On July 3, 1999 Mark Sandman, frontman and two-string slide bassist of Morphine collapsed and died while performing onstage in Palestrina, Italy. Ironically a few years earlier he wrote aa song in which he sang about hoping to have french fries with pepper on September 9th of that year.

But don't let that get you down. The New Dad Rock is here to reminisce about more enjoyable things from the year 1999, like the Y2K virus.

Let us know what’s up.

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🎙️ Episode 98: Montauk Mix and UFO Flix

Strap in for a cosmic ride back to the Summer of '98—when alternative rock was maturing, Montauk was still weird and wonderful, and UFOs might have been hovering just offshore.

Steve and Keith dig through the musical treasures of 1998, spinning tracks from Neutral Milk Hotel, Elliott Smith, Mercury Rev, Beastie Boys, Sunny Day Real Estate, and more. It's the year of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, XO, Deserter’s Songs, and Hello Nasty—a golden moment when indie, emo, electronica, and even Madonna (Ray of Light!) all collided on our Walkmans and Discmen.

☀️ Along the way:

• Summers in Montauk: sand in cassette decks, longboard surf sessions, and the quiet magic of a sleepy beach town
• The Montauk Project: time travel? psychic experiments? Stranger Things vibes years before Netflix
• Lights in the sky, rumors around bonfires, and the sweet mystery of pre-Y2K anxiety

🛸 Expect music nerdery, heartfelt nostalgia, and just maybe a few unexplained sightings along the dunes.

Tagline: The year alt-rock grew up... and Montauk got even weirder.

Cue the mixtape, cue the conspiracy theories—it's Episode 98!

Let us know what’s up.

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Did you know that The New Dad Rock has swag? Coffee mugs, pillow and t-shirts in a multitude of colors and arm lengths.

🎙️ Episode 1997: Desert Island Classics – The Year That Was Everything

What if you could only bring one year of music to your desert island? For The New Dad Rock, that year just might be 1997.

In this special “Desert Island Classics” edition, Keith makes the case for a trio of albums that still echo through indie rock history:

🎸 Modest Mouse – The Lonesome Crowded West
🎸 Pavement – Brighten the Corners
🎸 Radiohead – OK Computer

These three towering releases helped define an era, a mindset, and a mood—sprawling, angular, atmospheric, and occasionally absurd. Steve and Keith unpack their enduring influence, share personal memories tied to these records, and debate what makes an album truly castaway-worthy.

🌴 Also in this episode:

• What counts as a “desert island disc”?
• Are we really alone out there—with only our CD wallets and Discmen to keep us company?
• And which albums from 1997 still feel like survival essentials?
  

No filler. All killer. Come wade into the waters of a year that still resonates like a perfectly delayed guitar loop.

The New Dad Rock—where nostalgia meets noise.

Let us know what’s up.

Support the show

Did you know that The New Dad Rock has swag? Coffee mugs, pillow and t-shirts in a multitude of colors and arm lengths.