This post over at Dumb Angel [link] got me thinking about the mystical convergence of five things that I love: surf music, tiki, monsters, kustom kar kulture, and old beach movies. Now when I say beach movies, I'm not talking about that safe-as-milk Frankie and Annette crap, I'm talking about horny-teen, drive-in schlock like Del Tenney's Z-grade classic, Horror of Party Beach [link], a solid-gold cinematic turkey that billed itself as, "The First Horror Monster Musical" and managed to incorporate at least three of the genres I mentioned above. Once you've seen it, you'll never forget the Del-Aires' [link] performance of their monster-surf classic, Zombie Stomp, or the cheesy radioactive monster who looks like he's got a mouth full of hot dogs [link].

Nowadays, there are any number of excellent bands carrying on the monster-surf-kustom kar tradition, and those swingin' undertakers, The Ghastly Ones [link], have even sunk their fangs (somewhat tentatively, I admit) into Polynesian-pop culture by hawking "tiki" pendants [link] and contributing tunes to the Halloween episode of SpongeBob Squarepants [link].

If you dig those Ghastly sounds, here are a few other bands you should check out: The Moon Rays [link], The Route 66 Killers [link], Monsters From Mars [link], Atomic Mosquitos [link], The Coffin Daggers [link], and just because I like their name, The Space Turds From Butt-Tron VII (AKA The Outlanders) [link].