Surge Whitewater and the Filthy Left

Surge Whitewater and the Filthy Left

 

Written by ABC presenter Jeremy Lee -- reproduced from the ABC website. 

From a secret location in Port Campbell, Surge Whitewater and the Filthy Left serve up blistering surf tunes old and new.

When you live in a small coastal town, what better music to play than surf instrumentals?

Surge Whitewater and the Filthy Left are based in Port Campbell on the Great Ocean Road. Bassist Jimmy Cowabunga (otherwise known as James Matthews) describes them as "the strangest band in town".
He adds "it's a hard musical life down here because you have to play gigs for all types of different people".
To that end they've played in some pretty diverse places from the back of a truck to the old Port Campbell pier. Jimmy recalls another gig where "we played an Irish pub ... They thought we were an Irish band until we all turned up with surf shirts on. Luckily the Irish love their music!"
The band mix up surf standards such as Bombora and Pipeline with their own originals.
They've also started to include some vocals into the mix, telling local surf stories.
The band use some great stage names such as Rip Current and Surge Whitewater, but the lineup is Drew Deppeler, John Currell, and Peter Younis on guitar, James Matthews on bass, and Jason Neal on drums.
As to the future? James says he'd like to play to people who appreciate them, rather than "some of our dairy farming friends"! He goes on to add he does a lot of part time milking and would like to keep that job alive!
Surge Whitewater and the Filthy Left played as part of the Warrnambool  "Exhumed" gig on Sunday the 11th of August 2013 at The Loft.