Surfing? In the Northwest? You bet. From the land of the giant redwoods and home-brewed beer and espresso come these surf music maestros who could hang ten with any vintage surf band and give them a run for their long-boards. Would you hate us if we exclaimed, Kowabunga?
The Surfonics were formed in Springfield, Oregon in 1993 when drummer Kevin Angvick answered a "drummer wanted" ad posted in a music store by guitarist Mike Graves (myself) and bassist Mark Emmons.
We soon discovered that we shared a love of "old-testament" instrumental surf music, and after a little head-scratching to come up with a name, The Surfonics were born.
We spent the next few weeks working up some old surf tunes and writing a few originals, as well as recording a demo tape on a 4-track cassette recorder in the garage. We played a few shows in Eugene that year, and recorded a couple of original surf tunes in a local studio. For the next few years we played about 3 shows a month, from bars to car shows and outdoor festivals, developing a loyal following and spawning a local surf music revival in the process. The Surfonics were also the subject of a critically acclaimed piece produced for National Public Radio, and were featured in a video which aired on community access television. We also had a few different drummers in the band during that time, and in 1999 bassist Trey Longstreth replaced Mark Emmons.
In 2001, local studio drummer extraordinaire Pete Berger collaborated to record some more originals in the same studio as our first recording several years earlier. After a lengthy hiatus from playing live shows, we are pleased to herald the release (finally!) of our first CD, which is available at our official website: http://thesurfonics.com/