Year-round Yuletide oddities
A day for “Surfin’ Santa.” Let’s start with a reprise of Lord Douglas Byron’s odd-rhythm tribute from 1964. Cool cool cool.
The Olds play “Surf’s Up Santa!” like a boogie woogie dance number. Falsetto city.
Youth on Track deliver with “Surf’s Up, Santa Claus” for my money. Less clever, perhaps, but on point. It’s surf rock.
ALBUM ALERT Surf Party, USA was a joke band that made good–well, at the college radio level. But their 2018 beginnings have resulted in THREE holiday albums (one’s for Thanksgiving, another’s for Halloween). Let’s get wet with Surf Party, Yule S.A.
Not every cut is Christmas AND surf related, so let’s start with “Santa Claus Sunk My Surfboard.” Garage anger for a half a minute.
Then “I Hate Christmas” only mentions the surf culture. Hand clapping fun folk.
“Twelve Days of Surfmas” is funnier than it should be. Echoic parody.
“Berg is Getting Coal in His Stocking Because He Didn’t Catch a Wave” is experimental electronica of the oddest type.
They slow the vibe wa-a-ay down with the fossilized folk of “Summer Santa.” Claus’s hittin’ the waves, but the kids call him by the wrong name.
Then along comes the garage punk to ask “What Does Surfing Have to Do with Christmas?” You may be left wondering. [Hint: it’s Everything, la la la.]
A chance to catch up on surfer slang via Dusty Wright results in a skippy little ditty “Santa Surf City.” Big Red gets fogbound ’round Waikiki and the waves are righteous and, well, one plus one, my dudes.
Pinkfong (of ‘baby shark’ fame) gets kid-silly with “Summer Santa.” Santa swims here, but Rudolph surfs with a dwarf. So, carnival time. And nightmares.
Andrew Cassara has Santa flying ’round the jet stream, but in the gum-snapping pop of “Santa’s World Tour” he does visit surf-side. Fun guy.
I love the fractured surf rock sound of Jon Bomb & The Humanoids (featuring Gnarly McDude & The Electric Sleds) in their “Surf Christmas.” Let’s play it again! (jk)
Beachfront Vinny does the odd parody with “The New Chanukah Song.” It’s–i think–a song listing people who don’t like surf rock. May i include this?
The Cuz don’t do the tourism biz any favors with their rollicking rap “Come to Straya.” This amateur bit of cleverness finally allows (after all the dangerous animals) that Santa might be surfing there ’round Xmas time. Long pointless outro.
Tarzan & the Beachwaiters return with their hard rock “Riding the Waves for Xmas.” Thanks, again.
“Christmas Wave” from G Love is harmonica driven American rock. Weird, like reading the word orange written in green ink.
Mad Caddies get super cute with their ukulele Music Hall funny business “I’m Going Surfing for Christmas Day.” We are amused.
The Bad Detectives encourage “Go Go Surfin’ Santa“–but he’s not on an island interlude; he’s riding his board through the sky to deliver toys. Or is that Norrin Radd? Boss rock, mostly surf.
The Beach Boys definitely surf up the rock with their “Melekalikimaka.” Almost not racist.
Wenatchee Valley Boys (NightHeart) bring it in for a smooth landing with the surf-rocking “Surfside Somerset Sunwavz.” Then it gets angry. White privileged angry.
How ’bout some children’s music crap? JunyTory stages the argument between “Winter vs. Summer Christmas” as a cute song. Sleighs against surfboards. you see where it’s headed… not exactly Lincoln Douglas debating, more like a toddler rap battle.
Nearly as juvenile is the ‘crowd-pleasing’ BLUE ALERT Coldplay’s “Christmas With the Kangaroos.” It’s just not well done, doggerel gone it. Pop.
Also Australian, Peanut Butter Jams finally addresses actual music with the folk-pop “Christmas in Australia.” Kidsong approved.
Sometimes surf music is full of wipeout, so i couldn’t tell you fershyure what the line is.
Redo: Julius Davis’s “Santa’s Got a Guitar Surfboard Sleigh” seems equally to rock the rock music as well as the new transpo. Juice does rely on surf rock to get to the bridge.
“Dan Lerch – Kristy’s Surf Christmas” from badgerland is psyche-surf gargling that might be about riding the tidings, but it rocks. So, hear.
Cade Bittner’s “Velvet Santa” is an pop ode to a family Christmas, but in it there is surfing and eating ham. This is supposed to be far from the West, but where (and what) I dunno. Still, fun.
Some blogs have specialized in finding you all the tunes that twang already. Flavorwire’s ‘17 Surf Rock Christmas Songs to Soundtrack Your Holiday Heatwave‘ tends to feature wallpaper and retakes on old standards. The sound matters over the subject matter. Yet, i did learn a thing or two…
“A Surfer’s Christmas List” was mentioned, but it was the classic by The Surfaris (famous for ‘Wipe Out’). It’s pretty and intelligible. Not mentioned was Monsters from the Surf, taking it to the garage. Unwaxed garbling. Yeah!
There’s also a P.S. for Meshugga Beach Party’s album Hot Rod Hanukkah, but these are in fact instrumentals for roadsters. Not even the titles include wave-riding. Cool, but–
For our own purposes, Anna Lusk plays folk with pop music to uke it up in “Oh Surfing Santa.” Hoo hoo hoo.
Surf music is inescapable whether you’re a hodad or a monndoggie, and i’ve dropped a few curls before now. It’s refresh time for the great ones, so I’ll re-introduce as needed for each of these days. F’rexample, Soupy Sales rocks out of his comfort zone with “Santa Claus is Surfin’ to Town.” Dig it.
The Click Five got a surfboard as a gift, but “My Girlfriend (Forgot Me This Christmas)” in a kooky retro rock powerhouse. So, no waves?
The Barbary Coasters add surf rock to most of their Christmas caroling, but the tune that addresses the milieu is “Frosty’s Beach Party.” Crazy guitar solo seals the deal.