That Treble Spankers thread and notably SixStringSurfer's comment "I have never heard of this band until now." got me thinking. It would be good, cool and useful for the community to brush off some of the truly exceptional bands/albums of yesteryear. Selfishly, it is for my own benefit too! I am certain there are plenty of 'truly greats' I've never heard of.

For the sake of calibration and some level of focus, let's set the criteria to:

1. What you would consider to truly be among the very best (not just good, neat, interesting or somehow unique). Yeah, yeah, subjective. But aim for that caliber.

2. Albums that were released AT LEAST 10 years ago. Even better if the artist hasn't released anything since, but that part is not a hard/fast requirement.

3. Ideally, bands/album(s) that you think have gone largely or entirely out of the frame of conversation in recent years. For example, The Bambi Molesters "As the Dark Wave Swells", or Los Twang! Marvels "Jungle of Twang" or something like Man... or Astro-Man's "Project Infinty" may be border line... as in, still fairly well known bands and talked about releases - in MoAM's case, still touring even. Again, subjective, but use your judgement to keep this from becoming a laundry list of 100's of albums of everything ever released by anyone.

Anywhere samples to be heard are available, please include them. And if you happen to know where folks can buy it, even if as digital only (gasp!), pointers would be appreciated.

- = + = - - = + = - - = + = - - = + = - - = + = - - = + = -

I'll start with one I think checks all three boxes: Bevel Emboss - Celluloid. Released Sept. 7, 2012. R.I.Y.L. (Recommended if you like) The Treble Spankers / The Phantom Four.

From bevelemboss.nl:
"A group musicians booked studio 150 in centre of Amsterdam to take up an instrumental challenge.

After ideas bubbled up during an Amsterdam Festival, founder Louis de Wit started to compose some guitartunes and got enthusiastic response from his musician friends and quickly a band was formed.

With Jac Bico on leadguitar, Louis de Wit on guitar, Paul van Rijswijk on drums and Bart de Ruiter picking up the bassguitar, the line-up was complete.

They developed a typical way of rehearsing and ended up performing music on the same frequency of abstraction. IOW: being involved in the mystery called music.

Now they finally present an album: Bevel Emboss - Celluloid. The album contains 15 tracks, to be considered as an ode to pure guitar music. Bevel Emboss has mixed the traditional western sound with Turkish, Arabic, Spanish and South American beat and sound expressions.

A mystical experience and a pleasure listening, bringing joy and the feeling of being part of the action."

They link to online digital download purchases world wide, such as Amazon(US)), or if you dig Apple Music/iTunes, here.

Fady

El Mirage @ ReverbNation

Last edited: Sep 15, 2023 08:27:06

I'll play along!

I sometimes get asked, "Gellert, who's your favorite surf band(s) so I can hear what your tastes are?"

My #1 will probably always be The Madeira.

My #2 may be too "guitar-intensive" for some surf fans. But, since I am a guitar player, that's exactly what I'm in love with.

Secret Samurai is a masterful band but their guitar player is the Holy Grail for me. Amazing melodies, skillful note execution, perfect guitar tone. I can listen to their songs anytime, any day.

So for those that have never heard of Secret Samurai, I very highly encourage hearing their songs on YouTube. Especially the Zanshin album!

.

_

Hi, I'm Gellert, guitarist for The Fintastics.

https://www.facebook.com/TheFintastics

Gotta go with The Space Cossacks. I still kick myself every time I listen to them that I missed out on multiple opportunities to see them back in the '90s in the DC area.

Outside of surf ... Gojira and Mastodon. They just toured together and have relatively new albums out, but their older material is just fantastic. Both are pretty heavy metal bands with some prog leanings.

--
Project: MAYHEM by Hypersonic Secret now available!

The Torquays, baby! This is my favorite surf album cover of all time. I am glad I printed this out several years ago, as it is difficult to find online now. In my opinion, their music and tone is incredible. My favorite track From Somewhere in California is "Milagro Del Mar."

MooreLoud.com - A tribute to Dick Dale. New videos uploaded

Thanks, y'all, for playing along - some really choice adds already contributed!

PS - Hunter, I'm with you re: a follow up from Bevel Emboss. You can imagine my heart flutter when I saw they still had an active website and front & center, bright red/bold print "NEWS 17 / 02 / 2015, New Album Coming up: A new album to be released in 2015!". Sadly, as best I can tell, that never happened.

Fady

El Mirage @ ReverbNation

Great sense of humor is a matter of opinion.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

So good, love their on the verge of going overboard feel.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

The Huntington Cads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSB_mbDfM7I

Juanitos are not a surf band proper but I have long lived this track and sit besides the classics in my mind:

Last edited: Sep 17, 2023 11:42:12

Stormtiger wrote:

I'm glad to see the Torquays, Laika & the Cosmonauts and the Treblemakers get mentioned before I could. I miss Zak. I was working with him for cover art for their 3rd album when some of the band went AWOL and put an end to their treblemaking. I have a CD of the album that never saw the light of day. I think it was titled Eclectic Ladyland, I could be wrong but it was very different in a psychedelic way from their previous albums and full of wonderful noises.

You mean Zak that was active here but then left with all his posts?

Waikiki Makaki surf-rock band from Ukraine

New Single is out!

https://waikikimakaki.bandcamp.com/album/rhino-blues-full-contact-surf-single

Waikiki Makaki

https://linktr.ee/waikikimakaki

Lost Diver

https://lostdiver.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/vitaly-yakushin