Earlier this year it was Hawaiian music, but lately I’ve been totally into surf music and retro surf culture. (Must be because my inner clock tells me it’s summer even though the weather here has been summer-like for the better part of two months now.)

So, I’ve got “The Endless Summer” on DVD close at hand, a genuine movie poster (signed by principal surfers Mike Hynson and Robert August, no less!) at the framers being prepared for hanging in my office, and surf music on the tray. Because there’s so much of it around I’ve been able to combine what I already have and what I wanted courtesy of Napster and have turned out a pretty gnarly (in surfer lingo) collection of music culled from various surfing hits compilations, some early Beach Boys tunes, Dick Dale and The Deltones, The Sandals (I highly recommend their “The Spirit of Surf” CD), “The Endless Summer” soundtrack, “Surf Route 101” by Gary Usher and The Super Stocks, and, for a modern surf touch, a CD called “Supertones Surf/Modern Surf Band Spotlight”. Truly boss stuff.

I was a relative late-comer to the surf music genre, by means of discovering The Beach Boys in their post-surf music era and then gradually working my way backwards. It’s kind of hard to stay or be in any kind of a bad mood when surf music is nearby. Perhaps it’s because the music hearkens back to a simpler era, perhaps it’s the whole nautical imagery it conjures up. Either way, whether it be a frantic rave-up of echo-y reverb-leaden guitars before a driving beat or the more melancholy instrumentals, or the sweet, smooth vocals of the early Beach Boys, there’s something about surf music that touches my soul deeply and makes me feel good.

And after all, that’s supposed to be what music is all about, isn’t it?