Bandcamp Friday Roundup: May 2026
Today is Bandcamp Friday, which means bandcamp is taking no commission on sales on their site, so most of your money goes to the artist. Paypal, of course, still takes a cut. Sometimes in the past I've done Bandcamp roundups where I write a bunch of rapid-fire reviews as suggestions of new things you can buy. But lately I've started doing my Storm Surge Splashes which have kind of been doing the same thing just not on Bandcamp fridays. That said, I haven't been able to keep up with those in the past few weeks. In fact, most of the reviews you see here started as a Storm Surge Splash. Anyway, basically what I'm saying is you can find even more recommendations in those. But for now, here's some new fun things that have come out.
To some people surf music all sounds like the same song played over and over. But it's the best song.
4-6pm CST
https://www.wtul.fm
#surfmusic #surfrock #collegeradio #wtul
Set washing machine cycle to "Surf". Ensure your appliance can accept a heavy load!
4-6pm CST
https://www.wtul.fm
#surfmusic #surfrock #collegeradio #wtul
Perhaps surf music, being rare, should be nationally protected and featured in zoos
4-6pm CST
https://www.wtul.fm
#surfmusic #surfrock #wtul #communityradio #collegeradio
Artemis, by Les Agamemnonz
from the album Amateurs
1 OUT OF TEN DENTISTS RECOMMEND SURF MUSIC
THAT DENTIST IS COOL
4-6pm CST
https://www.wtul.fm
#surfmusic #surfrock #collegeradio #wtul
The Gremmy Awards 2025: Best "Mad" Instro Record
The point of having so many Gremmy Awards categories to something that most people just think of as "surf" is to best compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges. And so what we have here is the wildberries at the bottom of the basket. Unidentifiable, unique, possibly poisonous. Some of them play with our idea of surf music, some of them ultimately are just recommendations to surf fans. It's funny how things have changed over the course of doing the Gremmys. I once had a small band called Khruangbin win this category, now I feel like bands that sound like Khruangbin are kind of their own genre, and I'm hesitant to include them here. Bands like Chicha Libre and Sonido Gallo Negro that pushed cumbia and chicha felt like cousins to surf music, and while sometimes that still feels like the case, cumbia has experienced such a vibrant revival in a manner that often feels very separate from surf. And I think that's amazing. Even if it doesn't seem to have paid dividends for surf music, I love that we're living in a world that seems more open to instrumentals in general. Maybe this will mean fewer people yelling "SING SOMETHING" at shows. But the most important thing that I'm saying here is that if you took any of my Gremmy categories seriously, please take this one less seriously. Think of this only as things that I, a fan of surf music, might think other fans of surf music would find enjoyable.
People listen to me because I have a lot of surf records!
4-6pm CST
https://www.wtul.fm
#surfmusic #surfrock #collegeradio
The Gremmy Awards 2025: Best "Rad" Instro Record
The reason that I subdivide the Gremmy Awards into so many different categories is because reverbed instrumental guitar music can be and always has been so many different things. "Latin'ia" has a different appeal to it than "Bombora". I often refer to this category as the music with more of a punk and metal influence "added into it", but isn't that circular? You're not going to find much music with the same dark intensity as "Misirlou" before it, and if you ask me you won't find a whole lot of that intensity for a while after! This is not some sort of infusion to weaponize surf music, it's following surf music further down a path that it started.
