Photo of the Day

Moe's Alley (Santa Cruz, CA) hosted a great display of progressive Surf and Instro music with Shig and Buzz and The Mermen. Yes, it was Jim Thomas' birthday, but it was also a nice forum to see the scarcely observed, but talented, Shig and Buzz as show openers. Well, they have evolved over the years and now do very progressive versions of instro faves, such as Flight of The Bumble Bee, Dark Eyes and Caravan. This Shadows-inspired band did not disappoint their longtime fans of the Double Diamonds days with tunes like Lost Train. The keyboards and electric violin add both showmanship and a talented dimension of progressive sound to their mix. Black shirts white ties and stripes. Johnny "Berzerker" Hamilton now slots in on bass for S&B. Grins all around and an encore for this opening act! Nice!

The Mermen: well, the orignal lineup with Jim Thomas, Allen Whitman and Martyn Jones truly define classic Mermen music. There's a jamming synergy among these players that cannot be duplicated. They played some recent material, but satisfied my craving for one of their all-time concert greats- Pull Of The Moon. Psycho effects in tow up on the wall. Great show.

All the usual local suspects were in tow at this event, including many of Jim's personal friends. Stretch Riedle and Matt Kora was there with his "open invitation", Jaime (of course!) and the omnipotent Phil Dirt, who the Mermen owe much of their notoriety to were all in attendance. Good to see you clubbing, Mr Phil!

-bIG wAvE Dave
Bass, The Aquamarines

Since most of us prefer Rosewood fingerboards, I wanted to give a review of this product I recently started using. It is called "Guitar Honey" by Gerlitz. I have to say this is the best fret board conditioner/cleaner I have ever used for Rosewood. It removes all grime and crud very easily, but also leaves the fret board feeling very smooth and conditioned.

If you want more thorough results, you can apply it with a very fine steal wool. I have not done this yet, but have read reviews praising this technique. I just apply it with a quality terry cloth and I am very happy with the results. Anyway, it’s about 8 bucks for a bottle. It should last a very long time as well. If you are looking for a fret board conditioner, I recommend trying Gerlitz Guitar Honey. You can do a Google search to easily find it.

PS I do not have any affiliation with this company.

Hey, we've still got some cool Double Crown ON THE ROCKS T-shirts and posters available from the shows this past weekend. If you'd like one, here is ordering info:

Poster is $10 + $6.00 for USPS Priority Mail shipping to any US address. NOTE: This is a mockup of the poster done by Johnny Bartlett - the actual poster looks slightly different than this (even better than this!). The posters were printed on thick cardstock on an old 100+ year letter press by Horwinski printing - check out their site at www.horwinski.com. At the moment, this is not available outside the US I'm afraid. It is a large poster on thick cardstock and cannot be folded or rolled, so I haven't figured out a way to mail it without it being damaged outside the US.

T-Shirts are $10 each + $4.00 for USPS Priority Mail Shipping to any US address. Shipping is $7.50 for USPS Global Priorty Mail to Canada/Mexico and $9.50 for shipping outside the US/Canada/Mexico. Sizes: Womens Small & Medium (baby doll and spaghetti strap styles) - Men's Standard Style Small, Medium, Large and X-Large. The shirts are preshrunk.

To order, you can send a Paypal payment to: records@dblcrown.com or cash/check/money order to:

Double Crown Records
P.O. Box 4336
Bellingham, WA 98227-4336

These will be added to the Double Crown site soon, but I'm giving all of you at SurfGuitar101 first crack at 'em!

We also have Kilaueas tour shirts available - please e-mail me at: records@dblcrown.com for details. These will be going up on the site soon.

Hi All,

It is with great pride of accomplishment, (which wouldn't have been possible without tremendous support from Loyd Davis, Chris Ireland, Mike Peake of Wally Sound, Corvette Sandy, Unsteady Freddie, Clint Beechwood, Les Perry, The Great Kahuna, Phil Dirt, and our friends and families) that LONGBOARD RANCH announces the following nominations received in 2006:

1. Best Surf Band of 2006 - (The Orange County Music Awards) The Award was presented to The Reventlos, but, hey, 2007 is another year, and another chance at this prestigious award!

2. Best Surf Song 2006 – Killer Zuma (by Bruce Duncan) from "Longboard Ranch Rides Again!" CD

3. Best Surf Song 2006 – Scuba (by Loyd Davis) from "Surfin' Out West" CD

4. Best Surf Album 2006 – "Longboard Ranch Rides Again!"

We have some very exciting news here. Australian author Stephen McParland, a very prolific writer of many books on the 60's surf and pop culture scene, has just completed a new book titled Surf Music U.S.A. - All the Surf, Hot-Rod, Motorcycle and Skateboard Hits 1960-65!

Here is what surf music author, historian, and musician John Blair (Jon & The Nightriders) has to say about this new book:

"This is the first book to present an accurate, highly detailed account of surf and hot-rod music's early history. At 300+ pages, the book is well illustrated with numerous photos and graphics, some in color (including 14 color pages of record labels and LP covers). The primary emphasis here is on the recordings, themselves, and the artists and producers who made the scene happen. The book also features an exhaustive index and bibliography. Given how detailed and expansive 'Surf Music U.S.A.' is, the cost (including the postage) is very reasonable. This is a strongly recommended document for your bookshelf!!"

Read on for the press release and ordering information.

SURF AND DESTROY can now be purchase online at:

CD Baby

You can listen to a portion of every track before you buy and preview the cover art as well! Be sure to visit our website for other important information.

Thanks!

SurfGuitar101 is pleased to announce that we now have a TeamSpeak server. We can now offer voice chats! All you have to do to get started is go to the TeamSpeak Downloads page, and grab yourself a client program. Clients are available for Windows, Linux, and Macs (be sure you get the right one), and are available free of charge to non-commercial users (i.e. us). I've used Teamspeak extensively and I can vouch for it being free of spyware.

You will need speakers and a microphone for your computer to chat. I use a microphone/headphone headset combination, but any old computer mic will do.

For additional help, information, etc., please see this forum thread.

I will shortly install a block that will appear on the home page that will indicate who is chatting on TeamSpeak.

This resource was brought to you by the generous people who have donated to the site. I hope it proves useful to the surf community! Use it to talk about surf music, shoot the breeze, coordinate going to shows, make new friends, etc.

I got a call from the local guitar store, they are always on the lookout for guitars I might like to own. The sold me on the new Fender Classic Player '60s Strat. It is a Mexican Strat designed by Fender Custom Shop builder Greg Fessler.

If you are looking for a new Strat for surf, this one is worth looking out for ... I could not be more pleased with my new Sonic Blue Strat!

This appeared in the on-line edition of Fender News. Interestingly, Dick claims to be the inspiration for the name "Showman," which was a new one to me!

I'm proud to announce that Colorado's favorite surf band, The Aquasonics, first cd is available! Packed full of classics that you know, and some you don't, it's sure to satisfy! A few cuts can be heard on our myspace page.

If you like your surf in a traditional style, this is the "must hear" cd this year! Recorded in the world famous Wormtone studios (a converted 1940's garage) the sounds are classic surf from start to finish!

The regular price is $12, but I'll do 'em for $10 (inc shipping in the US) to all my SG101 friends! It can be ordered by contacting Chris at chris@bigkahunabicycles.com