Tape Deck Mountain Secret Serf EP

San Diego band Tape Deck Mountain came close to painting themselves into a corner with their first recording, Sparks, which was -- true to the group's name -- a cassette release. Wisely, they've expanded since then, and with the Secret Serf EP follow-up to their first full-length release, Ghosts, they maintain the kind of homemade indie-pop sound you'd expect to originate from some bedroom-studio stack of cassettes, despite forging fearlessly into the digital world. And in case you were wondering, the EP's title gently satirizes the beach vibe of so many contemporaneous West coast bands.

Abstract by Jim Allen