We're beyond thrilled to be hosting one of THE greatest instrumental surf groups of all time, The Space Cossacks, at the Star Bar on July 30th for one of only two East coast dates, as they warm up to play this year's Surf Guitar 101 convention. For this special appearance they will be joined by The Mystery Men? and The Penetrators T.R.I.B.U.T.E.
We're beyond excited for this years Surf Guitar 101 convention and proudly hosting several of the groups before and after the convention. Of course Crazy Aces and The Space Cossacks will be representing the Southern Surf Syndicate, and Southern Surf Stomp! will be there hawking our wares.
For more information, please visit the SG101 convention thread on surfguitar101.com.
SEAWHORES live recording, "Emilio Al Dente", is now available on Bandcamp.
Here's what Hunter King from Storm Surge of Reverb has to say about "Emilio Al Dente":
This live set from SEAWHORES shows a pretty trashy-trad surf sound with a party-ready rock & roll edge. There's some cool saxamaphone in there in there too that gets buried in the lo-fi mix. There are, I think, eight originals on here and they're all well arranged and powerful. I'm a big believer that a lo-fi live recording will always trump a poorly done bedroom recording, but with a full range of well-developed songs like they have here, I wanna hear 'em with a studio treatment - so long as they don't lose that energy!
Here's what Hunter King from Storm Surge of Reverb has to say about "The Ones Disappearing You":
"I was really looking foward to a new release from Beninghove's Hangmen; their Rattlesnake Chopper EP was the sort of mix of surf, noise, skronk, free-jazz and who-knows that really got me excited. Unfortunately their new LP, though I've listened to it frequently, doesn't really hang out in surfland enough to fit this website. Why am I talking about them instead of Holy Mountain Top Removers? Because I feel like this band rushed in to fill the hole that I was expecting Beninghove's Hangmen to fill.
Not that I think these two bands would be necessarily confused: I don't hear any John Zorn in here, and I do hear a lot more 90's-Dick-Dale-gigantic-pounding-tribal-drum in this. But it does have that same avant-jazz-surf sense of rhythm and the twisty-windy guitar soloism that even breaks into a strange raga trance around "Iconoclaster Cupid" which breaks into tuvan throat singing for a minute or two. From there you get Bossanova, John Fahey-like sparseness, and then a gigantic longform build-up in "Fever Dreamer".
No doubt this isn't for everybody, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who hears stuff like this and thinks "SEND MORE PLEASE".
Since I've had so much fun namedropping in this, here's a few more relevant ones that I didn't properly fit in: Sonic Youth, Captain Beefheart, The Godz, Ole Tyme Relijun, Sun City Girls (though they never really got me too excited), probably Holy Modal Rounders, maybe Moondog. And then my jazz namedropping isn't really strong enough. Hopefully we all get the picture by now. You don't? Well then there's bandcamp, just listen to it."
The AmpFibians "Enigma of the Deep" is now available on iTunes and CDBaby!
Here's what Hunter King from Storm Surge of Reverb has to say about the "Enigma of the Deep":
"The latest release from Cincinnati's AmpFibians is a big step forwards from their their previous album Surf Guitar Heard Round the World. Purely in terms of production it's much more, well, produced. It has that expansive effect-laden sound that brings out a Mermen vibe that I think was always trying to come out of this band. That especially comes out on the first track, but they have a bit more fun than the spacey Mermen typically do - getting pretty silly on "Wolf Whistle". Though it's a shame that it's only 7 songs, they cover a lot of ground, with some spaghetti western and jazzy songs as well as some good ol' surf rock. The AmpFibians really have bested themselves on this one, the songwriting is more memorable and focused than their last effort and it sounds so good you want to keep cranking it up."
Ohio's psychedelic surf rockers The AmpFibians will be making their long awaited return to Atlanta as a four-piece, having recently recruited members from The Maladroits, with brand new record in tow! They will be joined by Stomp regulars and Atlanta surf royalty The Surge!, the sultry garage rock stylings of Tiger! Tiger!, and DJ Dusty Booze on the ones and twos.
Episode 20 features an interview with Ernest Hernandez of King Pelican, and highlights surf and instrumental music from Texas.
Track list:
The Thunderchiefs - "Crystal Beach"
Bobby Fuller Four - "KRLA Top Eliminator"
The String-A-Longs - "Wheels"
Big Guitars From Texas - "Chainsaw"
The Nematoads - "Five Guns West"
Squid Vicious - "Backburner"
Biller & Horton - "Deep Eddy"
The Spoils - "Dead Cat Bounce"
3 Balls Of Fire - "Ulan-Bator"
The Baffles - "Citta Violenta"
Bat City Surfers - "Insomnitron"
The Mag Seven - "Trim"
King Pelican - "El Gallo"
King Pelican - "Stingray"
Los SuperAvengers - "Diablo del Mar"
The Mighty Landshark! - "Devil's Dragstrip"
The Boss Jaguars! - "See & Be Seen"
The Dead Sea - "Water Moccasin"
Teisco Del Rey - "Hermanos Alou"
Tailgators - "Tico Tico"
Don Leady - "Bull Doggin Boogie"
The Reverend Horton Heat - "Victory Lap"
Reverend Organdrum - "Can't Be Still"
The Murgatroyds - "Battra vs. The Cosmos"
Goldbloom - "Legion of Gloom"
The Del-Vipers - "The Angry Man"
Clouseaux - "A Most Excellent Flying Death"
Incidental:
The Cornells - "Lone Star Stomp"
Big Guitars From Texas - "The Lost Incas"
The Nematoads - "Havana Gila"
King Pelican - "Western Satellite"
Los SuperAvengers - "Lydia"
Reverend Organdrum - "Groovin'"
Intro and outro music, "Southern Surf Syndicate Theme", provided by The Penetrators.
Athens' first Southern Surf Stomp! was a great success with perfect weather at a fantastic venue, dear friends, great drinks, and even better music. I cannot thank Nate from the Flamethrowers enough for putting together a top notch event. This will be an annual event moving forward and already I can't wait until next year.
