RadATL New music

Genki Genki Panic: ‘This Is… Dungeon Surf!!!’


Anyone who’s paying attention knows that Genki Genki Panic cranks out new music at an alarming pace. It can be overwhelming to newcomers, but the group’s latest proper full-length, This Is​.​.​.​Dungeon Surf​!​!​!, distills the spirit of a full-throttle genre-bending haunted-house and surf-punk saga into 17 spooktacular cuts. What sets apart these Georgia-by-way-of-Tennessee misfits from run-of-the-mill Tommy Bahama shorts-wearing surf parrots is an increasingly twisted descent into the outsider fringes of the grotesque. These howlies prefer the eerie light of the full moon to the warm California sun, making their wide-eyed instrumentals all the more engaging. Songs such as “Ghouls On Film,” “Radon Chong,” and “Smells Like Teen Sewage” show off a reverence for the classic reverb and kerrang of the Ventures, Dick Dale, and the Trashmen as much as the creepy underworld soundscapes of Vic Mizzy and Danny Elfman. There’s also an undeniable sense of humor being telegraphed in those over-the-top songs’ titles. “Massive Severed Laphog In A Paper Bag” leads the firebrand charge with delay effects layered over tons of reverb, so much so that it actually sounds like the song is splashing out of the speakers. Other tunes, such as “Terror Vision” and “How Do You Like Your Hyperspace Maggots, Michael?” are utterly gritty and nasty—in the most appealing way those adjectives can be used. “Drac’d Raw Dot Com” and “Smells Like Teenage Sewage” carry the distortion of 8-bit dungeon synth sounds to horrific depths; a nod to which comes through in the album’s title, Dungeon Surf. One, possibly two songs willfully violate the rules with vocals, depending on how you’re listening to the album. The Bandcamp tracklist is different from what’s on Spotify, and the CD features seven songs that aren’t on the LP. “I Was A Teenage Were-chud” tells a wicked tale of heavy breathing and depravity in the graveyard under the pale moonlight, embracing the monster-movie nightmares that the group invokes from the cover art to the ghastly tongue-in-cheek song titles. Hainters gonna haint, but this is the essential GGP release so far.

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Agent Orange plays the Earl with Skin Jobs and Loony on Sat., Feb. 26

AGENT ORANGE. Photo by John Leach

Agent Orange returns! Back in the ’80s, the Southern California trio led by singer and guitar player Mike Palm cranked out some of the most whiplash, compelling, and emotionally distraught surf and skate punk tunes ever committed to tape. Seeing the group live is kind of a rite of passage. Skin Jobs and Loony also perform. $18 (adv). $21 (doors). Sat., Feb. 26. The Earl.

Skin Jobs.

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RadATL New music

Genki Genki Panic: ‘The Munge’ b/w ‘Gas Human Being No. 1 / the Human Vapor,’ and ‘Moth Mandingo Effect’ 7-inch

Put on your 3-D glasses now.


Genki Genki Panic thrives on the fringes of the ecstatic, honing a musical aesthetic that eviscerates traditional notions of genre, while offering a dizzying array of threads to pull at every turn.

Hailing from the rolling and mystical expanse of terrain that lies between Atlanta, GA and Chattanooga,TN, GGP guitar and keyboard player Chris Moree, bass player Eric Waller, and drummer Chris Campbell’s musical bounds are as limitless as the landscape from whence the group sprouted. Each song draws inspiration from the deepest darkest recesses of pop culture.

It’s all on display in the three songs pressed onto the group’s first vinyl 7-inch — “The Munge” b/w “Gas Human Being No.1 The Human Vapor” and “Moth Mandingo Effect.”

Just a cursory scroll through GGP’s Bandcamp page reveals a deluge of musical excursions in which the group plays more notes in one measure than most technically skilled metal bands on the scene. Elsewhere, GGP mines the sonic palette of video game soundtracks and reassembles them to bear their own deranged adventures.

Layers upon layers of references come together around each new offering: A cover of the Deadly Ones’ “It’s Monster Surfing Time” blends album cover art from the Descendents’ Milo Goes To College with imagery from “Planet of the Apes.”

Ghoulie High Harmony *Director’s Cut is perhaps the greatest Boyz II Men reference that no one has ever caught. Still elsewhere, GGP’s sound and vision is a tangle of not-so-veiled nods to Bad Brains, OutKast, Big Black, Beetlejuice and classic horror film scenes, all tied together with an affinity for spooky vibes and haunted surf and sci-fi sounds.

“The Munge” (dubbed “The Munge Parasito” on the Bandcamp page) saunters in before the nearly three-minute tsunami jam takes over the song. “Gas Human Being No.1 / The Human Vapor” and “Moth Mandingo Effect” push the eerie irreverence beyond the record’s grooves, giving rise to a particularly twisted ambiance. It’s seemingly impossible to avoid being swept up in the group’s high-energy dirges, despite (or maybe because of) their defiantly wide-eyed ways.

Genki Genki Panic plays Hammerhead Fest 9.5 Sat., Nov. 27, at Boggs Social and Supply (outdoor stage) with Paladin, Order of the Owl, the Vaginas, Canopy, Black Candle, and Naw. $15. 4 p.m. (doors). 

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RadATL New music

Didi Wray dances with a ghost in ‘Tango Halloween’

Didi Wray with El Chico.

Singer, composer, and tango music icon Carlos Gardel died in a tragic plane crash at the height of his career in the summer of 1935. 

To this day, however, there is a legend in the streets of Buenos Aires that Gardel’s ghost can still be seen and heard, dancing and singing at night, seducing women with his voice.

It’s a spectral tale that lies at the heart of Didi Wray’s latest offering, “Tango Halloween.”

The new song falls on the heels of her previous monthly single releases “One Step Beyond” (feat Señor Chancho), and her take on Bernard Herrmann’s theme from “The Twilight Zone.” It’s also the first song that she’s released under her name to bear her singing voice.

Those who are familiar with the Santiago, Chile-based surf rock guitarist’s work know of her other musical project, One Chica Gypsy Band, where her Spanish croon plays a prominent role. Never has it appeared throughout her surf rock recordings.

“This is something special for my fans,” she says. “As with many things I do in my career, I was motivated to sing for them. Some of my fans know my one-woman band and have asked several times that I sing a song in the Didi style — something in English. So there you have it.”

Wray handles everything from programming the drums to guiding the rhythms of her violín bass that she’s dubbed “El Chico.” And, of course, the atmosphere of her chilling guitar tones bring a thrilling, supernatural ambience to her surf-tango mission—haunted house horror with her signature flare for Latin rhythms and surfboard kerrang—produced by Francisco David, and mixed and mastered by Patricio Arias. Artwork is courtesy of Brazilian cartoonist Leandro Franco.

Keep an eye out for “Tango Halloween” to appear later this year on a new LP featuring 12 new numbers that she has in the works.

Until then, keep an eye out for Gardel in the streets. Trick-or-treat.

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RadATL New music

The Creature Preachers: ‘A Night to Dismember’

Scary Gary (left) and Greg Regular of the Creature Preachers.


The Creature Preachers from Warner Robins, GA return from the depths of the Southern abyss with a new single, titled “A Night to Dismember.”

Greg Regular (drums, bass, guitar) and Scary Gary (guitar, bass, drums) embrace the spirit of Halloween with a menacing yet melancholy dose of surf rock and horror punk ambiance, blending yearning and mystical imagery with moonlight and the macabre.

“A Night to Dismember” strikes a haunting balance of ‘50s horror movie scores and the melancholy vibe of the Misfits’ “Hybrid Moments”—with a clear inclination for all things the Cramps, the Pixies, CCR, B-52’s, and The Ghastly Ones. It’s an instrumental number, but the organ, guitar, and rhythmic traipse tell a story for the mind’s eye to behold.

“It definitely tells a story which is what you always want in a song, especially with an instrumental,” Greg says. “That’s never easy because there aren’t any lyrics to tell the story for you. We didn’t start out with any particular ideas in mind when we wrote the song. It just kind of wrote its own story. All we had to do was move out of the way and let the song do it’s thing.”

That thing is an equally nuanced and anthemic hellride to the wicked fringes of the darkside.

It’s shaping up to be a busy year for the Creature Preachers. The group will be appearing on a few different Halloween compilations this month. There’s also a split 7-inch with their Altered State Of Reverb label mates the Mysterics. There’s another 7-inch and an appearance on a Planet Of The Apes-themed comp. for Missing Fink Records. There’s also an appearance on an Otitis Media Records comp. After that, they’ll start work on their debut full-length album for next year.

The group also has an appearance slated for the Inuhele Tiki Weekend coming up at the Sheraton Hotel Jan. 28-30, 2022.

In the meantime, press play and sink into the Creature Preachers’ ghoulish sonata.

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RadATL New music

Didi Wray’s Ramones redux: ‘I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend’


Sometimes, it’s difficult to find the right words that express just how much you care for that special someone in your life. This year, let Didi Wray’s guitar do the talking. To celebrate Valentine’s Day, the Santiago, Chile-based surf rock torchbearer offers an enchanting instrumental take on the Ramones’ classic crush song, “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.”

True to form, her cover clocks in at just under two minutes, rendering the Ramone’s most sentimental number in rose-colored hues of reverb and tremolo. Here, “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” drifts in a breeze of Didi meets Dee Dee, taking shape as a tender and campy redux that hones the Southern California surf influence underscoring the Ramones’ sound. It’s the often overlooked element that adds depth and texture to the brothers from Forest Hills’ signature rock ‘n’ roll blitzkrieg, and it’s brought to the front and center here. Press play and fall in love again!

Click here to read a review of Didi Wray’s latest album, Misión Tango Surf.

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Didi Wray blends Latin melodies and surf rock kerrang on ‘Misión Tango Surf’

Didi Wray “Misión Tango Surf.” Artwork by Stephen Blickenstaff.


Didi Wray was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, but has spent much of the last decade living in Mexico, Brazil, and in Santiago, Chile, where she currently resides. Surf music and wild rock ‘n’ roll are coursing through her veins, and if her travels have revealed to her one universal truth about music it’s that the most powerful recordings harness the energy of everyone playing in the room together, feeling the energy, and sharing the moment. It’s the chemistry between players—the strength of the performance itself—that turns so much reverb, rhythm, and tremolo into the stuff of magic heard throughout her second album Misión Tango Surf.


The CD was released by Surf Cookie Records in 2019. Two years later, Augusta, GA’s Missing Fink Records has reissued the CD and pressed the songs onto vinyl with new cover art by Stephen Blickenstaff, who’s best known for creating the artwork for the Cramps’ Bad Music for Bad People LP. Misión Tango Surf harbors 13 cuts of traditional surf sounds and old-school rock ‘n’ roll played with taut authority and nimble dexterity. The album’s opening title cut moves at a measured, psychedelic pace, blending classic kerrang and reverb with Latin flourishes. Songs with titles such as “Amazonic Hully Gully” and “El Sombrero” find balance in subtle restraint weighed against the full-throttle tremolo picking of “Por Una Cabeza,” and “Terremoto Stomp!” When placed side-by-side here, each song carves out a smooth and cohesive body of instrumental jams.

All told, there are nearly 40 musicians and engineers dubbed Liga Americana del Surf coming in and out of the frey. It’s a fellowship featuring a survey of South American and Mexican musicians including members of Brazilian acts the Dead Rocks and the Pulltones; Chilean groups Los Kanibales Surf Combo, Sindicato Tango Surf, and Los Yawares; Peruvian group Los Protones; Estereofónikos from Argentina; and the Tango-Surf Combo from Mexico.

More guests are sprinkled throughout the album as well. “The Godfather of Mexican Surf” himself, Daddy O Grande of Los Straitjackets brings winding grooves to “Blue Tango” and “Cielito Lindo.” Fellow Los Straitjackets guitarist Gregorio El Grande amps up the pace in “Pisco Saico Twist.” Caleb “Sr. Ramírez” Franco of Lost Acapulco brings steel-string heat to the closing number “St. Katharina Twangwest.” Each of these players dutifully serve the unified, oceanic ambiance of Wray’s vision.

With so many players lending a hand, though, the most Herculean feat here is Wray’s ability to rein in such an impressive cavalcade, and focus on creating unfettered, uncluttered music. Misión Tango Surf pushes the heavily-mined waters of surf and rock ‘n’ roll to thrilling and mysterious new places, while bolstering her flair for Latin cadences and melodies, offering a little shoreline beach break for the hodads and the hardcore alike.

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RadATL New music

‘Creature’s Surfin’ Shindig’ in Flagpole

My review of Missing Fink Records‘ Creature’s Surfin Shindig compilation LP is in this week’s Flagpole Magazine. It’s the culmination of the landlocked Augusta, GA label’s dedication to probing the outer limits of where rockabilly, punk and surf sounds collide with sci-fi cinema and monster movies from the 1950s.

There’s a ton of great stuff on this comp. Didi Wray, Fred Schneider and the Superions, Messer Chups, and more. Check it out at Flagpole!