Surf music
Surf music is a subgenre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Orange County and other areas of Southern California. It was especially popular from 1962 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is instrumental surf, distinguished by reverb-drenched electric guitars played to evoke the sound of crashing waves, largely pioneered by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones. The second is vocal surf, which took the original surf sound and added vocal harmonies backed by basic Chuck Berry rhythms, a movement led by the Beach Boys.
The surf rock sound was dominated by electric guitars played through spring reverb and using the vibrato arm on their guitar to bend the pitch of notes downward. Surf music was one of the early adopters of the electric bass, and often used an electric organ or an electric piano featured as backing harmony. At the height of its popularity, surf music rivaled girl groups and Motown for top American popular music trends.
Surf music is sometimes referred to interchangeably with the California Sound. Many notable surf bands have been equally noted for both instrumental and vocal surf music, so surf music is generally considered as a single genre despite the variety of these styles. During the later stages of the surf music craze, many groups started to leave surfing behind and write songs about cars and girls; this was later known as hot rod rock.
The Clean
The Clean are an indie rock band that formed in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1978, and have been described as the most influential band to come from the Flying Nun label, whose repertoire included many major components of the "Dunedin Sound". Led through a number of early rotating line-ups by brothers Hamish and David Kilgour, the band settled down to their well-known and current line-up with bassist Robert Scott.
History
Hamish and David Kilgour started to play and write music together in Dunedin in 1978, "building up a fat songbook of primitive punk, minimalist pop, infectious folk rock and adventurous psychedelic instrumentals. Their sound was built around David Kilgour’s off-centre, 1960s-influenced guitar, Hamish’s motorik drumming and melodic driving bass, first from Peter Gutteridge then Robert Scott".
The band's 1981 debut single "Tally Ho!" was the second release on Roger Shepherd's Flying Nun Records label. "Tally Ho!" reached number 19 on the New Zealand Singles Charts, giving the fledgling label its first hit.
