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I'll start this off:
CD of the year: The Bambi Molesters - Dumb Loud Hollow Twang Deluxe
Runner-up: Evan Foster - Instrumentals
In close running: The Lunatics - Tour du Monde
The Nebulas - It's Go Time!
The Hellbenders - Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die
(These five are all really close to each other - they're all truly
fantastic CDs. Maybe it's not even fair to rank them, but I do think
that the BMs and Evan are just a slight cut above.)
Honorable mentions:
El Ray - Tick... Tick... Tick...
The Wet-Tones - Mucho Reverbo
(Two European bands that have put out albums with some great surf
music!)
The biggest discovery of the year: The Lunatics - Tour du Monde
(I expected something good from these guys based on their first live
CD, but this surpassed my highest expectations. It took several
listens to get really into it though, but it was totally worth it.
It's available from Double Crown if anybody is interested in picking
it up - skip the first song, though - it's terrible!)
The biggest disappointment of the year: a tie
Laika & The Cosmonauts - Local Warming
The Infrareds - Sounds From The Darkroom
(Two great bands with two pretty crappy albums - what happened? L&TC
have completely left surf music behind which is a bit sad. The
Infrareds put out an uninspired, sterile-sounding, surf-music-by-the-
numbers album. Those guys can do a lot better.)
The most promising improvement (i.e., the band to watch):
The Bitch Boys - Ride The First Wave
(I don't think it deserved to be listed in the top five, but I have
been enjoying this CD. I think it's heads and shoulders above "...In
Heat" This is a band to watch in the future.)
Brian Neal <brian@s...> wrote:
> I almost want to postpone the poll so I can go
> out and buy some of the stuff I don't have that's on this list!!!
I agree. The CDs I listed here are the only ones that I have from
2004. It'll be interesting to see other people's votes to see what
else to pick up.
I'd say strictly based on my top five CDs (plus the honorable
mentions) that it's been a good year for surf music! Though the
scene is not where it was in, say, '98 or '99, I see many signs that
things are getting better again. It seems that the surf music scene
is no longer going to come and go but is rather here to stay, which
is very cool. It may have highs and lows, but I think we can count
of good releases coming out every year. Yeay!
Ivan
PS On Thursday Los Straits and the Hellbenders are playing in
Detroit - I'm a bit sick right now, but if I feel better by then
that'll be a nice way to (almost) ring in a new year! Let's hope
it'll set the tone for 2005 - lots of surf shows!
