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Surfguitar101.com is very pleased to announce The Sixth Annual SurfGuitar101 Convention! Can you believe we are up to number six? Please save the date and share this with everyone! This year we have the best surf bands from the United States, Italy, Australia, and Japan!
The SurfGuitar101 Convention 2013
Saturday, August 10th
The Starting Gate
5052 Katella Ave.
Los Alamitos, CA 90720
Phone: (562) 598-8957
Doors open at 8am, the festivities run from 9am to 8pm.
Cost: $30 at the door
For questions & discussion, see the SurfGuitar101.com forum thread.
Facebook event page.
Featuring:
As usual we'll have vendors selling surf music, clothing, and more!
Why not schedule a vacation around the convention? Please take note of the following incredible events before and after the convention:
There is more to this story, continue reading ...
The Elements of a Surf Song
Greetings surf music comrades! I initially wrote this articleout as a mental exercise to gather my thoughts for a talk I was going to give at The Sierra Surf Music Camp. It turned out that I didn't give the talk, but I think this can still be useful for the newbies out there just discovering our little genre. What I'm referring to as the 'elements' are the basic components that together, or at least when several of them are grouped together, you have a song we can label as a surf song. Many of you may be thinking that you've listened to surf music for years, these elements should be obvious, and many of them are, but as musicians we can go a little deeper and try to tease out some of the more subtle ones.
First off, the term "surf music" has been a challenge in and of itself as a description for what it is we're doing. Historically, it's been often equated with The Beach boys. Now that has been debated endlessly, and I personally am willing to call it a draw. But when I try to describe what I do to the uninitiated, they invariably ask "like the beach boys" and I can't bring myself to say yes. Granted, The Beach Boys sang about surfing, so it makes sense that people ask do that. In fact, here's what happened to me the other day.
I've started going to a physical therapist because my neck and arm have been really hurting lately due to overuse as a contractor. I'm explaining to my therapist about how I play surf music, totally expecting to hear her ask "like the Beach Boys?" but she doesn't ask that. She asks, "Surf music.... is that with an E or a U?" Now that's one question I've never had before. I answer, it's with a U, like the ocean. "ooooh, you mean like the Beach Boys?" .... Turns out she was a classical music major and may have thought this was some kind of ancient music style played by serfs of the kindgom or whatnot. Also, I'd put her around 30 years old, at this point, even too young for the whole 90's pulp fiction fueled resurgence.
I've also found on craigslist and soundcloud and other musician's sites that a lot of vocal bands are referring to themselves as 'surf bands" or 'surfy". I'm not 100% sure at what they're getting at. My suspicion is they have a lot of reverb on their guitars and have a relatively clean guitar sound, which are 2 elements I'll discuss, but that alone isn't enough to warrant being a surf band by our standards. Not that they care.... but we do!
Here's my list of elements and then I'll go over each one in some detail.
You'll notice several of those elements are about the gear rather than the music. Unlike most genres, gear plays a big role in creating the surf sound. Perhaps it's a bigger factor than the music itself? Hard to say. I can tell you on SG101, the gear forum has by far the most activity, about 25% more than the next one, the 'general surf music' forum. And that's on the premier surf music website on the internet!
There is more to this story, continue reading ...
V/A - Surf Nut! Surfites & Thunderchiefs 7" EP (Double Crown / Wormtone)
We're incredibly stoked to have released a fabulous new 7" EP featuring The Surfites and The Thunderchiefs, containing two brand new songs from each band! It's a joint effort with Double Crown and Wormtone Records, and will definitely be one of the most talked about (and listened to) releases of the summer! The amazing sleeve art, shown above, was done by famed artist (and Thunderchiefs guitarist) Mike Guerrero.
On one side you get Swedish faves The Surfites with "This Time Tomorrow" and "Hot Dog On A Stick". Flip it over and you get two more boss tunes from Austin, TX surf combo The Thunderchiefs - "Kook Patrol" and "Tomsco Twist".
While the music and amazing artwork is best enjoyed in the 7" vinyl format, we do understand that many of you don't have turntables. For you, we have the digital version of the EP, which can be downloaded at: iTunes ~ CD Baby ~ Emusic
Tracks: The Surfites: This Time Tomorrow - Hot Dog On A Stick / The Thunderchiefs: Kook Patrol - Tomsco Twist
"You're gonna hafta be a 'lil more...PACIFIC!" Lawrence Carson
2013 solo debut release. A 3-song EP of reverb-laden recordings of "Bach Won't Run" (Bach's "Bouree" Surf-style!) and 2 original recordings, "August Sunset" & "Lighthouse" by American Guitarist Lawrence Carson
© 2013 Lawrence Carson released 01 June 2013
Stream or Download at: lawrencecarson.bandcamp.com
See the Youtube video of "Bach Won't Run" at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZFuJtDgmmg
Image June 15th, 2013 at BONESHAKERS - 306 Austin St., San Antonio, TX
Alamo City favorites - King Pelican and The Phantomatics, team up with ATX's - The Mighty Landshark for the first "South TX Surf Summit" of the summer of '13. Also featured is DJ Heelgrinder, spinning the raddest of surf, lounge and exotica sides before, after and in-between bands.
Boneshakers features excellent craft beers and gourmet pizzas and sandwhiches, so come hungry and thirsty!
Don't miss this night of awesome music, food, drink and fun! Showtime is 9:30pm.
Image Puerto Rican Surf Rock and Classic Rock band "Flashbacks" are ready make their first big live show. The band formed by High School students will perform this Sunday, June 9 at "Ostra Cosa @Tótem" in San Juan the capital of Puerto Rico. This will be the band's first real gig since all of their gigs were in School Activities.
Follow the band on Facebook: http://facebook.com/FlashbacksPR
I am happy now to announce the release of the first Surfer Joe solo album, ready by August 1st and for sale starting at the SG101 convention this summer.
SENOR SURF - Surfer Joe
The album includes 12 tracks, 9 of them previously unreleased. One of the tracks is a bonus recorded by Paul Johnson & friends on past October that will not be included in the upcoming EP of them, featuring Paul Johnson on guitar and Lorenzo on drums. All the otehr tracks feature Lorenzo Surfer Joe on guitars and drums. It is recorded 100% ANALOG (recording, mixing, mastering) at Circo Perrotti Studio in Gijon, Spain. Produced by Lorenzo Valdambrini and Jorge Explosion for Surfer Joe Music. Unique vintage Telefunken mixing desk and MCI recorder machine. (www.circoperrotti.com)
The release comes in 12" vinyl and digital download. It is possible a CD production but still not certain.
It will be available in all major underground catalogs worldwide and through Surfer Joe web site.
The new 20 song CD release "Wild Surf Guitars" by the Insanitizers received awards from two CD review publications and top ratings from a third within the past month.
Indiemusic.co just recognized "Wild Surf Guitars" as a best new release among indie music of all genres (publication date June 3, 2013). Their review is here.
This is the conclusion of the review: If this was a throwback sixties beach film, and this band was the movies heroes, it’d wrap up like this: “The Insanitizers win this heat and take the tournament! The Insanitizers are new Kings of Wild Surf Guitars!”
Yeah; it’s like that.
"Cry of the Coyote" rock-n-roll CD review magazine published in France gave this CD the "Cry of the Heart" award with top ratings. They wrote, "this CD lives up to its title."
"New Gandy Dancer" instrumental rock CD review magazine rated this CD 4 of 4 stars and wrote, "busy surfing set with lots happening. It's rewarding to hear a group dedicated to their art...genuine 1960s surf guitars, bass and drums. The all-original songs are simply soaked in high twanging, reverbed guitars and easy to remember melody lines."
Available at DeepEddy.net , DWMMusic.com , and CDBaby.com/cd/insanitizers4
For the 4th year, The Noble Gasses will be playing at the Santa Barbara Spirit Of '76 Independence Day Parade on July 4th, 2013. We will ride and play in the parade down State Street on our Gassmobile @ 1PM. Later, we will set up on State Street and play for the crowd. FREE!
The Noble Gasses spread a little Los Angeles County natural musical history at the 100th Birthday Bash of The Museum Of Natural History Of Los Angeles, Sunday, June 9th, 2013. We will appear 4-5 PM in the new nature gardens. Also appearing: Rhythm Child, The Ranger Band, GZA, and DEVO!
