CoolDad Music Presents: Smalltalk and Exmaid at Asbury Park Yacht Club, Friday, February 24th

Smalltalk at APYC in 2015

We Missed You

After about a 10-month "sabbatical," Neptune City's Smalltalk are making their return this weekend with a show on Friday, February 24th, at Asbury Park Yacht Club. Joining them on the bill are Exmaid, the latest project of Miranda Taylor (Black Wine, Hunchback, Full Of Fancy, Noun) and her friends in Philadelphia's Psychic Teens. It's all presented by, well, me; and I couldn't be more excited to be bringing you this one.

Through four EPs culminating with the compilation, Plus!, Smalltalk -- Zak Kaplan, Pete Steinkopf, Jamie Goldfarb, and now Laddie Keelan -- capture all the romance and melodrama of the post-punk and jangly indie-pop I grew up with. The band push that sound into the 21st century; and, even though the influences are clearly British, there's something about Smalltalk's sound that I always associate with nights at the Jersey Shore.



Smalltalk have been through some changes in the last almost-year -- from personnel changes in the band to marriage and new parenthood for some of the members.

Frontman Zak Kaplan: "We've been on sabbatical for quite a while now, which was unplanned, but turned out to be the proper thing to do. We parted ways with Tara and John over the past year, and we really miss having them around; but we've brought our friend and neighbor, Laddie, into the mix. We're feeling fresh and revived. We've splashed water on our faces, in slow motion."



With Friday's show at APYC as a springboard, Smalltalk hope to ratchet things up again.

"We’re playing the Asbury Park Yacht Club with Exmaid on the 24th and Gold Sounds in Brooklyn with The Vansaders on the 25th, and that's about all we have at the moment," says Kaplan. "But, if we can actually get some things going, we're hoping to start playing out a lot more; and maybe we'll even try to release some new music at some point. Seems reasonable, but we'll see."



With Exmaid, Miranda Taylor is making her own return of sorts after being an integral part of a whole bunch of beloved and important bands in the annals of New Jersey music. Exmaid's self-titled EP came out at the end of 2016, and it was one of my favorites of the year. I'm excited to hear the songs performed live, and you should be, too.



So, Friday is your chance to welcome back Smalltalk, tell them how much you missed them, and beg them never to leave you like that again. It's also an opportunity to say "Hiya!" to Exmaid. Show both of them enough love, and I'm pretty sure you'll be hearing more from them.

Smalltalk and Exmaid play Asbury Park Yacht Club this Friday, February 24th. Doors for that one are at 9pm, and the show is absolutely free.

North Jersey Indie Rock Festival, September 10th at Jersey City's Cathedral Hall: Introducing... ...Underlined Passages

The Fantastic Quest

This Saturday, September 10th, labels Sniffling Indie Kids and Mint 400 Records host The North Jersey Indie Rock Festival at the newly-renovated Cathedral Hall in Jersey City. The event brings together 20 bands from both labels along with vendors and bloggers for a day of independent music and fun. CoolDad Music is proud to be participating in the festival, and the organizers have given me the opportunity to introduce a pair of bands and to take a few minutes to discuss what we do over here at the website. While I try to figure out exactly what the second part is, I thought maybe I'd get a head start on my introductions as a way of previewing the fest.

Today, I'll tell you a bit about Baltimore's Underlined Passages. The band released their latest LP, The Fantastic Quest, back in April with Mint 400; and it is a satisfying slice of indie pop.

Opener "Calamine" weaves and jangles dreamily like the fading thoughts it describes. "Arabesque" sails along at a slightly quicker pace, the vocal harmonies of the chorus swirling around the guitars. "Everyone Was There" opens with a bit of distortion before it chugs along on some martial-sounding drums. Three songs in, and I'm thinking about a particular era of indie pop centered around bands like Band Of Horses, Death Cab For Cutie, and even Meadowlands-era Wrens.

Short standout, "The Driver," gives the sense of moving forward at speed. Its "ooo oos" are something you'd turn up on the car radio. Closer, "Hearts on Fire," rocks and sways along until it closes on a last, fading note.

The Fantastic Quest is a set of meticulously-crafted indie pop songs in which it's easy to get lost. Appropriate to the title, I guess, the record conveys movement throughout all of its tracks. At times, there's a strong sense of direction. At other times, the feeling is one of aimless drifting. Any quest that's long enough -- a big project, traipsing through foreign cities with your family, life in general -- will have elements of both, and that comes across here.

Underlined Passages take the downstairs stage at The North Jersey Indie Rock Festival at 3:40pm on Saturday. You can check out The Fantastic Quest over at Underlined Passages' Bandcamp page.