk into a bar to make some noise. That sounds like the start of a bad joke, but actually it is the business model of Canadian rock ‘n’ roll duo Kitty & The Rooster. On their debut album One Gig Hard Drive (2018) they introduced themselves in opening song Kitty & The Rooster’s Official Bio (“We’re like The Black Keys, with better tits”), now Jodie Ponto on the stand-up cocktail drum kit and Noah Walker on electric guitar – they share vocal duties – are back with their second long player, Ain’t Pussyfootin’ Around. Expect eleven “true tales from the tour van” with explicit lyrics in which pretty cleverly worded humor is key, songs that elicit blushing and loud laughter during live shows (“Just when I was popping my rock n’ roll boner // A man tapped me on the shoulder, told me he was the owner // He said: You need a license for dancing in here // So could you tell all these people to get back in their chairs?”). However, all this is way more than a gimmick – musically the tracks are perfectly fine, an infectious and skilfully played mix of 60s-inspired surf rock and energetic rockabilly, with two voices that go together nicely. This record offers 35 minutes of danceable fun, and if you listen very closely you might even hear a deeper message.



Ain’t Pussyfootin’ Around, recorded & mixed by Corwin Fox, and mastered by Brock McFarlane, is out now digitally and on CD (self-released). Also featuring Jody Peck & Kathleen Nisbet aka The Cockettes on background vocals, and Tom Heuckendorff on organ & piano.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Melewai || Melewai

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Melewai is a three-piece from Croatia that mix surf rock, garage rock and psychedelic rock into a smooth and exotic cinematic pop sound. Their first four songs, now available as a digital EP, are a successful test of competence. The song titles read like a poem – Now is forever, Dreamer and the cat, Future will be past, Heart on the train – and the groovy music wanders through dreams and time. Shimmering, soulful and summery.

The Melewai EP is out now digitally (self-produced, self-released).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New single: Pelomono || Danza De La Cobra

By / / Garage Rock, Psych, Surf / Leave a Comment

Surf rock can be found on all possible wavelengths. That of Spanish duo Pelomono is on the far left of the dial, where influences from krautrock and sounds from exotic instruments seep through. Although the two musicians are wearing masks on stage, we know that we’re dealing with Antonio Pelomono and Pedro de Dios (Guadalupe Plata). At the end of 2020 they released their nice debut LP Gibraltar, which they now follow up with two new instrumental songs. On side A’s title track Danza De La Cobra (translated: cobra dance) they inimitably fuse electric guitars with a melody from an ancient ritual from India used to charm snakes. B-side Alguien Me Persigue (someone is chasing me) comes from the soundtrack of a film directed by American filmmaker Hulser Haselford, heard in a scene where a monkey flees from a phantom threat. Dark and psychedelic, danceable and bewitching.

Danza De La Cobra, produced by Pike Cavalero and Mario Cobo, is out now digitally and on vinyl 7″ through Everlasting Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: The Jack Cades || Something New

By / / Garage Rock, Jangle Pop, Surf / Leave a Comment

Half a year ago we raved about The Jack Cades’ 45 Something New b/w Chasing You, which left us looking forward to more. The UK garage rock four-piece now adds eleven fresh tunes (including a successful cover of The Velvet Underground’s Temptation Inside Your Heart) to those two songs, which together make up their third LP, which is also titled Something New. We know the musicians – Elsa Whittaker (rhythm guitar, organ, vocals), Mike Whittaker (lead guitar, vocals), Alexandra Cools (bass), Matthew “Mole” Lambert (drums) – from bands like The Missing Souls, The Baron Four, Thee Vicars, The Evil Thingies, Groovy Uncle and The Higher State, but the sound here is less raucous than what they did there. This record is a psychedelic surf trip, with guitars delightfully jangling away. Sun-kissed fun, let the summer begin.




Something New, produced by Ed Gizzard, is out now digitally and on vinyl LP through Beluga Records / Dangerhouse Skylab.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Beluga || Discogs

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