Hang Ten With the History of Surf Music

Summer’s coming in hot, and so are we. In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re checking out one of the coolest, most American sounds in rock history: surf music.  It’s a sound designed to imitate the ocean — dripping wet reverb, a clean glowing tone, and that lightning-fast, machine-gun guitar picking you instantly recognize.  It exploded right in the gap between the first wave of rock ‘n’ rollers and the British Invasion, when the music charts had gone soft. But while surf rock as short lived, it wasn’t just a blip.  ...