(Garage Rock, Indie, Lo-Fi, Surf Rock) Tomorrows Tulips - When - 2014, MP3, 320 kbps

On their third release, Costa Mesa’s Tomorrows Tulips (led by singer Alex Knost, ex-pro surfer and former member of Japanese Motors) show their adoration of underground alternative of the past with their bummer-pop stylings.
Their first album, Eternally Teenage was exactly what the title described — a band that likely had no aspirations beyond playing small shows and parties at tiny bungalows on the beach. The sound was thin, the songs were slow grooves, and reverb ruled the roost. A fine debut but nothing new.
Tomorrows Tulips second album — 2013’s Experimental Jelly — brought their vision into sharper focus with a more haunting vibe injected into ever-present minor chords. Droning background tracks further completed the Velvet Underground vibe, and a dark cloud settled over the SoCal beach sand sound. Now in 2014, Tomorrows Tulips has bought proper prescriptions for their likely huge shades, and their music and arrangements have become crystal clear.
When starts off with the perfect intro track: “Baby”, a very short, uptempo (for the Tulips anyway) burst of summer crush love. From here, Tomorrows Tulips proves production is no longer going to get in the way, and we hear much more thought out, much crisper tracks with well-crafted melodies. The Velvet Underground influence is still present (particularly on “Laying In The Sun”), but instead of simply scratching the surface of Lou Reed’s sound, Tomorrows Tulips seems to understand more of the “why” in Reed’s earlier music, rather than simply the “how”. This is the move of a mature band who is clearly comfortable enough in their own skin to take some risks, borrow a little, but try something new with it. In “Favorite Episode”, the band shows its patience by beginning slowly with an almost Gun’s N’ Roses-style power ballad intro played over ambient waterdrop sounds. After a couple minutes, the song evolves into a full-blown, furious shoegaze trance before finally winding back down to a faint drip. The following song, “Down Turned Self Pity” starts with synths ripped right out of the movie “Apocalypse Now” and the opens with the lines, “Tryin’ hard to know my heart / With liquor and some drugs”. These words set the tone for the rest of the unusual, grippingly honest, mostly acoustic track with near structureless vocals. Despite having no truly recognizable chorus, this is one of my favorite songs on the album because it’s both weird and memorable — again similar to the Velvets, but not in imitation, rather in innovation.
So many garage/lo-fi/alt bands completely overlook the importance of decent song structure, and in a likely “fuck-you” to traditional music, don’t feel the need to properly engage the listener. Oftentimes this leads to music that is written about how boring and shitty life is, but ironically adds to the boredom and shittiness by flicking the same chords over and over with no change in tempo or any musical creativity.