CaptainSpringfield
What everyone else said about PDM, the Nebulas and the Madeira.

I just got the Metalunas' "X Minus One" and the Surf Coasters' new live album.

-Warren

Thanks to Jeff (BTD), I have that Metalunas CD and I really like it. Good choice! Jeff also played that new Surf Coasters CD for me. It's intense.

"Turn the knob to 10 and break it off!" -Baja Marty

I just picked up El Rey "Tick... Tick... Tick..." and The Kilaueas "Professor Volcanova".

Just getting started with El Rey as I type this. Very good so far..reminds me of The Apemen with all that nervous energy.

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
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"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

I bought a 10" of Man or Astro-Man?'s A Spectrum of an Infinite Scale. Before that it was the Surf Coasters Live album.

image
Not surf, but a lot of pre-fuzz pedal fuzz over rock n roll/r&b grooves from the teenage wunderkind.

http://www.satanspilgrims.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Satans-Pilgrims/8210228553
https://satanspilgrims.bandcamp.com/
http://www.surfyindustries.com

V/A - Surf Crazy (some of which is awful)
V/A - Surf Creature
V/A - Wax, Board & Woodie
Link Wray - Live At The Paradiso
Dynotones - Beach Party A Go-Go

spskins
imageNot surf, but a lot of pre-fuzz pedal fuzz over rock n roll/r&b grooves from the teenage wunderkind.

There's some absolute jaw-dropping stuff on that collection. Travis was a really inspired guitarist, and his fuzztone is awesome. I think he used a tape recorder as a pre-amp to get that sound, but I might be mistaken.

-Warren

That was excessively violent and completely unnecessary. I loved it.

I just got all 3 volumes of John Barry's EMI recordings (1957-64) which includes many great guitar instrumentals.

T H E ✠ S U R F I T E S

I haven't followed this thread (because I'll want some of what I read about and can't really afford to buy any of it) but I did get that Bikini World comp that someone recommended here a while back. There's some really great stuff on that, especially Surfer's Deal by The Daytonas (Kudos, Klas) and the Southern Culture on The Skids track. I got the new Nebulas album, which I'm sure has been reviewed to death here, so I'll just say that I dig it a lot and listen to it often.

And I have probably got a new favorite surf album of all time--The Squares. This was a teenage surf band from Atlanta back around 2001. I first heard them riding to a gig with Eddie and said, "Hey, this is cool," and Eddie gave me a real brief history. Sticks later lent me his copy and I listened to it again and again, each time finding a new song that I was totally absorbed by. I listen to this album all the time. I searched the internet and got my own copy, even though I haven't given Sticks' back to him yet. I don't know what it is about this album (maybe it's just me) but if anybody out there has a chance to grab a copy I strongly urge you to do so.

I wish I could own them all. Sigh.

The Mystery Men?
El Capitan and The Reluctant Sadists
SSS Agent #31

Klas, that John Barry collection is very cool. I've had that for some 10 years now. I have to check it out again, it's been a long time since I've heard it! The John Barry 7 instros had some great twangy guitar on them - well, just listen to the James Bond Theme! Doesn't get much better than that....

I've been awash in some great new surf CDs over the last month or two.

Insect Surfers Best Of - wow, wow, wow! I HIGHLY recommend this CD! Not exactly trad, but again a lot tradder than a lot of people would expect, I think. This comp gets it exactly right - all of their best stuff is on here. EXCELLENT and lengthy liner notes by Ferenc (where the hell do you find the time, Ferenc???!!!), excellent packaging, some videos (haven't checked them out yet), but the most important thing is the music. And Insect Surfers have really written and recorded many truly unique and inspiring surf songs. Quite honesty, I hadn't listened to these guys for a long time before I got this CD, and kinda forgot how much I liked many of their songs. Well, this reminded me. For anyone whose tastes are a bit broader than just the total trad surf thing, you can't go wrong with this CD. An almost immaculate introduction to this long-running band.

The Phantom Four live - it took me a while to get into this CD, but with each new listen I'm captivated more and more. The new originals are as good as the Treble Spankers (the two bands share the same lead guitarist, in case you don't know - the mighty Phantom Frank), and several of the songs are simply sublime. Frank has been able to put together a band that definitely has some elements of the Treble Spankers (it's still him on the lead guitar, after all, with his signature Jazzmaster tone and his affinity for middle-eastern and other exotic tonalities), but also has it's own unique thing going. I'm extremely excited about the Phantom Four. I expect their debut studio album should be coming out very soon, and I can't wait. This is high-quality surf music, with tons of personality and creativity. This isn't just regurgitating the past, it's pushing forward without bringing in any obviously modern influences. I dig that a lot. The only disappointment is the weak closing cover of Mar Gaya. Otherwise, a top notch release! Try to track it down (limited edition CD) or save up your pennies for the studio debut.

The Five Outsiders - wow! I heard these guys on the last Continetal sampler and got their CD from zptduda.com. I am really impressed. A Swedish band that sounds like a surfier verdsion of the Hellbenders. They do like their Morricone, and their sound is very similiar to the Hellbenders. But they have their own originals which are uniformly great. the traditionalists and spaghetti-western types will dig this a lot. It also has an occasional sax, which sounds REALLY good. Fathoms or Eliminators good. Big thumbs up.

Razorblades - Dark Side of the Beach - I talked about it in the post on the Euro surf fest - for the fans of the Surf Coasters and Slacktone - not quite up to that level, but close, and great stuff. Not a derivative band either, they definitely have their own thing going.

I've also continue to enjoy the hell out of both the Halbuts Live At Toes and Pollo Del Mar's recent live CD. The former is just great, fun trad surf music played exactly the way it should be - and with a large pinch of ska thrown in, which I really love. Outside of the original songs which sound great, the CD bonus tracks like the Jester, Russian Roulette, etc. are actually even better than the cover tracks on the original LP. And PDM's live CD is sublime, simply stunning. Maybe their finest achievement to date - though Golden State was an astonishing album, no doubt. On this live album though they show they can recreate all the textures and dynamics from their studio CDs, and that is very impressive. The originals sound very close to the studio version, but somehow more intense and full of feeling. Much of the CD is covers, though, most of which had never been released by them before, and it's just so much fun to hear the band rip it up through these. Everything from Richie Podolar's Dark Side of the Mushroom (which would make the quintessential early-nineties Brit shoegazing bands like Ride, Lush and Slowdive VERY proud) to a spot-on version of Slacktone's signature piece Bells of St. Kahuna (wow, wow, wow, they totally nail it - and I love how their arranged it for two guitars, really cool!), to a long western medley starting with an awesome uptempo version of Apache and going all over the place after that, the Magnificent Seven, Bonanza, etc. to a Surf Coasters track with Shigeo sitting in to standars like the Cruel Sea. This is just a killer CD, and again, anybody with broader tastes than Eddie & the Showmen/Astronauts/Pyramids/DD will love it.

Finally, I'm also trying to get a grasp on Phantom Frank's solo CD. Some of it is mindblowing, but some of it is kinda out there. It's all totally unique, and probably only occasionally overlapping with what we think of as surf music. But it's a fantastic mix of instrumental rock, electronica and exotic stuff like middle-eastern and Indian (of eastern variety) music, much of it played on a lap steel (Frank's arm was suffering from tendonitis or something at the time and he couldn't play the regular guitar much). I find it to be a truly beautiful creative statement, though some of the songs connect more than others. But when he hits it, it's simply stunning.

Surf music gods have been very generous lately.... I wonder what will come next?

Ivan

Ivan
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Richard
... but I did get that Bikini World comp that someone recommended here a while back. There's some really great stuff on that, especially Surfer's Deal by The Daytonas (Kudos, Klas) and the Southern Culture on The Skids track.

Thanks!

IvanP
Klas, that John Barry collection is very cool. I've had that for some 10 years now. I have to check it out again, it's been a long time since I've heard it! The John Barry 7 instros had some great twangy guitar on them - well, just listen to the James Bond Theme! Doesn't get much better than that....

Yeah, very nice twangy guitar on many of the songs. Surprisingly, some of them even has a quite raw, almost Link Wray type of guitar sound.

T H E ✠ S U R F I T E S

I've had my eye on that one. Very cool.