What are your favorite of the current crop of surf/instro bands out there today? Any new ones you're excited about? Post 'em here (and please refrain from blatantly promoting your own band... at least in THIS thread)!

Thanks,
kopper

I'm really into Thee Cormans these days and recently discovered a band called Sandy Pussy that did the soundtrack for the movie Zombies VS Strippers. Or was it Strippers VS Zombies? I'd love to find more surf bands like these that really utilize distortion, fuzz, evil, and a shit ton of reverb.

La Luz are awesome! worth checking out Teen Velvettes, The Bell Peppers(me), Spring King, Beach skulls, The Group sound. also Messa chups have gone well surf these days...

The Volcanos , from Detroit (A 3D Invisibles offshoot band.) are definitely the best modern Surf band  I've seen in the past 20 years , but , I'm not sure if they're still playing , these days.

The Greaseballs , originally from Chicago , were one of THEE best Surf and Instro (Heavy on the Link Action.) bands I've ever seen . I'd put 'em up there with Los Straitjackets , The Volcanos and scant few others. But , they started out around 1986 , when you could'nt GIVE this stuff away , and stopped playing out by 1990 , a good five years before this music started getting called "PULP FICTION !" by bandwagon - hopping squares. They kept recording and writing , but , logistics made a return to regular gigging impossible. They've done at least three reunion gigs. They have 3 CDs , LOOK 'EM UP. THEIR LEAD GUITARIST WAS/IS Bill Bulinski , from The Electras (Bill is playing Surf music in the Twin Cities area, now.), a post-hit CROW , AND FOR TWO NIGHTS , Bill Haley and The Comets.

Found this today:

Los Tiki Phantoms, an instrumental band from Barcelona, Spain. Their name caught my attention, and they have some mean classic style riffs. They all wear skull masks and suits, like a mix of tiki and voodoo. Their label is BCore.

Another is a little off the wall, but a band called The Break. They're made of of members from Midnight Oil and Violent Femmes. Most of the band had or still surfs heavily. A nice down under take on surf music.

Lust for Rust is so freakin good. We have signed with Deep Eddy Records, which is the same label that put out LFR, and the owner sent me the CD. I hope to meet up with these guys at some point.

Joey Fuckup said:

As a genre I love, it's hard for me to say who my faves are, although I do lean strongly towards the Bomboras, Phantom Surfers, the Trashwomen, the Boardwalkers, Royal Knightmares, the Fathoms, and many other of the big names that's already mentioned here. Two bands that aren't surf, but has done killer surf instros that I dig, are Southern Culture On the Skids and the Boss Martians.

Two lesser-known bands I'd like to plug here are:

The D-Rays out of Athens, OH. They're a nice 3-piece that I came across on Facebook who I've played on "40 Oz. Nonsense". I think they've got a couple of releases under their belt now, and you can hear a cool cover of the Ramones' "Cretin Hop" on their ep "Landlocked In Athens".

Find 'em on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/theDRays

They're also right here on the Hideout: http://garagepunk.ning.com/profile/TheDRays

Keep up with 'em on their blog, too: http://draysathens.wordpress.com/

The other band is the Surf Zombies from Cedar Rapids who I came across a couple of years ago. They've released three albums, and their style ranges from not only basic surf, but to the spooky surf and rockabilly-sounding instros. Their latest album "Lust For Rust" has them pushing more towards a "hot rod" sound, but still impressive, IMHO. Their only "website" is their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/surfzombiesband

 

The Gravitrons are my fave because they're from my hometown of Columbia, SC AND they sound like surf meets early Blondie. 

As a genre I love, it's hard for me to say who my faves are, although I do lean strongly towards the Bomboras, Phantom Surfers, the Trashwomen, the Boardwalkers, Royal Knightmares, the Fathoms, and many other of the big names that's already mentioned here. Two bands that aren't surf, but has done killer surf instros that I dig, are Southern Culture On the Skids and the Boss Martians.

Two lesser-known bands I'd like to plug here are:

The D-Rays out of Athens, OH. They're a nice 3-piece that I came across on Facebook who I've played on "40 Oz. Nonsense". I think they've got a couple of releases under their belt now, and you can hear a cool cover of the Ramones' "Cretin Hop" on their ep "Landlocked In Athens".

Find 'em on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/theDRays

They're also right here on the Hideout: http://garagepunk.ning.com/profile/TheDRays

Keep up with 'em on their blog, too: http://draysathens.wordpress.com/

The other band is the Surf Zombies from Cedar Rapids who I came across a couple of years ago. They've released three albums, and their style ranges from not only basic surf, but to the spooky surf and rockabilly-sounding instros. Their latest album "Lust For Rust" has them pushing more towards a "hot rod" sound, but still impressive, IMHO. Their only "website" is their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/surfzombiesband

 

I stand by the statement that you guys all need to look into what is going on with surf in the Southeast right now. There is a 4th wave revival brewing. All of these bands, including my own, are really making a name for themselves.

 

Daikaiju

El Fossil

Necronomikids

Kill, Baby...Kill!

Monterreys

The Mystery Men?

and a hell of a lot of others that are slipping my mind at the moment...

Agreed 1000000%:):):)

dave maresch said:

satans pilgrims,ghastly ones,

satans pilgrims,ghastly ones,

I love nearly everything released by The Ziggens. Way better in my opinion than their much better known labelmates Sublime.

HUGE band the Pyronauts :):):)

 

The Razorblades from Germany, The Taikonauts from France, Araban from France, Los Tiki Phantoms from Spain are my favourites at the moment.

I recently discovered the Pyronauts that is a killer band too.

www.thecaliforniagirls.com

Current surf bands I like include:

The Thunderchiefs 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUzsXvHVTjU

The Mobsmen 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt4tPLo3dxM

The Reluctant Aquanauts 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kixLfULt_FY

As far as "modern" surf acts go, there are some great things going on at the moment. To completely ignore the 90's revival bands that are currently active and/or reformed, I would have to go with Daikaiju, from Hunstville, Alabama. They just released their long-awaited 2nd album and it is a masterpiece. Behind that, the surf bands that are currently popping up all over Alabama are really dominating my playlist these days. Necronomikids are a sound to behold. To ignore my previous statement, The reunited Man or Astro-man! is blowing my mind at the moment as well.

Man or astroman are so fresh and innovative; The Cavaliers and Barbwires are awesome, and Bambi Molesters is just pure , beautiful music.

ONE FATHOM DOWN (UK) ... Definitely! http://www.myspace.com/onefathomdown but also, Tiki Phantoms (Spain) The The Ghastly Ones (USA)

The Irradiates, Les Cavaliers, The Kilaueas.

I like this album by Pierce S. Boaz recorded called "Surfin' the Styx" - you can dload or stream it for free from The New York Starlet Society at http://www.archive.org/details/surfinthestyx - it's kinda electro-punk surf - but it's cool spooky stuff! He did a lot of intoxicated skateboarding when composing these. Hard to surf in Queens when you're not anywhere near Rockaway.

yep; that was it!!!!!..... i had the 45 back in 1989.... Lost a whole box of Juke box singles to movers. They also got my Hitchcock movie collection & some classic Punk mags! Rockin Rod Strychnine said:

The one that was actually on the radio? Art of Noize featuring Duane Eddy. Attrocious.

ratoonie said:

thanx for the reply....yea it was pretty sci-fi*.....who did that weird version of Peter Gunn??

Rockin Rod Strychnine said:

Sorry about your album getting ripped off. That just happened to me recently.

Anyway...yeah, the Raybeats. I have a copy of Guitar Beat from 1981. I bought it because the store owner put a description on the wrapper saying "a Ventures for the 80s". One of the guys from Los Straightjackets was in it, but he wrote the only good song on it, "Calhoun Surf", everything else was trying to sound 80s meets sci-fi or something....The jacket looked cool. A lot of surf bands between 1980-1986 were pretty bad I thought except Jon and the NIghtriders. Remember the Halibuts? ugh.

ratoonie said:

Does anyone remember the Raybeats???? my album got ripped off.........back in 1984...... it may have been an Import... it was Dark blue...

I've been trying to get him to sign up here at the Hideout for a while now, guess it might be worth another shot. Stink Magnetic have released some great shit over the years. Leo M Francis said:

If y'all is surf fans wod about TAPEMAN / The TAPEMEN / GHOST of TAPEMAN from New Zealand.

Been releasing stuff on Stink Magnetic and Kato records for almost 10 years I guess. Really wild stuff! My fave for sure.