Where to Find Free Surf Music Online

First let it be know that by "Surf Music," I am referring to the instrumental guitar-laden surf music of yonder glory days or the modern day equivalent of it. Sorry, no beach boys here.

"Let's Go Classics" by Takeshi Terauchi

Who is Takeshi Terauchi? He's a very good Japanese surf guitarist.

This album consists of covers of classical pieces, but done in a surf style.

Additionally, since this album and artist is so obscure, you've probably never heard of them before. Which is good.

WFMU has another Takeshi Terauchi album, This is Terauchi Bushi, which consists of orginal work of surf music bit with a bit of a Japanese twist at times.

Surf Guitar 101 Compilations

Surf Guitar 101 is one of the only pages you get when you Google search for "surf guitar." Surf Guitar 101 has a busy forum that occasionally collects surf guitar pieces from various members with the intent to combine them into one larger compilation for that year. So far, there have been three.



Surf Guitar 101 MP3 Compilation 2005





Surf Guitar 101 MP3 Compilation 2006




Surf Guitar 101 MP3 Compilation 2007

Various Internet Archive Surf Pieces

Surfing and Civilization - "Dissertation regarding the influence of surfing on Western civilization as expressed via guitar, organ, bass and drums."¹ In actuality, a moderately long catchy bit of surf music.




Surf Coasters Live at Double Down Saloon - The surf coasters are a modern day surf band and they're putting out some good songs. Have a listen to their latest live show on The Internet Archive.

"Play Some Surf Guitar" by Monsters from Mars - Surf music with a bit of a kick to it.

Mermen Live at Hard Rock Cafe - The Mermen are a modern day band that plays music vaguely reminiscent of surf msuic. While it's not exactly surf, you might find it to your tastes.

Youtube

Youtube works wonders in general for listening to music for free online, and it works those same wonders for popular surf music. Keep in mind that some of the more obscure things you might be looking for are probably not on Youtube.


"Wipeout" - The Ventures


"Pipeline" - The Chantay's


"Misirlou" - Dick Dale & The Del Tones

Try searching for others as there's plenty more where that came from.

Pandora.com

http://www.pandora.com/ is a free online radio station where you given an initial suggestion of what you like, and then it tries to find similar music. I've found that if you use "The Ventures" as an initial artist, you'll be exposed to all sorts of older surf music.

Last.fm

http://www.last.fm/ is a site where you can find and listen to more obscure songs than Youtube will let you. For example, if you hear something you like on the above mentioned Pandora.com but it's not on Yotube, perhaps it will be on Last.fm.

Keep in mind that there is a limit to how many free songs you can hear in a day, so Youtube is preferable in that regard.