La Luz's Denver show was pretty decent. (A Thursday night.) Very well attended. Not quite as jam packed as Dick Dale at the same venue last time, but full. I have no idea of the numbers either time, though it's a smallish place with a weakish layout. Not the Denver surf crowd, such as it is, in attendance, or at least I don't think I recognized anyone. About the same ratio of instrumental to vocal as last time, and the same kind of gear. I also liked the opening band Tele Novella. Yes, armed with a Telecaster. From Austin, I think, though it was just nice quality vocal pop. There's some really decent video of that band up on YouTube. I won't share links here since it's not instrumental and it's easy to track down. (Worth it, too, I'd say.)

Not my kind of surf... but who am I to judge?

To Boldly go where no Tiki has gone before...

Hipster culture. Taking elements of everything (incl. surf), and sounding like nothing. That's very evident in the vocals (she's no Liz Fraser) - non-commitment, blurry mess. Say something! They are talented with their instruments though.

Last edited: Mar 24, 2014 14:31:11

Thought I'd revive this thread. Looking through and saw La Luz. I am a teenager who listens to this type of stuff. As far as I know, in the indie pop music scene, "Surf" is such a broad genre. From just reverb on everything to early 60s style melodies, they fall in the "surf" category.

In San Diego, what we kids listen to is surf punk (influenced by garage rock, think Trashmen). https://groms.bandcamp.com/album/take-me-to-your-wiener-ep (From SD, Dinosaur Ghost is killer btw)

But as far as the most popular instro band amongts us hipster kids is this band, Guantanamo Baywatch.

I was only half on the La Luz bandwagon -- while I'm as wary as the next surf nut about how liberally surf is thrown around, I'd read some interviews that proved to me that Shana had a pretty damn good knowledge of surf. Truth is their songs never found their way into something that really clicked for me.

We just got their new LP in at the radio station and they've really turned those ideas into something that works now. Same sound, better songs. Still got two instros on it, both of which are better than their previous ones I think.

Storm Surge of Reverb: Surf & Instro Radio

La Luz is ok. My exposure to 'new' music is limited to my XM radio where 2 of my 10 presets are for modern rock- Alt Nation and XMU for newer and unsigned bands.

Unfortunately given the state of whatever the hell 'alt' or 'new' music is today, had La Luz come across the the XM while I was surfing the stations I would have stopped to listen and probably become of fan of theirs for a couple of days maybe even a couple of weeks. Not because they are great but because everything else is so bad. This is the way it has always been with popular music and alt has long since become that just another sub-genre of the corporate music machine.

The plusses for La Luz: You can hear the guitar. The organ has a cool retro tone even thought the girl can't really play it. Vocals are not offensive. I heard a few nice slow surf-ish notes in like the 2nd or 3rd song. I'm sure these girls sound much better in the studio (my own wheelhouse) so yeah, I'd of listened but I'm sure not tracking them down to download anything. Future of surf as we know it- not even. The Monsters of Surf album shows the way to some real creativity and excellent players ready to take chances. Of course those bands like the rest of us are pretty much doomed to the surf ghetto.

Guantanamo Baywatch. Truly horrible playing, maybe with some studio sweetening it would be just fine. Does the drummer even use his hi-hat? I could detect no skills. I've seen flaggers on road crews with better moves.

Plusses: Cool Tiesco looking guitar and a cute chick on bass. So maybe they've learned something. Apologies if anyones kid is in any of these bands. With proper guidance I'm sure you will be able to steer them in the right direction.

Da Vinci Flinglestein,
The quest for the Tone, the tone of the Quest

The Syndicate of Surf on YouTube

http://www.syndicateofsurf.com/

http://sharawaji.com/

http://surfrockradio.com/

Syndicateofsurf wrote:

Guantanamo Baywatch. Truly horrible playing, maybe with some studio sweetening it would be just fine.*

You're right. Their records sound finer than their live videos...

Problem with 'rockist' & hipster-popular bands is that they won't improve musically over time - it's against their aesthetic principles and is considered a real turn-off by their fickle, smug pseudo-subcultural audience.

Joanna Newsome was well-liked by these types when she was fresh out of the box at 20 and sounded weird. But being a real musician of considerable talents, she improved drastically in a short time, and received accolades for it - but lost her 'cred' among hipsters. They are very easily put off by real art and real craft, preferring to drift along in an 'it's all good' kind of in-joke, you-are-too-old-to-get-it way. This is the reason so few bands make it out of SF, because they get swallowed up in hip smugness.

Squink Out!

No, I have been wondering what the heck became of her since she moved to LA and has been trying to go mainstream - not that I fault her, she's truly fabulous all around and deserves to make it big. Anne Magnuson was all into that about 25 yrs ago (and never did crack the mainstream) but Joanna has that somethin' extra. Shit, her country needs her talents! (a national treasure?) Looking forward to hearing and seeing her again. It's been like 5 yrs since "Have One on Me".

Squink Out!

I'm going to jump onto this tangent: I went to college with MGMT. They were seniors when I was a freshman, so I didn't know them personally. After college I moved back home to New Orleans where I expected to see absolutely none of my college friends ever again. Then they end up filming the video for "Kids" in New Orleans, and a bunch of friends come down to work on it.

So one of them invites me to the wrap party after they finish. My friend Chaz shoves me in front of this girl and says "HUNTER! This is Joanna! Talk!". Based on what y'all are talking about, you probably know more than I did at that time, I have bad facial recognition and this wasn't really the environment where I was expecting to meet anybody "big".

So I said "so.... what's your deal?"

She says in a whispery voice "oh, I'm just in town for a few days..."

"Do you know these guys or did you just happen in this bar?"

"oh I know Ray..." Ray was the director.

I think we both decided that the other person was pretty boring and moved on. When I was taking my friend to the airport the next day, he said "So what'd you think of Joanna Newsom???" I had no clue!

So TLDR: I met Joanna Newsom, asked her "what's your deal?"

Storm Surge of Reverb: Surf & Instro Radio