I don’t even know why they asked me to do this review. All my friends know that they can’t talk to me about music. I can’t help the fact that I truly do believe that most of the music young people are doing these days is total trash. It’s almost like this was a test or some kind of weird experiment. It was like your fearless editor and chief wanted to see if I would be merciful to whatever obscure hipster-ass piece of sound he’d throw my way or if I’d take a massive dump on it forever sealing my fate as the elitist prick that I’ve already willing branded myself. Ok! Tropical Popsicle. Here we go. The chorus of the first track is one big crescendo with three or four chords morphing into each other nicely. It reminded me of the end of a choir song in church. The second track – in keeping with that churchy feel – has a resonant organ playing a comforting melody throughout the entire song and it was a bit more psychedelic than the first tune I listened to. This made me like the second track better. All in all, I guess I’m not as big of an asshole as I thought because I actually ended up liking this band. These guys have good instrumentation, good dynamics, original composition, and catchy tunes. So there you go. Tropical Popsicle: liked by an asshole.
Red Lotus Revue is the band you’ve wanted to be in ever since the first time you got stoned and held a Stratocaster. Lo-fi blues standards (Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin’Wolf, M. W. Jacobs), recorded in Spring Valley and played by guys with names like Karl Cabbage and Jimmy Zollo. Straight ahead soul-heavy nitty-gritty blues perfect for postmidnight whiskey spilling and smoking too much, pining for that almond-eyed brunette lightly smattered in summer freckles who still haunts you in dreams waving slow motion farewells from the caboose of a mournful locomotive.