Last summer I took a chance and bought a cd by Los Straitjackets while on vacation. I gave it a couple spins and thought it was OK. I just recently ordered their latest disc and been spinning both of them alot the past couple days. What would be a couple of discs similar to this to check out? I'm starting to really enjoy this surf music. Are their any "Must Have's" ???
tks
b.

Anything by Dick Dale, the king of surf guitar, is a must have.

Check out Gary Hoey.

check out Phantom Surfers and Man or Astroman?

Laika and the Cosmonauts are a GREAT surf band. And they are from Finland, which makes it even cooler! Haven't heard their most recent releases, but both "Amazing Colossal Band" and "Instruments of Terror" are wonderful recordings.

I'll second Man or Astroman, especially their early CD's. Also check out Space Cossacks.

I recommend getting the "Man Or Astroman?" CDs Project Infinity and Experiment Zero, which are (IMO) the band's two best albums.

"Surfin' Bird" - Trash Men

I third Man Or Astroman, but stick with early stuff. Get thier live album "Live Transmissions From Uranus". While not exactly surf, Calexico has some nice surfy/western things going on.

thanks allot, i'll definitly look into these suggestions.

Some good stuff on the Pulp Fiction Soundtrack, also check out Junior Browne's amazing surf medley from Semi-Crazy:

I cant believe no one has mentioned the Ventures yet. They are the best surf band from 1960 to 1980

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet
And don't forget the late, great Danny Gatton.

Just heard a few tracks by these artists. Some great stuff. Thanks. I'll definitly be searching out some of the cd's.
b.

I thought the OP was talking about current bands.

Now that I think about it, a lot of stuff on Breeder's Last Splash is surf-ish.

The butthole surfers
Nada surf

Beach Boys and Jan & Dean

Jack Johnson

Celtic Bob-are you looking for new/not so old bands or the original era stuff or both?

I would say I have 100 or so surf cds and could look through them.

A bit of both really. All I have so far is a couple of Los Straitjackets cd's and a couple Beach Boys. The Los cd's get allot more play so probably more along that line.
b.

I picked up THIS COMPILATION about 15 years ago. I wonder if it's still in print?

It's a great primer for golden-era surf guitar.