Beach Boys'' sandy path first trod by ''50s surf kings (2/4ページ)

He points out that of some 250 albums, just a few of them have been surf records - though the band has a new surf album coming out before summer.

The continued popularity of the classic surf acts, along with a new wave of bands such as Nashville's Los Straitjackets and Florida's Danny Morris Band, goes to show that surf music is still here, and it still rocks.

But hold the wax.

A lot of people don't know what surf music is, says Morris, who hosts a radio show in Florida.

On Saturday mornings, he spins classic surf acts as well as newer bands, such as The Mermen; Los Twang! Marvels, from Germany, Satan's Pilgrims, and Laika and the Cosmonauts, from Finland. And he expands the definition of surf by showing its influences and sub-genres, including roots music, Cuban, Latin, Hawaiian, and space and spy tunes.

The instrumental surf music of the late 1950s and early '60s, "that sort of came out of blues and rock 'n' roll and rockabilly," Morris says. "And then there's the Beach Boys kind of sound ... the Beach Boys added these great, beautiful harmonies to the beach sound that had already been sort of underlining, circulating with The Ventures and Dick Dale."