He came out of East Brunswick, settled in Asbury Park, and led his band, The Seventh Son, for a 12-year run as one of the area’s most prized possessions. He used to dabble in post-punk chaos but has streamlined his hardcore tendencies on the new album, ‘Another Deadbeat Summer,’ out June 14, with its already-out “Empty Passenger Seats” single.

Stevie Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool Records have released “Still Holding On” by The Dollyrots. Bassist/Vocalist Kelly Ogden says the song “is a stand-alone single pulled from our new album [due this fall] about counting on the people you love to get you through the strangeness of modern life. The lyric video features an AI-generated version of me, a digital reminder of how off-kilter the future is becoming.”

The newest discovery of Stevie Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool Records is The Bayonets from Los Angeles: Lucrecia Lopez Sanz, Brian Ray and Oliver Leiber (whose dad was one-half of the legendary Leiber/Stoller songwriting team who wrote almost every great song of the 1950s).

As Rock’n’Roll Hall of Famer Ricky Byrd told us himself in April’s “Up Close,” his string of singles for Stevie Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool Records will continue. Now, on the heels of his delicious “Glamdemic Blues”/”Reach Out (I’ll Be There”) comes “Alien.”

One thing you can unequivocally say about Stevie Van Zandt is the cat has ears. Everything he puts out on his Wicked Cool Records label is certainly worth hearing. The same can be said for his Sirius Satellite radio show Underground Garage. So when news came out about “Secrets” by Kurt Baker, my ears widened in anticipation.