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Tom Nagy started Cool Dad as a solo project in 2014, which produced an EP and a few singles and enough traction to do a few east coast tours. The Connecticut-based project expanded to a band early this year with the help of Brendan Dyer and Jeremy Stern of Furnsss resulting in the band’s full length self-titled debut, which will be on cassette via Third Floor Tapes. Cool Dad has been touring the past month in support of the record, including opening for Frankie Cosmos this past month.

The record is swathed in lush melodies, and pop tropes like the ominous, “U R Evil,” and the grungy sun-baked opener, “Dark Water.” The penultimate track, “Self Hate Team,” is the band at its quietest, and the song closest to being a hashtag (#selfhateteam). The self-loathing anthem is scantily dark, restrained only to a tepid guitar with Nagy’s despondent musings (“I can’t get myself to breathe / I can feel the mediocrity hanging over me”). The gloomy candor with the lo-fi quality feels like lost Sebadoh (Freed Pig-era) track.