‘Perhaps today’s best original surf group is The Insect Surfers. Original, meaning that rather than concentrating on covers, these guys spend most of their time writing new surf instrumentals, and thank goodness for that, because they've come up with plenty of whoppers….…WOW! This is like the great lost surf group!!!!’
(Dumb Angel Gazette/ Domenic Priore)

‘These guys are one of the absolutely finest instrumental bands to be found anywhere, yet they have remained an underground band since their inception in Washington, D.C. in 1979.…If you like music of any kind, it is hard not to like the Insect Surfers.’
(Chattanooga Free Press / Anthony Mark Happel)

‘L.A.'s Insect Surfers have never been obsessed with slavish imitations of vintage sounds so much as recapturing the proto-punk abandon of early instrumental rock. Like San Francisco's Mermen, the Insect Surfers often veer into heady psychedelia, generating euphoric washes of reverb, twang and crashing cymbals on “Death Valley Coastline"’
(Guitar Player)

‘...the dueling leads add the interest and complexity necessary to propel surf style instrumentals into the next generation...’
(Tiki News #9)

**** (4 stars!) review of ‘Death Valley Coastline’
***** (5 stars!) review of ‘Mojave Reef’
**** (4 stars!) review of ‘Sonar Safari’
(ReverbCentral.com / Phil Dirt)

‘…These guys are upper echelon players and they have their own idenitfiable sound. They each have a clear understanding of how psychedelia should be woven into surf instrumentals….This is a style of surf that I find very magnetic....... Besides being important as a surf album, this is a very important guitar album that demands careful listening. If young guitarists hole up in their rooms and learn all these tunes, the future of the genre looks bright. I know it, lots of other people know it, and after one listen, you'll know it.’
(Cosmik Debris Ezine / review of Death Valley Coastline)

‘ATTENTION ECLECTIC INSTRUMENTAL GUITAR MUSIC FANS The Insect Surfers have been putting out cool instrumental guitar music for a number of years. Powered by guitarists Dave Arnson and Dan Sullivan (who also plays saxophone), the Insect Surfers blend eclectic rock and surf for a great sound. Dave, who has been influenced by players like Davie Allan, John Cippolina, and Tom Verlaine, founded the original Insect Surfers in 1979 in Washington, D.C. He moved to the West Coast in '85 and reformed the band (with different players) in '86, and they've been together ever since.’
(Vintage Guitar)

‘You hate to use the phrase surf music when describing Insct Surfers because their instrumentals often display a versatility and grandeur that transcend the perceived limitations of the genre. Take ‘Horizon Riders’ from the group's recent CD, Mojave Reef (marlin) David Arnson's and Dano Sullivans riffs quite properly evoke sunsets and big waves, but there are also several passages that shimmer with an almost prog-rock expansiveness. Instead of coming off as kitschy or retro, the quartet use the beach as a metaphor, as a jumping-off point for deeper, moodier explorations-often psychedelic, but never succumbing to mere noodling, as on the coiled lead-guitar tangles of ‘Ocotilo’ and ‘Coolangatta.’ The group's roots stretch back to 1979 in Washington D.C., where Arnson was influenced just as much by the Real Kids and the Ramones as by the Ventures, and these Surfers have been an underrated local institution since re-forming in L.A. in 1985.’
(L.A.Weekly / Falling James)

‘’The third full-length album from this Los Angeles-based surf instrumental quartet has the power and grace of a 20-foot swell. With dueling guitar action in the vein of Dick Dale, this band rips through 16 songs that would make The Ventures proud. From blistering surf songs to drag tunes, Western themes, and space rockers, this album has pretty much everything except vocals …..It's majestic, it's hot, it's real surf music in the new millennium.’
(Skratch Magazine / review of Mojave Reef)

‘Insect Surfers play surf music...psychedelic, frantic, cutting edge surf music that only a kid from NYC who moved to DC and used to buy ice cream from some Hagen Daas employee named Henry Rollins could conceive. Lead insect guitarist Dave Arnson is that kid. Plus he defies the laws of gravity while soloing!........ Thanks for the great music! + winner of BAND OF DISTINCTION Award!’
(Music for Nimrods / Reverend Dan)

‘...when you have a band who is above and beyond all nostalgia cliches … As proven by the opening set by the Insect Surfers', surf music is far from a thing of the past. … it's here also that I will commend the Insect Surfers for their sound. What makes them so special is not their linkage with authenticity (which makes them great to hear in the first place), nor their variety-oriented approach (which is brilliant enough to include both instrumentals and vocals---Arnson tells me one of his biggest influences is the SURFIN' U.S.A. album!). It ain't even their unique approach of trade-off lead guitar-extended surf jamming (which only leads to excitement and never falls into that dangerous territory of ponderousness which ties a group to the despicable term "Progressive"). Nope, it's none of these, and to break the rule of three, it's not even the absolutely bitchen way that Arnson leaps, squirms, and wriggles around the stage while playing guitar for added punctuation. You wanna know what makes the Insect Surfers so fabulous?...!...? It's the way they take all of those things, melt them in to one bottle of goop, fill them into a mold, and cook up some incredible edibles that would satisfy the thirstiest hunger for SURF.’
(Dumb Angel Gazette / Domenic Priore)

‘… is as polished as surf can get. They play the dramatic sounds that accompany old-school tube riders from yesteryear, but in a rockin' way that's less minimalist and more full-sounding. After listening for a while, I get the feeling that these accomplished musicians can play anything. "Freebird"? eh’
(Giant Robot Magazine / review of Mojave Reef)

‘Dave Arnson's Insect Surfers, which somehow manages to be faithful to the old instro ways yet still sounds thoroughly modern and even a bit surreal, has been kicking major ass these days.’
(BAM Magazine)