What: Surf Guitar 101 11th Annual Convention
When: Saturday August 4, noon - midnight
Where: The Alpine Village Steinhause
833 W. Torrance Blvd. Torrance CA 90502
Cost: $40 cash at the door
In a worldÉwhere for most of us the eternal question really is, Who doesnÕt, like, totally get off on the sound of an electric Fender (or, okay, Mosrite) guitar all reverbed out and crankinÕ from twin Showman amps like spraying Vaseline bullets of sanctified holy blue string love all over our eager mugs? Almost nobody, thatÕs who. Why, the smoking/silken sounds of surf music are of course a globe-straddlin' thing of joy long ago germinated along the golden shores of Southern California, where the sun shines 24 hours a day, the waves are homongous (well, decent) and everyone is so laidback andÉ
Well, twangÕs a thang, here and by now all over the world, as evidenced by this sterling international crew of surf-guitar bands thatÕll gather to show off their superior skills at this 11th annual bitchin blowout called Surf Guitar 101 at Alpine Village. The lineup is just plain super tasty, celebrating surf music in its myriad shapes/sizes, from OG instrumentals that influenced the grandaddys/-mamas to the bands that created and developed the templates of the original oily-pipeline surf-guitar sound, to the contemporary domestic and foreign bands carrying on the trad of instrumental surf tunes or lovingly mutating the music unto eternity and on into the azure skies above. Live sets include rare local appearances by The Blue Hawaiians (Los Angeles), DenmarkÕs sensational Tremolo Beer Gut, Surfer Joe (from Italy, performing stuff from his swell new Swell of Dwell on the ever-righteous Dionysus Records), The Kaisers of Kalifornia (Argentina), premier primo pulsations courtesy Les Agamemnonz (straight outta France), Urban Surf Kings (Canada), PJ & the Galaxies (South Bay, first wave band), Frankie & the Pool Boys (San Francisco), Black Flamingos (New Jersey), King Pelican (Texas), Fascinating Creatures of the Deep (Santa Cruz), and a tribute to the late and yes great Sentinals from exotic SoCal.
Loads of special surfy guests promised, too, along with tons of fun stuff to do or partake of, such as a billion vendors of surf-culture LPs and CDs, T-Shirts and musical gear, along with an Aloha Tiki Vendor Loft featuring 16 local artists. All of the sponsors will be putting up items for raffle, including everything from records to guitars. Event sponsor and longtime surf/garage/exotica label Dionysus Records will be vending and bringing a couple of surprise event exclusives.
ÐÐ John Payne
