A true legend, Dick Dale is 75 years old. I’m gonna spend the weekend listening to all of his 60′s albums, and I’d recommend you do so as well.

Vegas was great – met some great people, and even got to meet Duane Eddy. Just a quick thanks for the show he put on, and a hand shake, but it was a cool moment.
I’ll do an extensive write-up in the next Continental, but I thought I’d share some initial thoughts on the highlight of the weekend, Deke’s Guitar Geek Fest:
As cool as the outdoor show with Duane Eddy and the Ventures was, it was Deke’s Guitar Geek fest that was absolutely mindblowing. Slacktone turned a couple of thousand rockabilly …

The big Viva Las Vegas fest is coming this week (April 5th – 8th) and Double Crown (well, me, since this is a one man show) is going to be there! How can I pass up 5 days of great rockabilly, vintage country, surf and instrumental rock n’ roll? With airfare cheap, flying directly out of our small town of Bellingham, it’s a no-brainer. The highlight of course is going to be the Saturday car show featuring The Ventures and Duane Eddy, but there are plenty of other acts to …

The big 3-day Instro Summit 2012 is coming May 4-6 in Chapel Hill, NC. Set to feature over 20 surf and instrumental rock n’ roll combos, this is the biggest festival for this music in the US. Among the featured acts are Double Crown band The Madeira, as well as faves such as The Mystery Men, The Aqualads, Destination: Earth, Kill Baby Kill, The Atomic Mosquitos, The Intoxicators, and The Surge. We are proud to be a co-sponsor of the fest, and hopefully many of you will have a chance …

We all know that music purchasing habits have changed drastically over the last 10 years or so. I know mine have. When I first got into music collection, back in high school, I used to hit Tower Records once a week to check out all of the new releases and imports. I’d also make sure to browse the magazine racks, and would pick up Rolling Stone, NME, Melody Maker and a few randomly produced zines, to stay on top of what was happening. I was pretty heavy into music from …

Exciting news from Italy – Lorenzo Valdambrini’s “Surfer Joe’s Diner” is now open for business! Taking his love of surf music into the dining sector, he’s created a unique space where you can get a great meal, have a drink, buy surf music and fanzines, and catch live surf music several times a week. I don’t know where he found the time to create this great spot, while playing music and setting up the huge Surfer Joe Festival, but he’s really got a great thing going, and this is a definite must …

After eight years of adventures through the Saharan deserts, with “Tribal Fires” the Madeira have gone Sub-Saharan, into the dark and mysterious depths of central African jungles. It’s a journey that finds the band exploring new sounds with a highly diverse album, ranging from the most aggressive to the most melodic songs (including a tribute to The Shadows) the band has ever done – and everything in between. There are 13 songs in total, of which two are covers: an original arrangement of Ernesto Lecuona’s “Jungle Drums,” and the Atlantics’ …

The Madeira will be celebrating the release of their third full-length CD, “Tribal Fires”, with a show at the Melody Inn in Indianapolis, IN on March 2nd. Joining them will be The Cocktail Preachers and The Mystery Men. The CD will be available for purchase at the show (we’ll have them available as well if you can’t make it to the show). Most bands would play a few songs from the new release, then play a bunch of old favorites. However, The Madeira are going to perform the new album …

Now’s a great time to sign up, or renew, a subscription to the Continental Magazine. For just $18.00 you get three issues packed with in depth interviews and music reviews, plus a compilation CD inside the magazine. Issue #19 , out now, includes huge feature interviews with Los Twang! Marvels and Tremolo Beer Gut, plus tons of music and DVD reviews. There is also a 25 track CD filled with lots of great surf, instro and garage rock tunes.
Continental Magazine – Three Issue Subscription (Issues #19, #20, #21) …

We are blowing out our back catalog, with permanent price reductions on many of our popular CD releases. For many of our past releases, you can now get them from us for $4.75 – $9.75 per CD! Lots of great titles have been reduced – check out our list below (click on any of the titles to order from the Double Crown website):
Big Ray & The Futuras – Desolation Planet CD – $9.75
The Footstompin’ Trio – S/T CD – $4.75

Chris Con Carne – …