Photo of the Day

Kauai, Hawaii Sunday October 7th 2007. It had been raining most of the day and i wondered as i drove to work at the Sheraton if we would be inside or outside. Most of the rain here on Kauai at this time of the year is "showers" and the beach is usually the last place it rains so we had a chance of playing outside by the beach where it's so cool and the sun is setting and there's a good crowd waiting to get a photo of the sunset at just the right moment. Also performing tonight in a church just down the road from our gig is the Duo Tones, you know, Paul Johnson from The Bel-Aires and Gil Orr two guitar playing surf music icons, but as usual, if you're a working musician, most likely you have a gig when somebody good comes to town and that was the case tonight but there's always a chance and we were hoping that they would come see us.

Conrad Mathews, our drummer, had gone early to their sound check and talked to them about doing an interview on his Monday night radio show (8-10pm Hawaiian time on http://www.kkcr.org) and also invite them to check out The TakeOffs over at the Sheraton. When i got to the Sheraton at 6pm it was beautiful. No rain and the daily free Mai Tai hour and hula show was just ending and it was decided that we would play outside. Cool. We got set up and played for an hour and right at the end of the set it started raining and we had to do a full bail....not just us, everybody scampers looking for shelter, but we have to do a complete tear down and there's no time to think just pack the guitar, turn off the amp, pull all the cables and adaptors and stuff them in a bag and run. It was break time anyway so we just cruised and it stopped raining and the sky cleared up so we decided to go back out there and set up again which we did, and played another set. Yeah, you gotta wipe down all the chords and cables and stomp boxes and tuners and your wet guitar of course (hey! i made a pun!!) and it's a MAJOR pain in the ass to do a quick bail like that but it's such a sweet gig that you're back out there!

Surf Rebel

“Dick Dale”

Tabbed by: Waimea Bay
Email: Surfguitarplayer100@yahoo.com

Latin’ia

“The Sentinals”

 

Tabbed by: Waimea Bay

Email: Surfguitarplayer100@yahoo.com

I'm not sure how accurate this is, I got it from "tabpower.com", but it sure is fun to play.

Wow! Check out The Thunderchiefs live in Spain during the 8th High Rockabilly Festival, Sep. 2007! This is their song "Drag-N-Fly" from their first CD "Dig" available on Wormtone Records.

Jeff "Bigtikidude" tipped me off to a two part "Surf Summit" interview from the October and November 1995 issues of the email-zine Cosmik Debris. They are archived here at ETEXT.org:

Cosmik Debris October 1995 - Part 1
Cosmik Debris November 1995 - Part 2

They contain interviews with a veritable who's who of the 3rd wave of surf music: Dave Arnson, John Blair, Todd Damnit, Joe Emery, Ferenc Dobronyi, (Halibut) Rick Johnson, Mel Waldorf, Allen Whitman, Pepper Wilson, Bernard Yin, Bob Dalley, Rick Escobar, and Phil Dirt.

Check them out for an interesting snapshot of the mid-90's surf scene!

I am pleased to announce the SurfGuitar101 2007 MP3 Compilation! Just like last year and the year before, this is a way for all members to share music, recording tips, and to just have fun. The main emphasis is fun, so please send in an entry no matter what your skill level is. Here are the rules:

1. You must be a member of this website to submit an mp3.
2. You may submit only 1 mp3.
3. The mp3 you submit must not have appeared on any "official" release before. Likewise, please don't submit anything that is destined for an official release in the future.
4. The mp3 must be 8 MB in size or less.
5. There is a good chance the comp will end up on Archive.org. Therefore, you must agree to their Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No-Derivatives) License for your mp3.
6. The deadline for submitting an mp3 is Friday, December 14th, 2007.

I have created an Official 2007 MP3 Comp Forum Thread. Please use that thread to discuss the compilation and to get information on how to submit an mp3. Please use that thread if you'd like to find a fellow member to work with on the project. With the magic of digital recording and the internet, remote collaborations are possible. Make your own virtual surf band! Let the comp begin!

Please check out our prior compilations if you haven't seen them already: 2005 2006.

Welcome to the first entry in a new article category: Featured Video. There are so many great video clips of surf bands out on the web I thought I would create this category to showcase them. I'll run a video selected by our crack editorial staff every week or so.

First up we have Slacktone playing "The Bells of St. Kahuna". This was a combined production effort from members Tim (HBKahuna) and Tom (tdsurf). Great job guys! I also want to thank Tom for making the cool topic icon for this new category. Let 'er rip Slacktone!

From the Yep Roc mailing list:

Enter to win the "Turtlenecks Required" Los Straitjackets Photo Contest!

Big fan of Los Straitjackets? Remember the days when Jimmy Lester banged on the drums and Pete Curry shredded on the bass? Well, go to the attic and dig up your live concert photos from those days!

Send your live concert photos to LosStraitsContest@gmail.com by October 3rd and your picture may be selected to be used as the artwork for the upcoming Los Straitjackets DVD (out early '08)!

The grand prize winner and five others will receive a Yep Roc Los Straitjackets package, which will include the entire Yep Roc Records catalogue from Los Straitjackets, autographed by the band! 

Remember: If they aren't wearing turtlenecks and it's not a concert, the photo doesn't count!

(Editor's note: this was posted to the Slacktone Yahoo Group by bksmithey@yahoo.com)

Colorado enjoyed its first ever Slacktone show last night. The show was opened by local instrumental band "Get 3 Coffins Ready". 3 Coffins played a nice set of reverbed, surf-y instrumentals with a bit of a Link Wray-ish rebel vibe. This was my first time seeing them, I thought they sounded great and kicked off the evening nicely.

Slacktone started off with "Coffin Closer" and flew through another couple of songs in quick succession. I've see Sam with Dick Dale a few times, and Dusty with DD a few years ago and also recently with Agent Orange, but I think they were playing last night with more energy than I've ever seen (not easy to do in this thin air!). Those in the crowd who hadn't seen Dusty before couldn't believe their eyes and ears; after a few songs were played some guy from the crowd jokingly yelled "play faster!" which brought a laugh from those around him and a smile from Dusty.