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"Let's Go Surfing" is the debut single by American band the Drums, released from their self-titled debut album. The single was first released in the UK on 15 September 2009 as the lead single from the band's debut EP, Summertime!, but was later re-released on 9 August 2010. On both releases, the track was released as a double A-side with the Summertime! EP exclusive track "Don't Be a Jerk, Johnny", although only the lead track received chart placement in the UK. An excerpt of the song was used in advertising for Volkswagen.
In October 2011, NME placed it at number 60 on its list of the "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".
Upon its initial release in September 2009, "Let's Go Surfing" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number 107, narrowly missing out on the top 100. However, after receiving airplay from BBC Radio 1 DJs such as Fearne Cotton, the single re-entered the top 100 at number 87 on 14 August 2010; as a result of the reissue. The single then continued to rise, climbing 20 places to number 67 the following week and eventually reaching a peak position of number 63 on 28 August 2010, marking the band's most successful single to date.
Vocalist Jonathan Pierce was asked by Q magazine November 2009 if he actually can surf. He replied: "I've surfed a couple of times but I can only stand being in the ocean for five minutes before I go running for the sand. 'Let's Go Surfing' is more about the spirit behind surfing."
The song features Pierce whistling. He told Q magazine: "I'm more of hummer on a day to day basis."
This features on The Drums' debut EP Summertime! EP, which came out in the fall. Pierce told Q: "Good planning. Bad execution. I did wonder if we should change the title to Reflections of Summertime."
Pierce expanded on the song to Q magazine: "It's not about surfing but unbridled freedom, reveling in the end of the Bush era."
Pierce recalled to the NME January 9, 2010: "The whole Summertime EP was accidental. When me and Jacob (Graham, guitar) recorded it, I'd come from freezing New York to baking Florida and we were surrounded by beaches and classic American summery things. A bunch of songs with those themes popped out, so we gathered them together, leaving the others for later."
After announcing this would be culled from the Drums debut album, there was a subsequent change of heart. Pierce reasoned to the NME omitting it would be "like going to see a band live and them missing out the song that got you into them in the first place."
The Drums told The NME that it was Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election which inspired the track. "We actually wrote it on the day that Obama won the election, and everyone was so excited," explained guitarist Jacob Graham. "We're not very political and we don't usually know what's going on, but in America you couldn't really help but know what was going on and get excited about it."
Frontman Jonathan Pierce added that the song was fuelled by the relief the whole country was feeling after Republican George W Bush's departure from office after eight years in office. "The whole country had suffered eight years of feeling like we were in prison or something and then Obama came through and it was impossible not to get swept up with the whole nation, so that's when we wrote 'Let's Go Surfing'," he said. "If you listen to the second verse it's very clearly about Obama being brought into the White House and (how) things might change.
Nothing really changed - well, a few things changed., Everything was so sensationalised and romanticised, so 'Let's Go Surfing' is about unbridled freedom."
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