Long ago Susan Surftone bucked the notion that surf music is for the boys. A lesbian with a flair for instrumental surf music, Portland, Oregon-based Surftone formed Susan and the Surftones during the third wave of the feminist movement back in 1993. She’s since come out with more than a dozen releases nationally and internationally, her latest of which is Shore, released in October of 2011.
Now, Susan Surftone is doing what seems most fitting for a woman who creates music for motion. She’s hit the road touring, and this weekend she’s got two Southern California shows back to back. Where better to perform surf music than in one of its meccas?
A musician with a fascinating resume Surftone left a job at the FBI to pursue her dream of creating music in her early twenties, thereby also allowing her to be more open about her sexuality, according to her bio.
“I consider myself a musician who happens to be gay, more than as “a gay musician. Although I have to admit that one of the motivating factors in getting into a band was to get girls – which I know a lot of other musicians can relate to,” Surftone said in a release.
A seasoned instrumentalist with a flair Guitar Player magazine has described Surftone’s guitar playing as, “period perfect surf primitivism [that] conjures a San Diego senior prom circa 1962.”
Check out Surftone in Southern California Friday at Long Beach’s Max Steiner’s and in Los Angeles at Redwood Bar on Saturday. Click her for tickets and info.
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