Surfer Blood

Surfer Blood
Surfer Blood performing at the House of Blues in Cleveland in 2013
Background information
Origin	West Palm Beach, Florida, United States
Genres	Indie rock, surf rock
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Kanine, Warner Bros. Records
Members	John Paul Pitts Tyler Schwarz Thomas Fekete Kevin Williams
Past members	Brian Black Marcos Marchesani

Surfer Blood are an American alternative rock band from West Palm Beach, Florida, signed to Warner Bros. Records. The band has four members: John Paul Pitts (lead vocals/guitar), Thomas Fekete (guitar/backing vocals), Kevin Williams (bass guitar/backing vocals) and Tyler Schwarz (drums).

Formation

Founding members John Paul Pitts and Tyler Schwarz started playing music together in Orlando, Florida.^[1] They met Thomas Fekete at an Ultra Music Festival after party in Miami and the group was formed with the immediate goal of releasing a record and touring nonstop.^[1]

The band was originally called Jabroni Sandwich.^[1] Schwarz randomly came up with the name Surfer Blood during a conversation with Pitts about his surfer backpack from High School.^[2]

Career

The band's 2009 debut single "Swim" gained much critical acclaim and was named as the 37th best track on Pitchfork'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's CMJ Music Marathon.^[4] In March 2010, playing songs from their debut album Astro Coast, Surfer Blood made quite a splash at the SXSW NPR music party (and returned to SXSW in 2011).^[5] In May 2010, the band played at the ATP music festival curated by Pavement along with other groups such as Broken Social Scene, The Walkmen, and Atlas Sound.^[6] Later that month, Surfer Blood headed over to Spain to join the lineup at the San 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] and Summer Sonic in Tokyo.^[9]

The band was chosen by Les Savy Fav to perform at the ATP Nightmare Before Christmas festival that they co-curated in December 2011 in Minehead, England.^[10]

On October 25, 2011, Surfer Blood released the Tarot Classics EP on Kanine Records. The EP's first single "Miranda" debuted on Pitchfork on August 30th, 2011 and "I'm Not Ready" was named NPR's Song of the Day on December 8th, 2011.^[11][12] Artists that contributed remixes to the EP include Totally Sincere (Connor Hanwick of the Drums and Peggy Wang of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart), Speculator, School of Seven Bells and Allen Blickle.

The band opened for the Pixies 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" for the AV 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 March 31, 2012, frontman John Paul Pitts was arrested for domestic battery in Lake Worth, Florida. According to the police report, Pitts was arguing with his girlfriend when he threatened to harm himself and eventually assaulted her. Pitts initially pleaded not guilty before agreeing to a "plea and pass" agreement; if he is compliant, his guilty plea and all charges will be dropped in April 2013.^[14]

On January 9, 2012, they appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon where they performed the single "Miranda" off of Tarot Classics. The next day, news spread that the band would be entering the studio in February of 2012 with producer Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, Built to Spill) to record their highly anticipated sophomore album which will be released on Warner Bros. Records.^[15]

In May 2012, the band confirmed via their Twitter account that they were moving to California on May 12th 2012 to record their second album with legendary producer Gil Norton.^[16]

On January 21, 2013, they uploaded a new song off their next album, Pythons, called "Weird Shapes".^[17]

Discography

Albums

• Astro Coast (2010) #124 U.S.^[18][19]
• Pythons (2013) #127 U.S.^[20][19]

EPs

• Tarot Classics (October 25, 2011)^[21]

Singles

• "Swim" (2009)
• "Slow Jabroni" (2009)
• "Take It Easy" (17-04-2010, Kanine Records)
• "Swim" (01-05-2010, re-release on Rough Trade)
• "Floating Vibes" (28-09-2010, Kanine Records)
• "Miranda" (2011, Kanine Records)
• "Demon Dance" (2013, Warner Bros. Records)
• "Spanish Bombs" (2013, Warner Bros. Records)

Appearances in media

• The band's song "Swim" is playable in the video game Power Gig: Rise of the SixString. "Swim" and "Floating Vibes" have also been released as downloadable content for the Rock Band video game series through its Rock Band Network service.

References

External links

• Official website
• Surfer Blood on Myspace
• Surfer Blood at Kanine Records
• Interview with TMF after their first European tour