I come from what has to be a place more devoid of good surf music than Antarctica. I am desperate to find out more about the bands playing today especially if there are any around here.

Midwest Surf Guy and Tsunami Tom are both members from Ohio. Perhaps they can chime in.

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

If you need a quick fix. The Cocktail Preachers, along with Octomen & Roger and the Wraybands will be in Toledo this Saturday night September 8th. You should be able to get a full nights worth of surf music and network with some of the people Ohio in the crowd.

Or if all else fails... put an ad in your local "Musicians Wanted" classified and form the best surf band Ohio has ever heard!!!
Good luck amigo!

Steve
The Apollo Four 2012-present
https://www.facebook.com/ApolloFour/
The Verbtones 2002-2012

Me and my bro couldn't stay for the Heavies, but good golly Miss Molly...that was a great show emceed by Unsteady Freddie...a kool kat! The Octomen, Roger & the Wraybands, and the Cocktail Preachers all had killer sets!
Midwest Surf Guy showed up from Cinci w/ a surfboard on top his car! Tremendous!

OUTSIDE!

Tuck
http://www.bigbeef.com/mulchmen/index.htmhttp://www.myspace.com/kbandtheriptides

http://www.spy-fi.com/

I didn't try MySpace directly.

The Mulchmen, from Dayton, are no longer around. The guitar player was calling his band "Ohio Silver" for awhile. They play country roots kind of stuff.

I just got an email from KB and the Riptides. Before that, I wasn't even aware of them. They're playing in Kent, at the Robin Hood on Saturday, Sept. 22. I'm going to try to go. KB also plays with a blues band and he's also a professional tango dancer.

Spy-Fi has had some people leave the band. Tom Pervanje is trying to get a new Spy-Fi together.

The Maldroits, from Cincinnati, have also disappeared. The younger members all went to college.

There's an interesting project called "Ghostman And Sandman" who are from Cincinnati. They play occasional gigs.

Technically, the Balboas were from Akron. They always started their summer schedule with a gig in Cleveland. Unfortunately, I don't know what happened to them.

Other than that, there are a few oldies bands who include surf in their sets. I've just begun playing with two other guitar players and a drummer. We hope to be able to play some gigs by next summer. I'm also in a surf recording band with my friend Nick (his SG101 moniker is "Ziv"). We've written over 15 original songs and we've recorded demos of them on a 4-track cassette recorder. Hopefully, we'll be able to do some real recording in the near future.

The most difficult thing about getting a surf scene together seems to be finding surf friendly clubs. Mark, at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland, loves surf music. He even used to play with Satan's Satellites, who included surf and instro in their sets. Mark tells me that surf gigs are hard to book in Ohio because of lack of interest. Last year, we actually tried to bring the Coctail Preachers, Spy-Fi and the Volcanos to the Beachland, but that fell through. It did make me realize how difficult it is to coordinate shows.

Anyway, that's what I know about the Ohio surf bands.

Tom

I can vouch for the difficulty it takes in the Ohio area at least Northeast Ohio. Our show at Frankies in Toledo had a really poor turnout and there was quite some pormotion from Unsteady Freddie done. We had a blast and those that showed enjoyed it, but I could see how difficult it would be getting something going. I'm sure at last Saturdays show in Toledo having a local surf band would have helped immensly though.

Check out 'the Mofos' from Cleveland. They play heavy surf.

Also, I help organize an event in Columbus every year called the Hot Rod Hula Hop. Check out www.hotrodhulahop.com. It is a tiki-themed hot rod show.

We have had some incredible surf bands perform there over the past few years including...

The Maderia, The Crimson Ghosts, The Coffin Daggers, Knuckel Drager & Daikaiju. We also have exotica and psycho/rockabilly bands.

I know it is a ways off...but we will be throwing the bash again in August of 2008!

Jet Sterling, Cosmic Spy
www.surfabillyfreakout.com

Tom

JetSterling_
Check out 'the Mofos' from Cleveland. They play heavy surf.

Although the Mofos have a slight Akron connection and have played at the Lime Spider in Akron a couple of times, they're from New York.

Whoops - shows ya what I know. I think I saw Ohio on their MySpace page and assumed that is where they were based.

Tom

JetSterling_
Also, I help organize an event in Columbus every year called the Hot Rod Hula Hop. Check out www.hotrodhulahop.com. It is a tiki-themed hot rod show.

I'm already anticipating next year's Hot Rod Hula Hop! This year's was amazing. Thank you very much for the best Ohio surf event of the year!

Thanks! We are already kicking ideas around (though it is a long way off). Hope to have another good bash next year. It looks like we are shooting for August 8-9, 2008. Keep the date open!

Jet Sterling, Cosmic Spy
www.surfabillyfreakout.com

Doh! Thanks that gives me a little peace of mind.