Here's Plato Zorba's Stuff

Security Breach at the Beach

This past fall, Asbury Park cinematic, surf noir band, Plato Zorba, released the four-song Security Breach at the Beach to digital outlets. On May 26th, the band will celebrate the physical release of the EP -- as well as the unofficial start of summer -- at Wonder Bar. They'll be joining Igor & Red Elvises and The Brigantines for a Summer Kickoff Party.

Security Breach at the Beach combines guitar-centric surf and spy rock with a healthy dose of horns and keys. It opens with an instrumental cover of John Barry's "Beat Girl." The song's dark mystery and retro vibe are a good set up for the rest of the EP. The danceable "Lunch Battle" melds Robbie Butkowski's surfy guitar with some jazz-inspired organ from Ryan Gregg and sax from Chris Fitzgerald to show why Plato Zorba have a lot more going on than your run-of-the-mill surf band. Things even get kind of lounge-y on the title track. It's the background music at the kind of lounge where people are wearing dark sunglasses even with all the lights turned low.

Security Breach at the Beach is available now via Hi-Tide Recordings from wherever you like to get your digital music fix. Physical copies will be on sale at Wonder Bar for the Hi-Tide Recordings Summer Kickoff on Saturday, May 26th.

Here's Rough Spring's Stuff

EP

Rough Spring are the Newark, NJ trio of Joe Allocco (guitar / vocals), Chris Alfano (bass), and Mike Pushkin (drums). The members of Rough Spring have been / are in bands like Not The Bees! and NY In 64, and they released EP at the end of last year.

EP is four tracks that range from the aggressive and power-poppy opener "Labyrinths" to the post-hardcore of "The Whole Story." The band cite Hüsker Dü, Dinosaur Jr., and Superchunk as influences; and EP occupies a similar space between noise rock and pop as those bands even if it leans a little more heavily on the harder-edged, more rhythmically complex side of things.

You can check out Rough Spring's EP over at the Rough Spring Bandcamp page.

Premiere: Here's Modern Crowds' Stuff. They Play The Asbury TONIGHT, 5/4

"Gold"

Asbury Park's Modern Crowds released their latest single today. The band recorded "Gold" at bassist Adam Baczkowksi's home studio, and Baczkowksi and singer / guitarist Joseph Pelligrinelli got help on the track from Parlor Mob / gods drummer, Sam Bey.

Modern Crowds cite Radiohead as an influence, and "Gold" definitely channels some of that band's poppier inclinations. It starts relatively spare and adds layers as it winds along. B-side (if those things even exist anymore) "Inside Out" takes that vibe and runs with it as well.

"Gold" is streaming now via all the big streaming platforms, and you can grab it over at Modern Crowds' Bandcamp page.

Modern Crowds will celebrate the release when they join The Paper Jets and Justin Franco tonight, 5/4, for a free show in The Soundbooth Bar at The Asbury Hotel.

Here's Bodega Satellite's Stuff

(Mostly) En Español

Woodbridge Township's Bodega Satellite -- Alberto Rios, Kevin Poznanski, and Diego Ponce -- describe themselves as a "3 piece indie rock ensemble from New Jersey that likes to sing in Spanish."

As part of my recent request to "send me your stuff," singer / guitarist Alberto Rios sent me a link to Bodega Satellite's Bandcamp page. There, you'll find three releases, their 3d Ep, a self-titled LP, and 2015's Tres. The band play loud and well-crafted indie rock that sometimes veers toward Meet Me in the Bathroom-era sounds like The Strokes while exhibiting a harder, heavier, high-energy edge.

Just from jumping around Bodega Satellite's page, it's clear that each release is stocked with solid songs like "Suerte" and "Solo" from Tres, "Facil de Entender" from Bodega Satellite, and 3d's "Noche." My own Spanish is decent enough to kind of follow along with the lyrics, but that is by no means a pre-requisite for rocking with Bodega Satellite.

The band are official artists at next month's Northside Festival in Brooklyn, so keep an eye out to find out where they'll be playing.

Here's reasonable people's Stuff. And Their First Single.

"Output0ne"

Our friends and Sniffling Indie Kids co-honchos, Frank DeFranco and Joe Lanza, have a new project called reasonable people. This past Friday, they released their first single called, appropriately, "Output0ne."

The track is instrumental shoegaze, combining some chiming guitars with pulsing, trebly noise. Turn it up, and let it fill the space between your ears.

According to Lanza, the pair wrote each of their tracks in a single session and recorded the guitars together with no overdubbing. What we're hearing on "Output0ne" is live.

You can check out / grab "Output0ne" over at reasonable people's Bandcamp page or stream it from any of the places where people do that. reasonable people promise more sounds in the future with a full-length slated for the end of summer.

Here's WAX WAV's Stuff

"Generation Gap"

Lots of travel and, maybe, a lack of motivation over the last few months have resulted in a CoolDad Music inbox that is just unmanageable at this point. So, looking for some inspiration and a fresh start on Friday, I put out a request for "stuff" that I'd move to the top of the posting schedule (to the extent that there even is a schedule, which there isn't). I said I'd take the first seven responses and filled that quota in short order.

Our good friend Brian Erickson (The Paper Jets, "One More with Brian Erickson," and sometimes contributor to You Don't Know Jersey and here) forwarded not his own stuff but, instead, the latest video from Philadelphia DIY punks, WAX WAV. WAX WAV are Nick Palmer, Justin Johnson, Abe Koffenberger, Andrew Krause, and Lynna Stancato. They got together in 2016 and released their debut, EP1, late last year.

Back in February, they put out the video for single "Generation Gap."

The song is big pop punk featuring a wall of sound and guitar tones that recall WAX WAV's Philly paisanos, Beach Slang, along with all of the influences (Jawbreaker, The Replacements) that feed that sound. The Chris Johnson-directed video is a frantic live performance that's exactly what you'd hope for given the high-energy track.



You can grab EP1 over at WAX WAV's Bandcamp page. The band play goodnight/goodluck's EP release show at Philly's Boot & Saddle on May 12th along with Secret American.

Thanks, Brian.

More "stuff" later this week.