Aqua Velvets are an American

surf rock Surf music (also known as surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is inst ...

revival band from

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, formed in the 1980s by guitarist Miles Corbin. Rather than simply recreate the vintage 1963 surf sound, Corbin set out to add depth and dimension with original songs that included strings, horns, keyboards, and exotic instruments. The result was a cinematic sound more akin to film composers like Ennio Morricone and John Barry. The group released their debut album in 1992, recorded over a period of several years. This album was recorded in the auto repair shop where bassist Michael Lindner worked. They signed to

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

in 1995 to release '' Surfmania''; subsequent releases appeared on

BMG BMG may refer to: Organizations Music publishing companies * Bertelsmann Music Group, a 1987–2008 division of Bertelsmann that was purchased by Sony on October 1, 2008 ** Sony BMG, a 2004–2008 joint venture of Bertelsmann and Sony that was pur ...

subsidiary

Milan Records Milan Records is a record label located in Los Angeles, California specializing in film scores and soundtrack albums. In addition, Milan has an electronic catalog which features down-tempo, chillout, and eclectic electronic releases. In July 2 ...

. The Velvets continued to release a steady stream of albums through 2015, most notably ''Tiki Beat'' (2010) and ''El Morocco'' (2015). The Aqua Velvets' songs have been covered by a number of other surf artists. The group performs live mostly on the West Coast.

Members

*Miles Corbin - guitar, songwriting *Michael Lindner - bass, keyboards, accordion *Hank Maninger - guitar (also with the

Hacienda Brothers The Hacienda Brothers is an American alternative country band composed of Chris Gaffney, Dave Gonzalez, Dave Berzansky, Dale Daniel, and Hank Maninger. They have been described as "the finest country rock band since the Flying Burrito Brothers ...

and

Bonnie Hayes Bonnie Hayes is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer, born in San Francisco, California, United States, and currently lives between Los Angeles and New York City. Her songs have been recorded by Cher, Bette Midler, Bonnie ...

and the Wild Combo) *Donn Spindt - drums (also with

The Rubinoos The Rubinoos are an American power pop band that formed in 1970 in Berkeley, California, Berkeley, California. They are perhaps best known for their single (music), singles "I Think We're Alone Now" (1977, a cover of the hit by Tommy James & th ...

) *Tim Gahagan - drums

Discography

Albums: *''The Aqua Velvets'' (

Heyday Records Heyday Records is an independent record label founded in 1988 by Pat Thomas. ''Rolling Stone'' has called Heyday "one of the ten most adventurous small labels in the world." The label, later run by Ron Gompertz and Robert Rankin Walker, has rel ...

, 1992) *'' Surfmania'' (

, 1995) *''Nomad'' (

, 1996) *''Guitar Noir'' (Milan, 1997) *''Radio Waves'' (Milan, 2001) *''Cool and Waydown at the Beach Chalet'' (

Miles Corbin Music Recordings The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of length; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English f ...

, 2007) *''Backflip Louie and the Pool Party Pagans'' ( Riptide Records, 2008) *''Reaching Shangri-La'' (

, 2008) *''Tiki Beat'' (Riptide Records, 2010) *''El Morocco'' (Riptide Records, 2015) Singles: *''The Christmas Single'' (

, 2006) *''Tropic Isle'' (

, 2007) Compilations: *''Hard Rock Surf'' (Hard Rock/Capitol Records, 1994) *''Blazing Longboards Soundtrack'' (Mesa Bluemoon/Atlantic, 1995) *''Cowabunga: The Surf Box'' (Rhino Records, 1995) *''Big Waves: 5 Decades of Surf Rock'' (Rhino/Starbucks, 2007)

References

External links

Official WebsiteAqua Velvets entry
at ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who, Dave Schulps, and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

'' {{authority control American surf music groups Musical groups from San Francisco