Surfer Blood | |
|---|---|
 Surfer Blood performing at theHouse of Blues inCleveland in 2013 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | West Palm Beach,Florida, United States |
| Genres | Indie rock,post-punk revival,surf rock,alternative rock |
| Years active | 2009–present |
| Labels | Joyful Noise Recordings,Kanine, LAB 344 (South America),Warner Bros. Records,Fierce Panda (UK) |
| Members | John Paul Pitts Tyler Schwarz Mike McCleary Lindsey Mills |
| Past members | Kevin Williams Thomas Fekete (deceased) Brian Black Marcos Marchesani |
Surfer Blood are an Americanindie rock band fromWest Palm Beach,Florida, United States, currently signed toKanine Records, formerly signed toJoyful Noise Recordings andWarner Bros. Records. The band currently consists of four members: John Paul Pitts (lead vocals/guitars), Tyler Schwarz (drums), Mike McCleary (guitars/backing vocals), and Lindsey Mills (bass/backing vocals).
Founding members John Paul Pitts and Tyler Schwarz started playing music together in Orlando, Florida[1] under the name Jabroni Sandwich.[1][1] They then moved back to their hometown of West Palm Beach, Florida and started playing with guitarist Luke Bovat and bassist Freddy Schwenk in 2008 under the name "TV Club." As this early incarnation of the group they developed most of the material that would end up on Surfer Blood's debut album, Astro Coast. TV Club lasted for about a year until Bovat was kicked out and Schwenk left the band. Around that time, Pitts and Schwarz met Thomas Fekete at anUltra Music Festival after party in Miami and the group was renamed to Surfer Blood (a name that Schwarz randomly came up with during a conversation with Pitts about his surfer backpack from high school[2]) with the immediate goal of releasing a record and touring nonstop.[1]
The band's 2009 debut single, "Swim", gained much critical acclaim and was named as the 37th best track onPitchfork's 100 Best Songs of 2009.[3] They released their debut album,Astro Coast, in January 2010.
The band were widely considered to be the breakout band of 2009'sCMJ Music Marathon.[4] In March 2010, playing songs from their debut album,Astro Coast, Surfer Blood made quite a splash at theSXSWNPR music party (and returned to SXSW in 2011).[5] In May 2010, the band played at the ATP music festival curated byPavement along with other groups such asBroken Social Scene,The Walkmen, andAtlas Sound.[6] Later that month, Surfer Blood headed over to Spain to join the lineup at theSan Miguel Primavera Sound Festival.[7] In August of that year, Surfer Blood finished out the summer playing two more festivals;Splendour in the Grass in Australia[8] andSummer Sonic in Tokyo.[9]
The band was chosen byLes Savy Fav to perform at theATP Nightmare Before Christmas festival that they co-curated in December 2011 in Minehead, England.[10]
On October 25, 2011, Surfer Blood released theTarot Classics EP on Kanine Records. The EP's first single "Miranda" debuted on Pitchfork on August 30, 2011, and "I'm Not Ready" was named NPR's Song of the Day on December 8, 2011.[11][12] Artists that contributed remixes to the EP include Totally Sincere (Connor Hanwick ofthe Drums and Peggy Wang ofThe Pains of Being Pure at Heart), Speculator,School of Seven Bells and Allen Blickle.
The band opened for thePixies during their Doolittle Lost Cities Tour in 2011. The tour came about after Pitts met the Pixies in an airport in New Zealand and they said they were already familiar with Surfer Blood's music. Surfer Blood performed a cover of their song "Gigantic" forThe A.V. Club's music-video series "AV Undercover" which Pitts says he'd like to think that was "the needle that broke the camel's back when it came to the decision" to tour with them.[13]
On January 9, 2012, they appeared on Late Night withJimmy Fallon where they performed the single "Miranda" off ofTarot Classics. The next day, news spread that the band would be entering the studio in February 2012 with producerPhil Ek (Fleet Foxes, Built to Spill) to record their highly anticipated second album which was released onWarner Bros. Records.[14]
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In May 2012, the band confirmed via theirTwitter account that they were moving toCalifornia on May 12, 2012, to record their second album with legendary producerGil Norton.[15]
On January 21, 2013, they uploaded a new song off their next album,Pythons, called "Weird Shapes".[16]
In February 2014, the band announced that work on their third record had begun.
On May 20, 2014, the band debuted a video of them playing a new song titled "Island". The song has been played before back in 2011, during various radio sessions.
On September 16, 2014, a new song titled "NW Passage" was debuted on SoundCloud, as part of their split single with We Are Scientists.
On February 17, 2015, the band announced their third album1000 Palms and that it would be released onFierce Panda / Joyful Noise Recordings on May 12. The lead single, "Dorian", was premiered onBBC Radio 1 at midnight.
Original guitarist Thomas Fekete left the band in 2015 shortly after the announcement of their third album,1000 Palms, due to a medical diagnosis for a rare form of cancer (sarcoma) that had spread to his lungs and spine. He was diagnosed in the winter of 2014.[17] The band announced a fundraising effort to help alleviate Thomas' medical bills through the siteGoFundMe on April 20, 2015. On May 31, 2016, Fekete's wife Jessica announced that he had died.[18]
In April 2015, the song "Swim" was featured in an episode of theNetflix series "Daredevil."[19]
Surfer Blood shared the video for album track "Island" in June 2015, in support of "1000 Palms".[20]
In October 2015, the band announced that their longtime bassist, Kevin Williams, was leaving the band to pursue a new job in Austin, Texas. The band later announced that their long time friend from high school, Lindsey Mills, would be replacing Kevin on bass.[21]
The band's fourth album,Snowdonia, was released on February 3, 2017. It is the first album the band has released following Fekete's death,[22] and features Mills and guitarist Michael McCleary.[23]
In October 2017, Surfer Blood releasedCovers, an album featuring cover versions of songs byPavement,OutKast, and more. FollowingCovers, in 2019 the band released their second EP/10" vinyl calledHourly Haunts.
In January 2020, Surfer Blood announced that they would be releasing a new album calledCarefree Theatre which was inspired by the historic landmark theater of the same name in West Palm Beach. The album is currently scheduled for release on September 25, 2020, according to the band's website,[24] and marks the band's return toKanine Records, the label that had put outAstro Coast 10 years earlier.[25] A 10-year anniversary deluxe double LP version of Astro Coast is slated for release by Kanine onRecord Store Day, August 29, 2020.[26]
In March 2012, frontman John Paul Pitts was arrested for domestic battery in Lake Worth, Florida. He pled no contest and agreed to complete a court supervised program, rather than go to trial as it would interfere with his tour plans.[27] All charges were eventually dropped.[28]
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [29] | US Indie [30] | US Rock [31] | AUS Hit. [32] | UK Indie Break. [33] | UK Rec. [33] | ||||||
| Astro Coast |
| 124 | 19 | 40 | 10 | 19 | — | ||||
| Pythons | 127 | — | 39 | 10 | — | 37 | |||||
| 1000 Palms |
| 160 | 11 | 16 | — | — | — | ||||
| Snowdonia |
| —[A] | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| Carefree Theatre |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Heat. [35] | ||||||||||
| Pythons Demos |
| 43 | ||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | ||||||||||
| Title | Album details |
|---|---|
| Covers |
|
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Heat. [35] | US Indie [30] | US Rock [31] | ||||||||
| Tarot Classics |
| 5 | 46 | 48 | ||||||
| Hourly Haunts |
| — | — | — | ||||||
| Hard Boiled |
| — | — | — | ||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | ||||||||||
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEX Eng. [42] | UK Sales [43] | ||||||||
| "Swim" | 2009 | 11 | — | Astro Coast | |||||
| "Slow Jabroni" | — | — | |||||||
| "Take It Easy" | 2010 | — | — | ||||||
| "Floating Vibes"[44] | — | 66 | |||||||
| "Miranda" | 2011 | 45 | — | Tarot Classics | |||||
| "Demon Dance"[45] | 2013 | — | — | Pythons | |||||
| "Weird Shapes"[46] | — | — | |||||||
| "Spanish Bombs" | — | — | non-album single | ||||||
| "Grand Inquisitor"[47] | 2014 | — | — | 1000 Palms | |||||
| "I Can't Explain"[48] | — | — | |||||||
| "Women of Your Life" | 2016 | — | — | non-album single | |||||
| "Six Flags in F or G" | — | — | Snowdonia | ||||||
| "Frozen" | 2017 | — | — | ||||||
| "Around Your Sun" | 2019 | — | — | Hourly Haunts | |||||
| "Karen" | 2020 | — | — | Carefree Theatre | |||||
| "Parkland (Into The Silence)" | — | — | |||||||
| "Summer Trope" (featuring Pip Blom) | — | — | Hardboiled | ||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||
| Title | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| "Evil Cat" / "Bub the Builder"[49] | 2016 |
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