Beast Patrol: "Plaster"

You can't make it in rock music without a badass, low-angle promo shot.

At Lollapalooza, there is no scraping the bottom of the barrel. If you like female-led alt-rock groups like Metric, Tegan & Sara, and Blondie, put a check-mark next to the Saturday performance of the 2013 line-up's last-billed artist*, Beast Patrol, and read on.

Two-year-old Beast Patrol is an alt-rock trio from Brooklyn that came together after taking part in "a revolutionary show powered by bicycles, called Natural Ass." Vocalist/guitarist Vanessa Bley and bassist Anthony Marchesi were already living together at the time, but it seems the moment they met drummer Robert Granata, the stars aligned over the cycling-frenzied tushes. (It was a party intended to promote the use of bicycling as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. The entire show was powered by audience members riding 18 bicycles. It's a pretty awesome idea, and very New York.)

Vanessa was playing the show with her self-titled band, whose EP carried her name:

And Marchesi and Granata jumped right in to promote that album with her. The trio soon decided to form under a new name, and Beast Patrol was born. This past September they released the first EP under the band's name, titled Fierce & Grateful. And the four-song EP sounds just as its title suggests—eager but graceful, thoughtful, and rocking. They band has described their vibe as a "cocktail of all our favorite bands: '90s rock, '70s funk, '80s beat, '60s drugs, etc."

Check out the EP's intoxicating single, "Plaster," of which Bley said to Rolling Stone: "'Plaster' came so quickly when I wrote it. Total explosion. I actually hated it at first because it was so personal, but over time the lyrics applied to more and more...We all fall apart and try to clean it up. It’s important to step outside yourself and try to get in. Keep the beast in check." Sounds like a mission statement.

Stream the full Fierce and Grateful EP and download it for free here.

*In reality, the bottom half of the line-up has no official order of importance. But isn't this a fun gimmick?