Florida is tiny. The state has over 19 million residents and somehow we still end up running into the same people over and over, even in different parts of the country. At the end of 2012, a few of us Tiny Wavers set out on a road trip to experience the mythical FMLY FEST LA.

During our travels, we were on a constant search for places to rest our heads. When we made it to Phoenix, our good friend from Florida, Eamon Ford, was kind enough to allow us sleep on his floor and take a gander at his beautiful guitar creations, since this was during his luthier studies. We met his roommates who were a bunch of wonderful hosts and treated us like kings and queens with malt beverages. One of Eamon’s roommates, Emily, and I began speaking about music and things of that nature which I soon discovered that she was in a three-piece all girl punk band called North Dakota. She mentioned that Michelle Blades was in the band and I internally freaked. Michelle was a Florida native and in the past made catchy ukulele tunes, but I’d never imagine she’d be making in your face noisy pop-punk. I soon listened and fell in love with their self-titled EP and have been a fan ever since.

Let’s fast forward to the present day and let your ears feast upon the newly released North Dakota album, Pat Waggy. This for me has been on constant rotation and will probably never leave my record player once this baby is pressed. Their solid mixture of gang vocals, funny lyrics and harmonies creates nothing but butterflies in my stomach.

Below, we have “Bikini” and “Galapaghost” for your listening pleasure, but honestly, you should do yourself a favor and buy the whole album.