photo by sami drasin // "It was a good enough afternoon / But we got so doomed / We couldn’t figure out what to do / We got broken like a matchstick / Burned like a heretic / And trampled like a superbloom..."
The blasty indie rock exuberance and earth shifting mod mechanics of "To Be So Cool", by Los Angeles based The Pretty Flowers, absolutely kills because it is so fucking proggy. For me, this blend of indie rock / emo / power pop is so incredibly unrelenting in it's full throttle-ness, in it's utterly mosh worthy quality that adjacent artists, while coming from different genric perspectives, all absolutely jam hard. My off the top of my head connections make me think of The Jam which like early The Who (at the time) a vision of mod and then, under the power pop / punk umbrella, bands like The Buzzcocks and more contemporary attitudinal offshoots like Superchunk, like Bloc Party. I guess what ties all these amazing bands and The Pretty Flowers' aesthetic is how tightly wound the songs are, how progressively drawn they are. I mean all kinds of rock definitionally, well, rocks but "To Be So Cool", like the seeds that came before, is so gloriously kinetic, so meticulously played while feeling exquisitely feral.
LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):
[Formed in Los Angeles in 2013, The Pretty Flowers solidified their lineup in 2018: Green (vocals, guitar), Sam Tiger (bass, backing vocals), Jake Gideon (guitar, backing vocals), and Sean Johnson (drums, percussion). Their debut album, Why Trains Crash, arrived that same year to rave reviews, followed by 2023’s A Company Sleeve, which further cemented their reputation for all-killer, no-filler indie rock rooted in melody, grit, and emotional clarity.]
"To Be So Cool" is from the band's new album "Never Felt Bitter" out March 27 on Forge Again Records.
[The band’s Noah Green says:
“To Be So Cool” is one of my favorite songs on the album, and it’s a blast to play live. The lyrics just seemed to kind of flow and I didn’t try and overthink writing them at the time. Some months later when I was watching the film Withnail & I for the umpteenth time, I noticed that the lyrics seemed to connect to the film, in how the “I” character sees Withnail going through life. Maybe a student in a community college English class will tease that idea out in an essay at some point.]
[The band’s Noah Green says:
“To Be So Cool” is one of my favorite songs on the album, and it’s a blast to play live. The lyrics just seemed to kind of flow and I didn’t try and overthink writing them at the time. Some months later when I was watching the film Withnail & I for the umpteenth time, I noticed that the lyrics seemed to connect to the film, in how the “I” character sees Withnail going through life. Maybe a student in a community college English class will tease that idea out in an essay at some point.]
[The new album was born against a backdrop of constant upheaval in the band’s hometown. From the election to the fires to the ICE raids, stability in Los Angeles and beyond had never seemed less certain. “There’s a sense of urgency, fear and confusion that comes across in these new songs,” says Johnson. “Like each song might be the last song we write, or this might be the last album. If anything, it’s the most present we’ve ever been.”]
["We all put a piece of ourselves into this album, some combination of our mental, physical, and emotional selves," says Tiger. "Never Felt Bitter is an album only the four of us together could make. It's a push and pull. Discussions, arguments, agreements and trust. I couldn't be more proud of what we worked together to create.”]
LYRICS
It was a good enough afternoon
But we got so doomed
We couldn’t figure out what to do
We got broken like a matchstick
Burned like a heretic
And trampled like a superbloom
You presently saw the moon
And all of its excuses
You got so high you got the fear
And toasted yet again to another year
It wasn't fair it wasn't
But was it all so very cruel
To be so cool
In the ears of the shadows
In the trusted opinions
Little pieces of one big soul
We got burned like a matchstick
Broken like a heretic
And scattered like Larchmont rats
You presently saw the moon
And all of its excuses
You got so high you got the fear
And toasted yet again to another year
It wasn't fair, it wasn't
But was it all so very cruel
To be so cool
To be so cool
I want a proof of life
A proof of plastic
Plastic bones that felt elastic
And plastic bones they break
Just like any other
Brittle things, we’ll put them back together
I want a proof of life
A proof of plastic
Plastic dreams that felt elastic
Plastic dreams they wake
Just like all the others
Little things that pull us close together
Little things that pull us close together
I want a proof of life
A proof of plastic
Plastic dreams that felt elastic
Plastic dreams that felt elastic
[Directed and Produced by Tambi Haron Director of Photography: Nate Klein Recorded at Studio Red, North Hollywood, CA. Produced and Mixed by Jake Gideon. Engineered by Adam Lasus and Jake Gideon Mastering by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering, Chicago The Pretty Flowers are: Noah Green - vocals; guitar Sam Tiger - bass; vocals Jake Gideon - Guitar; Vocals Sean Christopher Johnson - drums; percussion]
It was a good enough afternoon
But we got so doomed
We couldn’t figure out what to do
We got broken like a matchstick
Burned like a heretic
And trampled like a superbloom
You presently saw the moon
And all of its excuses
You got so high you got the fear
And toasted yet again to another year
It wasn't fair it wasn't
But was it all so very cruel
To be so cool
In the ears of the shadows
In the trusted opinions
Little pieces of one big soul
We got burned like a matchstick
Broken like a heretic
And scattered like Larchmont rats
You presently saw the moon
And all of its excuses
You got so high you got the fear
And toasted yet again to another year
It wasn't fair, it wasn't
But was it all so very cruel
To be so cool
To be so cool
I want a proof of life
A proof of plastic
Plastic bones that felt elastic
And plastic bones they break
Just like any other
Brittle things, we’ll put them back together
I want a proof of life
A proof of plastic
Plastic dreams that felt elastic
Plastic dreams they wake
Just like all the others
Little things that pull us close together
Little things that pull us close together
I want a proof of life
A proof of plastic
Plastic dreams that felt elastic
Plastic dreams that felt elastic
Plastic dreams
[Directed and Produced by Tambi Haron Director of Photography: Nate Klein Recorded at Studio Red, North Hollywood, CA. Produced and Mixed by Jake Gideon. Engineered by Adam Lasus and Jake Gideon Mastering by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering, Chicago The Pretty Flowers are: Noah Green - vocals; guitar Sam Tiger - bass; vocals Jake Gideon - Guitar; Vocals Sean Christopher Johnson - drums; percussion]
-Robb Donker Curtius
The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!
https://theprettyflowers.bandcamp.com/album/never-felt-bitter
https://www.instagram.com/the_pretty_flowers
https://www.facebook.com/ThePrettyFlowers/
https://theprettyflowers.net/
The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://theprettyflowers.bandcamp.com/album/never-felt-bitter
https://www.instagram.com/the_pretty_flowers
https://www.facebook.com/ThePrettyFlowers/
https://theprettyflowers.net/
Formed in Los Angeles in 2013, The Pretty Flowers solidified their lineup in 2018: Green (vocals, guitar), Sam Tiger (bass, backing vocals), Jake Gideon (guitar, backing vocals), and Sean Johnson (drums, percussion). Their debut album, Why Trains Crash, arrived that same year to rave reviews, followed by 2023’s A Company Sleeve, which further cemented their reputation for all-killer, no-filler indie rock rooted in melody, grit, and emotional clarity.
Never Felt Bitter is the sound of a band sharpened by hundreds of nights playing bars and clubs across Southern California and beyond. It fuses pop instinct with raw physicality, delivering anthems for outsiders and underdogs with a sense of lived-in authority. The album emerged amid ongoing upheaval in Los Angeles from political unrest to fires to ICE raids, an atmosphere that seeps into its emotional core. “There’s a sense of urgency, fear, and confusion in these songs,” says Johnson. “Like each one might be the last song we write, or this might be the last album. If anything, it’s the most present we’ve ever been.”
Though echoes of The Replacements, Teenage Fanclub, and Wilco surface throughout their catalog, The Pretty Flowers resist nostalgia. Their aim isn’t to chase eras or trends, but to make music that exists outside of time. “When your goals as a band don’t include fame and fortune,” says Gideon, “it gives you the freedom to follow your instincts and focus on the real reasons you were compelled to make art.” Green agrees: “The career is not the point. You make music and place it into the stream of musical history. A release date is just its first day. Maybe it’s picked up now, or maybe 20 years from now but from that point on, it has a life.”
Never Felt Bitter is the sound of a band sharpened by hundreds of nights playing bars and clubs across Southern California and beyond. It fuses pop instinct with raw physicality, delivering anthems for outsiders and underdogs with a sense of lived-in authority. The album emerged amid ongoing upheaval in Los Angeles from political unrest to fires to ICE raids, an atmosphere that seeps into its emotional core. “There’s a sense of urgency, fear, and confusion in these songs,” says Johnson. “Like each one might be the last song we write, or this might be the last album. If anything, it’s the most present we’ve ever been.”
Though echoes of The Replacements, Teenage Fanclub, and Wilco surface throughout their catalog, The Pretty Flowers resist nostalgia. Their aim isn’t to chase eras or trends, but to make music that exists outside of time. “When your goals as a band don’t include fame and fortune,” says Gideon, “it gives you the freedom to follow your instincts and focus on the real reasons you were compelled to make art.” Green agrees: “The career is not the point. You make music and place it into the stream of musical history. A release date is just its first day. Maybe it’s picked up now, or maybe 20 years from now but from that point on, it has a life.”
The Pretty Flowers, alt rock, indie rock, emo rock, emo punk, power pop, skater, mosh pop, "To Be So Cool" (Official Video), hyper kinetic indie rock, post punk, new album "Never Felt Bitter", Los Angeles based,
No comments:
Post a Comment