With all the buzz that Surfer Blood has garnered in the past few months, I keep forgetting that I actually did catch the very end of their set as Art Brut’s openers last fall. If I remember correctly, some of the Florida-based indie rockers were too young to even be allowed to go through the bar in the venue. The four members of the band (J.P. Pitts, Tyler Schwartz, Thomas Fekete and Brian Black) made Astro Coast themselves last year. Schwartz acquired a copy of ProTools while studying at community college in Orlando, which the band used to record their debut in Pitts’ apartment over six months. Pitts says of Astro Coast, “I think a lot of the melodies are catchy and timeless.  I also think the album as a whole is good front to back, there isn’t a lot of filler on the record. There is a clear arc in the record, something that kind of resembles a narrative, even though the plot might not be quite as clear. I think a lot of people today get carried away with singles and don’t listen to an album all the way through...our record as a whole is stronger than the sum of its parts.” The massive, catchy single “Swim” lands at #2 on the SubModern singles chart this week. Elsewhere on the record, Surfer Blood mix in some African-inspired guitar parts, a la Vampire Weekend, only with distortion piled on. “Neighbour Riffs” does indeed have some cool riffs. And I’m not sure if “Fast Jabroni” and “Slow Jabroni” were inspired by the promo work of The Rock in the late ‘90’s, but I’d like to think they were. Surfer Blood is currently on tour, and have ten SXSW gigs lined up next week, before continuing around the country until they wind up back home in Florida on April 22. Then they head overseas for a month of touring the U.K. and Europe. Hear more at www.myspace.com/surferblood or www.kaninerecords.com.

You may be asking yourself, “Who on Earth is Seasick Steve?” He’s an old-school-style Blues-rocker, who has been making music since the 1960s. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, he befriended a number of indie rockers while living in Olympia, WA, including a fellow named Isaac Brock. Steve (real name: Steven Gene Wold) ended up producing many of Modest Mouse’s earliest releases, including their first official full-length album, This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About. Four years ago, Steve had a career breakthrough overseas, as his 2006 album Dog House Music sold 200,000 copies in the U.K. Well into his 60’s, Seasick Steve was an unlikely sensation. The follow-up, 2008’s I Started Out With Nothing And Still Got Most Of It Left sold over 250,000 units. His newest release, Man From Another Time, debuted at #4 in the U.K. and will be out in the U.S. on March 30 via Ryko. If you’re a fan of Jack White, or maybe even some of the fuzzed-out Blues-rock side of the eels catalog, Seasick Steve is definitely worth checking out. Head to seasicksteve.com or rykodisc.com for more.