The Surf Dawgs are a Rock and Surf Instrumental band which includes various songs with Vocals from Minneapolis Minnesota. They have been performing in the upper Mid-West area since 2001 featuring Zippy Caplan of the Cult garage band “The Litter” (Action Woman fame) on Lead Guitar and for Special Shows Tony Andreason of The Trashmen (Surfin’ Bird fame). Following the 2001 release of Zip’s solo CD Zip Caplan and Cast of Thousands “Monsters and Heroes”, the co-producer of the CD Bernie “Bombers” Bomberg, joined with Zip to form a vintage style instrumental group that pays tribute to the Rock and Surf instrumental classics of the 1950’s and 1960’s in addition to original material and their own interpretation of other well known classic Rock songs from that era and beyond. The other members of the band include Donavan “The Kid” Eidem (Flipp, The Litter), Dave Maetzold (The Castaways “Liar Liar” fame, Gregory Dee & The Avantis), and recent addition Bob Coates (The Canoise, Nokie Edwards of The Ventures) on second Lead which now gives the band the ability to showcase exciting double lead guitar work. The Surf Dawgs version of “The Munsters Theme” from their CD “New Tricks” has not only become a world-wide hit with 35,000 views and growing on youTube, but has consistently been their #1 Seller on i-tunes for a long time and is outselling other versions in the market place. Their last several albums feature Bob Spalding of The Ventures on Lead, Rhythm, and Bass guitar on various songs plus many other guests including Tony Andreason, James Walsh (Gypsy), Larry Wiegand, Stan Kipper and Chico Perez (Crow), Gregg Inhofer (Bob Dylan) and Bernie Pershey (Edgar Winter, The Animals) to name a few.

Currently The Surf Dawgs can also be seen live backing up The Trashmen’s Tony Andreason (Surfin’ Bird) fame for Special Concerts. This successful show not only features favorite Trashmen tunes, but  Instrumental favorites as well from the 8 Surf Dawgs CDs, plus covers of other Classic Rock favorites sung excellently by Tony. (See the Calendar page for on-going gig updates) This, of course, is in addition to the Surf Dawgs own live shows.

Over the years The Surf Dawgs have performed before large numbers of enthusiastic fans at such venues as Famous Dave’s Blues Club, the popular National act venue the Medina Ballroom, O’Gara’s, The Poodle Club, opener for Saint Paul Saints baseball games, Royal River Casino South Dakota, Lake Okoboji Summer Concert series Iowa, Highland Fest annual summer event, the Hexagon, Standing Room Only, The Minnesota History Center Summer Concert Series, The Pourhouse, The Turf Club, Le Musique Room in  St. Michaels and were the headline act in 2011 for the long running annual Back to the 50’s Hot Rod show which draws over 100,000 people during a three day period and is held at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds. In addition the group has opened for world famous groups The Trashmen (Surfin’ Bird) and The Castaways (Liar Liar). They are best known for their closing number, a show-stopping version of The William Tell Overture.

The Surf Dawgs have a standing annual guest appearance for the Mid-America Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies and were asked to play with Crow (Evil Woman fame) for the ground-breaking of the Mid-America Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. Zippy Caplan and Bernie Bomberg are inductees in the Mid-America Rock Hall of Fame with Life-Time Achievement Awards and Zippy was inducted in 2008 with “The Litter” and “The Accents”.

Now going into the New Year 2019, the acclaimed International publication “Pipeline”, from the U.K., has just released their current issue which not only has a stellar review of their latest album The Surf Dawgs “Beach Party” but has tied them at the #1 position on their Top Ten Playlist with The Ventures latest CD release!!

All the albums, singles, and music by The Surf Dawgs are available on i-Tunes, Amazon and most other music download sites, plus there are several tracks from the latest CD’s through Reverbnation on the music page of this web site and on Facebook at “The Surf Dawgs Minneapolis”. There are several music videos on youTube that can be viewed on our Video page and many more on youTube itself.

Their dedication to keeping their music true to the original sound of the 1960’s Instrumental craze has paid off with a loyal following of fans and a warm reception where ever they perform.