I use LastFM when ever I want to find new stuff. You just enter an artist you like and an audio stream starts playing artists that are being played by other people who like the artist you entered. But there are many error still in the system - but that’s due to uninformed listeners. I’m afraid music and info are on seperate routes due to recent changes in purchasing habits.
For example you hear lots of Tornados tracks (Telstar) when you enter one artist who was on the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction. Those Tornados have nothing to do with the Tornadoes who WERE on the soundtrack. They are instrumental Rock alright but not in the least surf (except for the Breeze and I maybe, if you like). You only occasionally are presented Bustin’ Surfboards or the b-side. None of the album tracks! So these spelling errors can create strange connections.

The Exotic Guitar of Kahuna Kawentzmann

You can get the boy out of the Keynes era, but you can’t get the Keynes era out of the boy.

SunDazed Records has some excellent compilations of 60's bands. There are also some forum threads worth digging up.

You'll want to check out The Lively Ones, The Surfaris, The Original Surfaris, The Belairs, Eddie & The Showmen, The Sentinels, The Nocturnes, The Astronauts....(I'm probably forgetting a bunch).

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

If you're willing to put up with less-than-perfect quality audio, you could do what I do.

Search for the band names or song titles on youtube.com and capture the audio to your hard drive, using any number of shareware utilities that can save streaming audio. Or simply plug a patch cord between the computer's headphone (or Line Out) jack and the Line In jack, with a headphone splitter adapter so you can listen to it at the same time as you record it. I use Audacity (freeware, multi-platform) to do the recording and editing, and to export them to MP3. It works even better for streaming music on Myspace.com, which is usually in stereo and better quality.

A few examples from my Bookmarks:

The Dakotas - The Cruel Sea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDfklma3qFc
The Atlantics - Bombora http://youtube.com/watch?v=7L_gRyywpjY
The Chantays - Pipeline http://youtube.com/watch?v=_VP15xzNBnQ
The Ventures - Diamondhead and Caravan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR1ln52_ccM
Dick Dale & The Del Tones - Misirlou http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIU0RMV_II8
Link Wray - Rumble http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK4m61CzSD0 - This version from 1978 is fun to watch too - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUHz0i8_ziA . He's not Surf, but hey, he Da Man.

Many of them are clips from old TV shows or movies, some are amateur-produced slide shows of still images to go with music they got from CDs or vinyl records. You may have to check out several of the "Related Videos" to find the best audio quality.

It's good enough to get an idea of the whole tune, or for following along and writing up your own tablature transcriptions. Audacity has the additional feature of being able to stretch out the music without changing the pitch (the "Change Tempo" effect), also to play short selections in a repeating loop, which makes it much easier to figure out how they play it.

And don't forget that SG101's "Offsite Links" menu just to your left: Videos @ YouTube.

There's buried treasure everywhere!

I'm not a complete idiot. Some parts are missing.

did anyone else notice that the Chantays clip was from the Lawrence Welk show? Old L.W. was hip from time to time.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

RetroactiveTaj_
...do all my research on new and old music (in any genre) at <u>AllMusic.com</u> It is a truely amazing database...

Sheesh. I'll say. I just had a look and found a nice little summary of some of the main surf bands, or so it would seem:

• http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=77:389...and they even include this trendoid 'Surf Revival' category, for the more recent/contemporary surf bands...
  

Since I posted this question, I've been scouring various (online/library) sources and have been able to listen to some of the earlier-days music... and it's interesting how a 'taste' for music develops. Some tracks from the Marketts, The Belairs, Chantays, etc give me mixed feelings, whereas the 'revival' groups that have only(!?) been around for a few years appeal to me more, like The Bambi Molesters, Man or Astro-man, etc

I guess this means I have to keep working on my own 'musical genome project', to try and find out what it is, what characteristics there are, that make certain types/styles of Surf Music so appealing.. and THEN I'll be able to start working on developing my OWN take on it... once I get a few more years of real practice/playing under my belt

Thanks for the pointers, everyone...

Edit: FYI, good ol' Wikipedia has pointers to a number of on-line music databases:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_music_databases

I'm as free from money as a frog is from feathers

JakeDobner
iTunes? I know we are on iTunes Europe, I don't know about other bands though. Funnily enough we get paid an extra $3US for an album sale in Europe versus the US.

And while we may not fall into the category of 'classic' my mom says we are 'classic' so I'll drop you a link. http://www.myspace.com/theverb

The Verbtones are on Itunes we're traditional/classic you may also find many others on Itunes

-Kyle

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