Except for a couple of short stints, this hasn’t been a halcyon winter for California surf-cats.  Fellow dudes and dudettes: drastic measures are called for.  We suggest checking out the duo Snowblink (Daniela Gesundheit and Dan Goldman) and doing as they counsel:  praying for surf.  Pray For Surf is the lead track off of the Toronto-via-Los Angeles duo’s cinematically sensuous sophomore album, Inner Classics.

Inner Classics has been on repeat in our jukebox for the past month and warrants your undivided attention. If you dive in, you’ll hear beautiful compositions, Gesundheit’s spectral vocals, Goldman’s perfect accompaniment on various stringed instruments and winningly-unique arrangements.  Gesundheit evidently wrote Inner Classics first on the icy shores of Lake Erie and then on the sunny shores of Malibu. The album title is taken from the traditional Chinese medicine text, “Inner Classic,” or “Huang Di Nei Jing”, written by several anonymous authors between 300 and 100 B.C.E.  You can hear each of these geographical locations and cultures in Inner Classics’ songs.

Go buy the album HERE from Arts & Crafts.  The duo will be touring in support of Zammuto shortly after this year’s SXSW, and as a prelude they are playing tonight, Feb. 18th at The Virgil for the Hot Tub with Kurt and Kristen party, with Demetri Martin, Greg Barris, and Mark Normand.

Check Pray For Surf out immediately below.  If that praying-for-surf thing works out well, then after you’ll want to check out the video of Snowblink and friends (Jason Collett and members of Bahamas) performing another of their “surf” songs, Unsurfed Waves for Canada’s Studio Q.  Superb stuff.

The lyrics to both songs follow below the video and the band’s tour schedule is at bottom.

Snowblink–Pray For Surf:

01 Pray for Surf

Pray For Surf

We stand navel-deep in the never-tired sea
in the old sea, the so-old sea
volcano-bellied, bird-headed sea!

We see her quiet bones, the bones of the sea
sink till they’re dark and starless
From the sunroom-sized whale skull to the urchin’s brailled bowl
they all will sink until they are dark and starless starless starless

And when they reach and return to us they are the beach that burns beneath us
pushing onto shore like cement being poured
we waited and we prayed it, we pray for surf

Don’t forget you’re made of earth, son
and earth is water, three parts to one – deep-dark water
you are dark, dark, deep, dark three parts to one

Don’t forget to pray for surf, son

Unsurfed Waves

“Do you carry your bullet or did it pass through?
Do we do we do we do we have some news?

Then come to California, girl, and convalesce
in the lee of the sun and all the trees he keeps as pets.”

Where’re my hills at?
I want my hill-legs back

The rod and the frightenin’ lightnin’ both were He
sent the chandeliers swinging fro and free

He could turn and turn a cyclone man was He
do we do we have some news, do we do we?

Where’re my hills at?
I want my hill-legs back

When can we look at what the glacier brought
what it dragged near a thousand miles and then forgot?

Spring is a bed – thaw is the word

Where’re my hills at?
I want my hill-legs back

A look appeared upon His face – clear as unsurfed waves

A look appeared on His face

Tour Dates:

02/18 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Virgil (Hot Tub Show)

03/01 – Oakland, CA @ The Tower (4pm doors)

03/13-16 – Austin, TX @ SXSW Music Conference

03/28 – Northampton, MA @ The Iron Horse #

03/30 – Middletown, CT @ Art House/Wesleyan University #

03/31 – Montreal, PQ @ Il Motore #

04/01 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison #

04/03 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Ladies Literary Club #

04/04 – Evanston, IL @ SPACE #

04/05 – Iowa City, IA @ Mission Creek Festival #

04/06 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7^th Street Entry #

04/07 – Northfield, MN @ Carleton College #

04/10 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom #

04/12 – Columbus, OH @ Wexner Center #

# Zammuto