Triptides – In session – March 26, 2017 – Daytrotter
Triptides in session at Daytrotter. Recorded on March 26, 2017. Still keeping with L.A. bands of current vintage, Triptides may be a cheat in some respects. The band actually began life as a bedroom project in Bloomington Indiana in 2010, before migrating west around 2014. From that point on, they’ve been closely associated with the L.A. music scene and are gaining a goodly amount of buzz, based on a lot of touring, including that trek across the Atlantic to do a whole host of dates in Europe this year.
Ironically, they are an opening act for the UK band Temples, a band Triptides most closely resembles – and that’s a good comparison. I am of the strong opinion that Temples have been a band to keep an eye on the past few years now, and they are gathering a heavy following – so it’s a good match and good for Triptides making new fans.
So what are they like? One of the things that really annoys me about the current state of music journalism is this obsession with saying a new artist is a cross between two other artists. What that does is effectively nullify the artist in question’s bid for being a new voice on the horizon – they get pigeon-holed before they get started. And I think it’s unfair to the up-and-coming artist to have that restriction put on them even before they’ve had a chance to prove themselves.
That said – Triptides borrows from a lot of different places – and it’s only fitting they make L.A. their home, because the vibe and structure of their music very much fits into that L.A. Sound of the mid-late 1960s. It was a good sound and an honest sound and you can do a whole lot worse than hooking up to The Byrds or Arthur Lee and Love as a role model. But they are not an Arthur Lee derivative, nor are they derivative of Baby Lemonade, the band that carried on Arthur Lee’s tradition. They use the platform as a stepping off point.
And The Temples resemblance is one of phrasing and instrumentation, which is perfectly okay. With five albums to their credit, I think you can agree Triptides is no passing fancy – they started off as a bedroom project and it got serious.
To get an idea of what they sound like live, hit the play button and give a listen to this session they did last year for Daytrotter. And check out their website.
