Surfer Blood is an American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band from

West Palm Beach West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, United States, currently signed to

Kanine Records Kanine Records is an independent record label based in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York started at the end of 2002 by Lio and Kay Kanine. Their first release, ''NY: The Next Wave'', was a 20 track compilation featuring mostly unsigne ...

, formerly signed to

Joyful Noise Recordings Joyful Noise Recordings is an independent record label from Indianapolis, Indiana. The label was founded in 2003 in Bloomington, Indiana by Karl Hofstetter, who also played drums on many of the label's first releases. Joyful Noise maintains an a ...

and

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

. The band has four members: John Paul Pitts (lead vocals/guitars), Tyler Schwarz (drums), Mike McCleary (guitars/backing vocals), and Lindsey Mills (bass/backing vocals).

Formation

Founding members John Paul Pitts and Tyler Schwarz started playing music together in Orlando, Florida under the name Jabroni Sandwich. ref name="bare_url" /> 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 an

Ultra Music Festival Ultra Music Festival (UMF) is an annual outdoor electronic music festival that takes place during March in Miami, Florida, United States. The festival was founded in 1999 by Russell Faibisch and Alex Omes. It was first held on Miami Beach, bu ...

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) with the immediate goal of releasing a record and touring nonstop.

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. They released their debut album, ''

Astro Coast ''Astro Coast'' is the debut album by American indie rock band Surfer Blood Surfer Blood is an American indie rock band from West Palm Beach, Florida, United States, currently signed to Kanine Records, formerly signed to Joyful Noise Recording ...

'', in January 2010. The band were widely considered to be the breakout band of 2009's CMJ Music Marathon. In March 2010, playing songs from their debut album, ''

'', Surfer Blood made quite a splash at the

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

music party (and returned to SXSW in 2011). In May 2010, the band played at the ATP music festival curated by Pavement along with other groups such as

Broken Social Scene Broken Social Scene is a Canadians, Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed by Kevin Drew (vocals, guitar) and Brendan Canning (vocals, bass) in 1999. Alongside Drew and Cannin ...

The Walkmen The Walkmen is an American indie rock band. Active from 2000 to 2013, they are known as part of the 2000s-era post-punk revival in New York City, particularly for their critically acclaimed single "The Rat (song), The Rat." The band is made up o ...

, and

Atlas Sound Bradford James Cox (born May 15, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band Deerhunter. He also pursues a solo career under the moniker Atlas Sound. Cox formed Deerh ...

. Later that month, Surfer Blood headed over to Spain to join the lineup at the

San Miguel Primavera Sound Primavera Sound (commonly referred to as simply Primavera) is an annual music festival held in Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona, Spain that takes place between the end of May and beginning of June. The first edition took place in 2001 in Poble Espany ...

Festival. In August of that year, Surfer Blood finished out the summer playing two more festivals;

Splendour in the Grass Splendour in the Grass (commonly referred to as Splendour) is an annual Australian music festival held at the North Byron Parklands in Yelgun, New South Wales. Since its inauguration, the festival has also been held in various locations near ...

in Australia and

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in Tokyo. The band was chosen by

Les Savy Fav Les Savy Fav ( ) is an American indie rock band based in New York City. Their style is influenced by art punk and post-hardcore. The group is known for the stage presence of lead singer Tim Harrington. The band is signed to Frenchkiss Records, ...

to perform at the ATP Nightmare Before Christmas festival that they co-curated in December 2011 in Minehead, England. 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 30, 2011 and "I'm Not Ready" was named NPR's Song of the Day on December 8, 2011. Artists that contributed remixes to the EP include Totally Sincere (Connor Hanwick of

the Drums The Drums are an American indie pop band from New York City. Formation Founding members Jonathan (Jonny) Pierce and Jacob Graham became friends as children, having met at Bible camp at age 11 or 12. Some years later, they formed a short-lived ...

and Peggy Wang of

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Pains of Being Pure at Heart were an American indie pop band from New York City, formed in 2007. The band centered around founding member and principal songwriter Kip Berman (vocals, guitar). In the band's final iteration, Berman was joined ...

), Speculator,

School of Seven Bells School of Seven Bells (often stylized as SVIIB) was an American indie rock band from New York City, formed in 2007. It originally consisted of Alejandra Deheza (vocals, guitar), her sister Claudia Deheza (keyboards, vocals) and Benjamin Curtis ...

and Allen Blickle. The band opened for the

Pixies A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas aro ...

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 A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'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. On January 9, 2012, they appeared on Late Night with

Jimmy Fallon James Thomas Fallon (born September 19, 1974) is an American comedian, television host, actor, and writer. He is known for his work in television as a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' and as the host of the late-night talk show ''The Ton ...

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 2012 with producer

Phil Ek Phil Ek is an American record producer, engineer and mixer. Ek began his career in Seattle, Washington in the early 1990s recording live sound in clubs. He then moved into studio recording, recording small projects and demos for local bands. Aroun ...

(

Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes is an American indie folk band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 2006. The band consists of Robin Pecknold (vocals, guitar), Skyler Skjelset (guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Casey Wescott (keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals), Ch ...

, Built to Spill) to record their highly anticipated second album which was released on

. File:John Paul Pitts and Lindsey Mills of Surfer Blood The Saint Asbury Park NJ 2017 LHCollins.jpg, John Paul Pitts and Lindsey Mills of Surfer Blood performing at

The Saint The Saint may refer to: Fiction * Simon Templar, also known as "The Saint", the protagonist of a book series by Leslie Charteris and subsequent adaptations: ** ''The Saint'' (film series) (1938–43), starring Louis Hayward, George Sanders an ...

in Asbury Park, NJ, August 2017 File:Lindsey Mills of Surfer Blood Saint Asbury Park NJ 2017 LHCollins (2).jpg, Lindsey Mills of Surfer Blood on stage at

in Asbury Park, NJ, August 2017 File:Tyler Schwarz of Surfer Blood The Saint Asbury Park NJ 2017 LHCollins.jpg, Tyler Schwarz of Surfer Blood at

in Asbury Park, NJ, August 2017 File:Mike Mcleary of Surfer Blood The Saint Asbury Park NJ 2017 LHCollins.jpg, Mike McCleary of Surfer Blood performing at

in Asbury Park, NJ, August 2017 File:Lindsey Mills and John Paul Pitts of Surfer Blood Saint Asbury Park NJ 2017 LHCollins.jpg, Lindsey Mills and John Paul Pitts of Surfer Blood jamming at

in Asbury Park, NJ, August 2017 In May 2012, the band confirmed via their

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account that they were moving to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

on May 12, 2012 to record their second album with legendary producer

Gil Norton Gil Norton (born in Liverpool) is an English record producer known for his work with alternative rock bands such as Pixies, Echo & the Bunnymen, Foo Fighters, Tribe, Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional, Feeder, The Distillers, Maxïmo ...

. On January 21, 2013, they uploaded a new song off their next album, ''Pythons'', called "Weird Shapes". 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 album "1000 Palms" and that it would be released on

Fierce Panda Fierce Panda Records is a London-based independent record label, with its first release in February 1994. It also produced a small number of releases that year by now famous artists such as Ash, The Bluetones, Baby Bird and Supergrass. Fierc ...

/ Joyful Noise Recordings on May 12. The lead single, "Dorian", was premiered on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

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 A sarcoma is a malignant tumor, a type of cancer that arises from transformed cells of mesenchymal (connective tissue) origin. Connective tissue is a broad term that includes bone, cartilage, fat, vascular, or hematopoietic tissues, and sarcom ...

) that had spread to his lungs and spine. He was diagnosed in the winter of 2014. The band announced a fundraising effort to help alleviate Thomas' medical bills through the site

GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the b ...

on April 20, 2015. On May 31, 2016, Fekete's wife Jessica announced that he had died. In April 2015, the song "Swim" was featured in an episode of the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

series " Daredevil." Surfer Blood shared the video for album track "Island" in June 2015, in support of "1000 Palms". 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. The band's fourth album, ''

Snowdonia Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951. Name and extent It was a commonly held belief that the nam ...

'', was released on February 3, 2017. It is the first album the band has released following Fekete's death, and features Mills and guitarist Michael McCleary. In October 2017, Surfer Blood released ''Covers'', an album featuring cover versions of songs by Pavement, OutKast, and more. Following ''Covers'', in 2019 the band released their second EP/10" vinyl called ''Hourly Haunts''. In January 2020, the Surfer Blood announced that they would be releasing a new album called ''Carefree 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, and marks the band's return to

, the label that had put out ''

'' 10 years earlier. A 10-year anniversary deluxe double LP version of Astro Coast is slated for release by Kanine on

Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...

, August 29, 2020.

Legal problems

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. All charges were eventually dropped.

Discography

Albums

Studio albums

Demo albums

Cover albums

EPs

Singles

Split singles

Notes

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 A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

'' video game series through its ''

Rock Band Network The ''Rock Band'' Network (abbreviated RBN) was a downloadable content service designed by Harmonix with the help of Microsoft to allow musical artists and record labels to make their music available as playable tracks for the ''Rock Band'' seri ...

'' service. "Floating Vibes" also appears in video game "

Test Drive Unlimited 2 ''Test Drive Unlimited 2'' is a 2011 open world racing video game developed by Eden Games and published by Atari for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is the sequel to the 2006 game ''Test Drive Unlimited'' and the nineteenth ent ...

". The band's song and music video for "Demon Dance" appears in the video game "

Guitar Hero Live ''Guitar Hero Live'' is a 2015 music rhythm video game developed by FreeStyleGames and published by Activision. It is the seventh main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' series. The game was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xb ...

". The band's song "Fast Jabroni" appears in the television series "

Community (TV series) ''Community'' is an American television sitcom created by Dan Harmon. The series ran for List of Community episodes, 110 episodes over six seasons, with its first five seasons airing on NBC from September 17, 2009, to April 17, 2014, and its fi ...

" Season 1 Episode 25, titled "Pascal's Triangle Revisited" which originally aired 20 May 2010.

References

External links

*
Joyful Noise Recordings // Surfer Blood

Surfer Blood at Kanine Records

{{Authority control Indie rock musical groups from Florida Musical groups established in 2009 Joyful Noise Recordings artists Fierce Panda Records artists Kanine Records artists Warner Records artists