The Surfers

Aptly named not only because their music followed in the grand tradition of the Ventures, Dick Dale and the Beach Boys, the Surfers -- singer Kelly Slater and multi-instrumentalists Peter King and Rob Machado -- were all in fact internationally-famed professional surfers; Slater, a world champion many times over, was renowned as "the Michael Jordan of surfing," with countless honors bestowed upon both King (also an MTV personality) and Machado as well. Their debut LP, 1998's Songs from the Pipe, was produced by T-Bone Burnett. ~ Jason Ankeny