Diamond Vehicle [Compact disc]

ZOPA is Elijah Amitin, Michael Imperioli, and Olmo Tighe. The three-part New York indie-rock band is ZOPA, “patience” in Tibetan. And also the middle word of Michael’s Buddhist name: Konchog Zopa Sonam.

'Diamond Vehicle' is the band's new album out February 2025.

In covering Lou Reed’s “Ocean” and “Heroin” ZOPA’s sound taps into a collective nostalgic past, echoing the transcendent spaces of New York punk rock’n’roll. Relying on analog technology and minimal overdubbing for their production, their vintage sound takes center stage in live performance and recordings.

This connection to the past — and the gaps it creates through age and time — all dissipate in the spaces the band creates with its audiences. Imperioli’s voice is ripe with that feeling of awakening in which 17 feels eternal. Under the influences of Dinosaur Jr, The Smiths, My Bloody Valentine, The Replacements, Joy Division, Galaxy 500 and The Violent Femmes, ZOPA becomes timeless, ageless even, evoking the CBGB era with a beat generation grit to an intergenerational audience.