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Clarkston Surf Fest 2011 is upon us!

This year, the fest will take place on Saturday, September 24, 2011, and will showcase many of the best, and most diverse surf music bands in the southeast region! This day will certainly give you just about every surf music experience that is out there!

The 2011 lineup:

Daikaiju (AL)
www.daikaiju.net

Aqualads (NC)
www.myspace.com/aqualads

The Intoxicators! (FL)
www.theintoxicators.com

The Mystery Men? (GA)
www.themysterymenofsurf.com

The Surge! (GA)
www.myspace.com/thesurgeinstro

The Necronomikids (AL)
www.myspace.com/necronomikids

Kill, Baby... Kill! (AL)
www.reverbnation.com/killbabykillal

The Monterreys (NC)
www.reverbnation.com/themonterreys

Stratogeezer (GA)
www.stratogeezer.com

El Fossil (GA)
www.myspace.com/elfossil

Hi Everyone!

We've just re-released Shadow Land on The Falcons EP Collection.

12 classic Falcons instros plus Apache, recorded from 1991 to 1997.

Have a listen at CD Baby!

More info: www.falconbeachmusic.com

Cheers,

Mike Beddoes

My first radio SOLO radio show since 1967 or so.... FRESNO STATE KFSR.ORG SATURDAY NIGHT the 17th...8-10pm PACIFIC time.

Show...DUKES DUSTY DISCS... instrumentals, oldies, rock, some blues, rarities, trivia, and more. Let me know if you liked it or hated it...I can take it. My email: DukeoftheDiscs@hotmail.com

Kauai, Hawaii instrumental surf band The TakeOffs have released their first full length CD 'Blue Avalanche'.

Produced by Dennis Dragon and The TakeOffs it includes nine original songs and five covers. Graphics were done by Doug "stormtiger" Paulin. It will be available through Deep Eddy Records, Double Crown Records and CD Baby. The album can also be purchased from the band themselves by sending a check for $13 and made out to:

Ron Rhoades
po box 1075
Kekaha, Hi. 96752

We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Martin Schmidt, lead guitarist of The Razorblades. Show #12 will air Sunday Sept 25 on wfte.org at 8pm ET.

Thanks,
Noodles

DJ & Curator of The Shrunken Head Lounge

Tim Murphy writes:

My name is Tim Murphy and in February I am launching “The Shamrock Beach Music Hour – Songs of Sand, Surf and Summer.” This weekly show will focus on surf music over the last five decades, plus great summer hits. We’ll run from the Ventures to contemporary Australian and South American surf bands, from the Beach Boys to surf garage punk.

This show will be presented to national syndicators, satellite radio and will be available for podcast and downloads.

We will leave no grain of sand unturned in our search for the best beach music. If you know bands that would like to be included on this show, have them band send us their stuff. We’re requesting music on CD (for the best quality) and any bio and discography information of the band. Attached is the address to send your material.

We will post a song list and links to the bands featured on each week’s show on our website.

I hope you can jump on board and ride the wave.

Tim Murphy
Bicoastal Meda
3624 Avion Drive
Medford, OR 97504
USA

UNDER THE COVERS WITH... THE TREMOLO BEER GUT

Album out 10th October. Concerts this autumn

“They are here to put the URF! back in surf! They love tremolo, they love beer and they've got guts!”

Denmark’s - no, let’s just say it as it is - the world’s leading surf-orchestra is back with a new, old, album.
The Tremolo Beer Gut is known for doing everything in the old-fashioned way, but compared to most other
bands within the genre, they have always insisted on stepping out of the very schematic and rigid conventions
for surf-music. From the very beginning, it has been film-music and surf-elements, which are reflected
in the more contemporary music that has been the inspiration for the band. When The Tremolo Beer Gut
started on the music scene in 1999, it reverberated around the world’s surf forums: A new band was in the
midst of reinventing the genre backwards. A lot of reviewers on fanzines noted that: The sound is 100%
authentic old school, but the Tremolo Beer Gut writes fundamental original music, which takes the fast
track of the often reactionary songwriting that characterizes the genre.

The Beach Boys FAQ
All That’s Left to Know About America’s Band
Jon Stebbins
Foreword by David Marks, founding member of the Beach Boys

  Celebrating 50 years of the world’s ultimate summer band  

“The FAQ series stacks a lot of things you need to know about a band with a lot of juicy bits you’d spend years tracking down from glossies, fanzines, journals, blogs, and other biographies.”                                                                                                    –KEXP FM (Seattle)

 A great rock-and-roll story is a magnet, and the Beach Boys story has one of the strongest pulls of all.  Author Jon Stebbins has been producing literary and televised Beach Boys productions for years, and now Backbeat Books’ newest FAQ title puts his mammoth knowledge of Beach Boys history and obscure lore into one entertaining, fast-paced tome. So pull up a chair or catch a wave—it’s time for fun, fun, fun in the summertime.

The Beach Boys FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About America’s Band (Backbeat Books, $19.99) dives down deep into the legend. Great for casual fans, Stebbins discusses the album Pet Sounds, Brian Wilson’s reclusiveness, TV appearances, and solo careers. But, this book will also take readers beyond the shoreline: Why are they considered the American Beatles? What was the truth behind Murray Wilson, Showbiz-Dad? How did the band affect global warming?

Deleted for many years, Man or Astroman's? finest work is once again available on CD and picture disc LP with nine bonus tracks.

Fifty years ago, the earliest forms of surf music were being defined and cultured in the beach communities of Southern California. It was, in great part, focused on the high school social scene; music created by and for teenagers (not by and for surfers). The emergent (and most frequent) form was the reverbed guitar instrumental (Dick Dale & The Del-Tones, The Challengers, The Surfaris, The Chantays, etc.), but the popular form of surf music was vocal (Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, Bruce & Terry, etc.). Celebrating the 50th anniversary of surf music in 2011 is actually a celebration of the first four important recordings of this genre, released during the last half of 1961 (the “golden years” of the music were 1962 and 1963, so the celebration might continue for awhile!):

“Let’s Go Trippin’” by Dick Dale & The Del-Tones. Widely considered to be the first surf instrumental recording, it was released on Dale’s own record label (Deltone) in September, 1961. Dale and his band were packing them in every weekend at the huge Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa.

“Mr. Moto” by The Belairs. It’s not exactly clear when The Belairs’ first recording was available in local record shops, but it would have been very close to the release of Dale’s single. The band was from the South Bay area of Southern California, a group of small beach communities just north of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Both Dick Dale & The Del-Tones and The Belairs played equally important roles in the emerging surf music style in 1961. A large percentage of the kids who came to see both bands were avid surfers. It was the audience, not the performers, that ultimately coined the term “surf music.” The sound and energy of the style came from Dick Dale; the style and form came from The Belairs.

“Surfin’” by The Beach Boys. Part of the South Bay enclave was the city of Hawthorne, forever known as the “birthplace” of The Beach Boys. In the fall of 1961, the bouncy and danceable “Surfin’” – a vocal – quickly became a local radio hit. When the band signed with Capitol Records in the summer of 1962, the music suddenly went nationwide.

“Surfer’s Stomp” by The Marketts. They were a studio group produced by Joe Saraceno who saw their recording climb into the Top 40 and remain on the national charts for over two months in the waning days of 1961 and early 1962. It was, arguably, the first rock instrumental recording to incorporate the word “surf” in the title; certainly the first such recording to be nationally distributed (“Surfer’s Stomp” went from the indy label, Union, to the major label, Liberty in early 1962). Despite all the trappings of the winter season, “Surfer’s Stomp” made the rest of the country’s teenagers aware that something cool was starting to happen on the West Coast.

By the early spring of 1962, there was no mistaking the new genre of pop music. It was all over the radio, it had a name, and it had a certain sound and form. Happy 50th Anniversary to surf music, and a toast of gratitude to Dick Dale & The Del-Tones, The Belairs, The Beach Boys, and The Marketts.

-- John Blair