Sixty years ago today… The Surfaris enjoyed their one and only hit with a hastily composed instrumental B-side called Wipe Out.

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This was my introduction to the weird and wonderful world of The Cramps. They came along at exactly the right time with their decadent and pervy punk-adjacent rockabilly.

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This is surely the first film of any kind – not just music videos – whose end credits include someone listed as a “balls volunteer.” You’ll find out why in the first few seconds.

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Allah-Las channel the ghost of Dick Dale in their update of the surf-rock sound half a century later. No surprise that the band come from LA and met while working at Amoeba Records on Sunset Boulevard.

Get Lucky was one of those songs that soundtrack an entire summer, blaring out of car windows and shop doorways on the longest hottest days of 2013.

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Clarence Gatemouth Brown was already in his seventies when he recorded this memorable blues number. Just don’t call it blues.

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SQÜRL: Meltdown Festival, London – Live Review

SQÜRL at the Royal Festival Hall was a gig with a difference: live music from 2023 accompanying Man Ray’s silent movies from 1923.

Arab Strap: EartH, London – Live Review

Arab Strap perform their 1998 album Philophobia’s songs of seedy sexual encounters and drunken disasters at EartH in Hackney.

Funkytown is a slice of cheesy disco fun that’s almost perfect in its simplicity – and the only hit for disco group Lipps Inc.

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The Barracudas’ only hit is almost perfect: a punk-propelled pastiche of a Sixties surf-pop song, complete with that opening radio ad to set the scene.

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