Makin Waves Scene Report with JAHK, Asbury Park Football Club, Asbury Park Music Foundation and more

Also featured in the Scene Report are the Makin Waves Summer Concert Series at Asbury Park Brewery, Stag Party’s record release party, Co-Op Communique’s latest indie compilation, Brendan Fletcher’s benefit for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and Christian singer-songwriter Aly Giglio.

Jersey Shore singer-songwriter JAHK will release her second single of the year, the ’80s synth pop-inspired “Round,” a carefree tune that recalls simpler times. Although times are actually pretty good for JAHK, who said she enjoyed writing the chorus of the tune with her two young daughters.

“We have so much fun singing that part together,” she said. “The song became a family favorite, one I knew I had to record.”

Both “Round” and the previously released “Into You” will be featured on an album being record at EightSixteen Recording Studio in South River. JAHK said each song is unique, but “Round” is more fun and upbeat while also contemplating karma and fate.

“The song is about possibility and destiny,” she said. “Past and present lives, soulmates, looking back and moving forward. When you didn’t even know the person you would love forever was there this whole time. You just had to wake up first. Even death isn’t the end, and we can meet again reincarnated or in the afterlife. Everything comes full circle. When we stop and reflect, we can connect to that notion, realizing we’ve been here before and will be back again.”

Having worked with Reid Carrescia, director of the 2012 short “Harvest,” on the “Into You” clip, JAHK opted to make a low-tech iPhone video for “Round” to complement the simple nature of the song in a cross between an old home movie and 1980s MTV video.

“I hope it makes you smile,” said JAHK, who can be seen live on July 8 at Asbury Fresh and July 31 at The Downtown, Red Bank.

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Five summer concert series will demonstrate just how “Music Saved Asbury Park” — the slogan of the Asbury Park Music Foundation, which will present three of the series, starting with Music Mondays at Springwood Park on June 25 with Des and the Swagmatics and Aya. Music Mondays also will feature Ray, Goodman & Brown and an Asbury Park school choir, July 2; Black Suburbia Music Group and Poca, July 9; Xol Azul, July 16; Soul Project and Hip Hop Institute, July 23; PJ Rasmussen & Boardwalk Jazz and Anya & PJ, Aug. 6; The Louis Prima Band and Lakehouse Music Academy students, Aug. 13; JT Bowen & the Red Bank Rockers and Lil’ Asmar Band, Aug. 20, and Sensational Soul Cruisers and Mayor’s Players on Tuesday, Aug. 28.

APMF fun will continue with Asbury Park LIVE, which brings a local rock band onto the boardwalk’s First Avenue Green every Wednesday. Last year’s sponsorship paid for a new sound booth and computer for the Foundation’s Hip Hop Institute. This year, funds from MOGO Tacos, Watermark, Pepsi, Stone Pony Summer Stage, Lakehouse Music Academy, Asbury Park Food Collective, OceanFirst Bank, Asbury Park Distilling Co. and more will support a new Latin Experience Youth Music Camp at the Academy. Each show opens with a Lakehouse youth band, many of which feature scholarship students supported by APMF. The lineup also includes The Vansaders and Des and the Swagmatics, June 27; American Trappist and Dark City Strings, July 4 (sandwiching fireworks), Have a Good Season and latewaves, July 11; Long Neck and Ragged Lines, July 18; Waiting on Mongo and Tula Vera, July 25; ManDancing and Sugar Trip, Aug. 1; LEEDS and The Do Rights, Aug. 8; Good Luck Spaceman and Earth Telephone, Aug. 22, and Bobby Mahoney and the Seventh Son and Levy and the Oaks, Aug. 29.

APMF also will present Asbury Park Concert Band in themed concerts on Thursdays starting July 5 on the boardwalk in front of Robinson Ale House. Themes will include patriotic/American, jazz, Broadway, great entertainers, the Armed Forces and more. An all-ages fundraiser to help pay for AP Live will feature Sonic Blume, Yawn Move, Sentient Moss and Not Ur Baby on June 14 at the Foundation in the Lakehouse Building. Admission is $8, but any larger donation will come with a free MOGO Korean fusion taco.

The 2018 Asbury Park Football Club Summer Clubhouse also will be a hoot as it combines lives music by local bands at Asbury Park Yacht Club, appearances by New York Red Bulls and other soccer stars, a beach soccer tournament and skills challenge, World Cup Soccer broadcast live from Russia, and a pop-up shop with A.P.F.C. merch. The fun kicks of June 16 with performances by Lost in Society and Mercy Union, a new band featuring members of The Scandals and The Gaslight Anthem. The Clubhouse also will present Toy Cars and Ragged Lines, June 17; Sammy Kay and The Vansaders, June 23; The Vaughns, June 24; Well Wisher and Have a Good Season, June 30; latewaves and Secret Mountain, July 1; Chris Batten and the Woods, July 7, and Bobby Mahoney and the Seventh Son, July 15.

Then there’s Makin Waves Summer Concert Series at Asbury Park Brewery, launching June 23 with “Best of Makin Waves” featuring Cook Thugless, The Brixton Riot, Mr. Payday, The Successful Failures and Disposable. The series will continue July 14 with “Trenton Makes Takeover,” featuring Hub City Stompers, The Cryptkeeper Five, Molly Rhythm, Experiment 34 and Chalk & the Biege Americans; July 28 with “Crazy, Rotten, Hot, Vicious … and Brown,” featuring Crazy & the Brains, Hot Blood, Little Vicious, Doc Rotten and Chris Brown, and Aug. 11 with the Second Annual Makin Waves Roots Fest, featuring Cranston Dean Band, Levy & the Oaks, The Burns, The Paper Jets and Tara Dente. Admission is a low-dough $5. Highlights include outdoor games, a free wheel of chance for sponsor prizes, a takeout menu featuring amazing Asbury restaurants, and, of course, the Jersey Shore’s best craft beer. Sponsors also include Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce, Provident Bank, The Aquarian Weekly, New Jersey Stage, NJArts.net, AsburyMusic.com, “Radio Jersey,” Beasley Media, 1450 WCTC, WRAT 95.9-FM, “Jersey Rock,” The Coaster, 90.5 the Night, Danny Coleman’s Rock on Radio, “One More with Brian Erickson,” Jersey Indie, The Pop Break, A Lady in Who Writes, 94.3 the Point, and New Jersey Isn’t Boring.
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After four successful releases, Jersey Shore-based Co-Op Communique has taken a leap forward. The Co-Op Communique Volume Four — a compilation from Introverse Media’s Co-Op arts discovery outreach — is available for free download at coopcommunique.bandcamp.com/album/the-co-op-communique-volume-four. The Co-Op’s goal is to break the stalemate between an eager audience and distribution channels that cannot come together. Previous entries in the series have introduced new listeners to a variety of independent music artists.

“We intentionally went farther than ever before to get a few more recognizable names as well as artists in their first few years of their careers,” founder Dw. Dunphy said. “They are all independent, but each has varying sizes of fan bases. The Co-Op Communique is an opportunity to cross-pollinate and to be heard where, otherwise, they might not.”

The fourth edition features 50 tracks by 50 artists, including Psykidelic Oven Mit, The Morning Line, Eric Johnson, By Torchlight, Blankside, Colie Brice III, Mick Lawless & The Reckless Hearts, The Well Wishers, and Wicked Immigrant.
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Jersey Shore punks Stag Party will celebrate the release of their new record, The Devil’s Claws, on June 16 at Asbury Park Brewery. Sharing the bill will be Full Speed Ahead, Chrome Skulls, Second Arrows, and Michael Jackson & The Beatles. Stag Party also will play July 20 for a show at Paul’s Tavern in Belmar, with Negative Approach, Bloodclot, School Drugs and Hot Blood.
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Randolph-raised, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Brendan Fletcher will return home to Morris County to perform a benefit concert Leukemia & Lymphoma Society on June 14 at Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown. Influenced by Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Otis Redding, Ray Charles and Bruce Springsteen, Fletcher’s country-soul was featured in 2016 in the semi-finals of Season 11 of NBC-TV’s “The Voice.” Sharing the bill with him will be Season 11 talent Kylie Rothfield.
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Christian singer-songwriter Aly Giglio will hold a listening party for her new album, Able God, on June 15 at the Pillar College Student Lounge in the Somerset section of Franklin Township. The 10-song devotion was produced by Tyler Michael Smith in Nashville and her brother-in-law Plinky Giglio in Jersey. The worship leader recently planted a church, North Shore Fellowship, with her husband, Raphael, a pastor and fellow worship leader and singer-songwriter. They currently worship in the Red Bank Salvation Army and are looking to move into a home of their own soon.

Bob Makin is the reporter for MyCentralJersey.com/entertainment and a former managing editor of The Aquarian Weekly, which launched this column in 1988. Contact him at makinwaves64@yahoo.com. And like Makin Waves at facebook.com/makinwavescolumn.