Space Cossacks - Tsar Wars
Satan's Pilgrims - Soul Pilgrim or Creature Feature or Psychsploitation
Eddie and the Showmen - I forget the name of the CD(Squad Car???)
The Nebulas- It's Go Time
The Bambi Molesters - Sonic Bullets: 13 from the Hip

next 5

Cosmonauti - Just Surf
Langhorns - Club Gabardino
Pollo Del Mar - Golden State
Surf Coasters - Surfdelic or Surfside Village
Jon and the Nightriders - Live From the Whiskey

My next five could be my top five and vice versa

I thought 5 just to avoid alot of duplication...like I have none of Jakes'...but will add them all now, and more to come.

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We are on Instagram under "@shootthepiersurfband"

My Country EP ... Florida Dirt Fire
https://floridadirtfire.bandcamp.com/album/florida-dirt-fire

My French Love Songs ... I really needed a change...
www.lonelyrose.bandcamp.com

SurferBill
I thought 5 just to avoid alot of duplication...like I have none of Jakes'...but will add them all now, and more to come.

Um. wait ... how many (or rather how few) different surf songs do you think there are? Seriously, unless you are buying a lot of fairly basic compilations you don't have to worry about duplication, even in the sense of one album containing a cover of something in another album. Itt's true that most surf bands can play for an hour or two before they get out of "the mandatories" and the "we know you'll like these" things, but CDs are another matter.

If I had to pick five to start with, just shooting for variety of good stuff:

Centurions : Bullwinkle, Pt II
Rare Surf, Vol 1: The South Bay Bands
Bomboras : Savage Island
Bambi Molesters : Dumb, Loud, Hollow Twang
Slacktone : Into the Blue Sparkle

If it weren't for that stringent limit of 5:

New Dimensions : Best of the New Dimensions
Sir Finks : Tres Mexicanos del Sur de Texas
A Fist Full of Guitars : A Tribute to Morricone's Spaghetti Westerns
Pollo del Mar : The Golden State
Kelp! : Underwater Journey

I haven't mentioned a bunch of obvious early bands because I am guessing and hoping you already have them in mind. Cheating as far as the question is concerned, I guess!

If I weren't worried about your possible issue with duplicates in the sense of covers which sound pretty different I'd recommend you approach this as follows: Ask "Which five bands can you safely get everything you can find by?" It would still be very hard. Most people would want to give you five from "then" and five from "since then," at a minimum.

Seriously, though, by the time you have several dozen CDs you are going to find yourself starting to look for cases where two different bands do the same song, just so you can bask in the differences in approach. If you get really hooked you will start noticing that two theoretically identical songs by the same band on different disks differ in length by, say, 10 seconds, and start trying to figure out why ... Yes, in case you are wondering, this is one of the danger signs.

Last edited: Dec 28, 2010 19:29:02

Tuck
Um. wait ... how many different surf songs do you think there are?

Albums/CDs, not songs. So far, I have three of those mentioned.

Shoot the Pier on Bandcamp
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We are on Instagram under "@shootthepiersurfband"

My Country EP ... Florida Dirt Fire
https://floridadirtfire.bandcamp.com/album/florida-dirt-fire

My French Love Songs ... I really needed a change...
www.lonelyrose.bandcamp.com

Here's a previous thread about iTunes:
http://surfguitar101.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=10903

As for essential albums, I'm guessing most of these aren't on iTunes. (I also don't have iTunes on my computer anymore to check.)

First wave:

1. Jim Messina & the Jesters - The Dragsters
   
2. Dick Dale & The Del-Tones - Surfer's Choice, everything else
   
3. Crossfires - Out of Control
   
4. Fender IV - complete recordings (on the Randy Holden - Early Works '64-'66 CD)
   
5. Atlantics - Complete CBS Recordings vol. 1 & 2
   
6. Original Surfaris - Bombora
   
7. Surfaris - Play, Fun City USA
   
8. Astronauts -_ Surfin' With the Astronauts_, Competition Coupe, Movin' (Japanese all-instro comp)
   
9. Lively Ones - Hang Five: The Best Of and Heads Up: The Best Of Vol. 2
   
10. Avengers VI - Real Cool Hits
    

Not to mention most of what The Ventures did between '62-'67 and too many comps to list.

Everything else:

1. Satan's Pilgrims - everything
   
2. Pollo Del Mar - The Golden State
   
3. Surf Coasters - Surfdelic, Surf Attack & Surfside Village
   
4. Madeira - everything
   
5. Royal Fingers - Wild Eleki Deluxe
   
6. Nebulas - everything
   
7. Bomboras - Head Shrinkin' Fun, It Came From Pier 13,
   
8. Sir Finks - Instrumentals in the Key of Boss (the entire album is on the best-of Tuck mentioned)
   
9. Thunderchiefs - Dig!
   
10. Ghastly Ones - A Haunting We Will Go-Go
    
11. Space Cossacks - everything
    
12. Man or Astroman - everything up through Experiment Zero
    
13. Volcanos - Surf Quake, Finish Line Fever

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

From my brand new purchases, I've listened to Satan's Pilgrims - Soul Pilgrim and The Bambi Molesters - Sonic Bullets.

Man, this is really really good music. I mean, Surf should be a section in Best Buy just like Jazz or Country. Thanks...and I truly hope to buy as many of the other recommendations as possible over the course of the year.

Shoot the Pier on Bandcamp
Shoot the Pier on Reverb Nation
Shoot The Pier on Facebook
We are on Instagram under "@shootthepiersurfband"

My Country EP ... Florida Dirt Fire
https://floridadirtfire.bandcamp.com/album/florida-dirt-fire

My French Love Songs ... I really needed a change...
www.lonelyrose.bandcamp.com

Bill, you are starting with the best.

It looks like we should make a few changes

Bomboras : anything (and that includes the Finks, Fill'er Up and Go)

Some others, not necessarily surf, but you probably won't care:

• Meshugga Beach Party - anything
  
• Tomorrow Men - there's only one EP and I forget what they call it
  
• Rumblers - anything (there's a new Ace compilation)
  
• Al Garcia & the Rhythm Kings (my favorite Moment of Truth)
  
• Davie Allan, Loud, Loose and Savage
  

If you like Bombora:

• Boss Martians - early
  

A good place to look is Amazon > Music > used
Some optimization of price vs. source (shipping costs) is a good idea.

Amazon samples and YouTube are good places to look see if you like something. Or you can befriend Tiki Tena on MySpace and go through her list of band friends.

MAN...I CAN NOT GET DILATION OUT OF MY HEAD! I have played that tune 40 times today! My Klipsch are rattling the house next door.

Shoot the Pier on Bandcamp
Shoot the Pier on Reverb Nation
Shoot The Pier on Facebook
We are on Instagram under "@shootthepiersurfband"

My Country EP ... Florida Dirt Fire
https://floridadirtfire.bandcamp.com/album/florida-dirt-fire

My French Love Songs ... I really needed a change...
www.lonelyrose.bandcamp.com

Mister Neutron Nor'easter...DAMN that's discouraging!

Shoot the Pier on Bandcamp
Shoot the Pier on Reverb Nation
Shoot The Pier on Facebook
We are on Instagram under "@shootthepiersurfband"

My Country EP ... Florida Dirt Fire
https://floridadirtfire.bandcamp.com/album/florida-dirt-fire

My French Love Songs ... I really needed a change...
www.lonelyrose.bandcamp.com

If I had to pick 5 gotta have surf albums, I'd probably go with:

(in no particular order)

• The Vanduras - In The Dark
  
• V/A - Beyond The Beach
  
• The Aqua Velvets - Radio Waves
  
• Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet - Dim The Lights, Chill The Ham
  
• The Nebulas - Nebula One

Planet Thorburn
Tales Of Absurdity