Ground Control Touring

Surf Curse is the indie rock recording project of Los Angeles/New York based songwriters Nick Rattigan and Jacob Rubeck. They have been crafting sounds spanning from punk to psych rock for just over a decade with a rabid and dedicated international fanbase and no end in sight. The pair met as teenagers while growing up outside of Las Vegas, and immediately bonded over underground music, cult films, and a desire to leave their vacuous home town. After moving to Reno for college, Rattigan and Rubeck discovered the city’s local DIY scene and similar blossoming music communities across the country that were becoming connected through the internet.

In the fall of 2010 the two formalized their on-going musical collaboration with a new two piece called Surf Curse and played their first show at a Halloween Party. Their initial songs were frantic punk anthems about adolescent heartbreak and alienation and they quickly developed a young cult following who resonated with Rattigan and Rubeck’s anecdotal writing. Becoming a staple at all ages venues like The Smell where they recorded their first two releases with Andrew McKelvie.  Although dealing largely with melancholy themes of isolation, the energy on every track is palpable including RIAA triple platinum certified track Freaks, with over 1.1 billion Spotify streams, and fan favorite Goth Babe with a casual 34 million spins to its name.

Four albums later one ingredient the band doesn’t change is the earworm guitar melodies and massive hooks that have always fueled their famously raucous live shows. Case in point, the fabled night in Garden Grove CA, which saw fans storm the stage during the album standout track Disco. The single has amassed over 188 million plays on Spotify and, five years after its release, currently sits at #2 on the Billboard Tiktok Chart and at #91 on the Billboard Hot 100.

From their inception, seeing Surf Curse live became a right of passage in the South-West and thanks to their electric live show the band has grown to an internationally touring act playing festivals like Coachella, Primavera Sound, Corona Capital, Best Kept Secret, and We Love Green to name a few and headlining around the globe. Despite their success, Surf Curse has always aimed to stick to their stick to their roots forging new paths and acknowledging the fans and scene that helped put them there in the first place.