Tomorrows Tulips Blossom with New Album

While many young bands eagerly await the day that they're able to record in the big, professional studio and get out of their garage, Alex Knost and Christina Kee learned the merits of keeping it simple. Tomorrows Tulips began recording their debut album, Eternally Teenage, at Costa Mesa's The Distillery with friend Mike McHugh on reel to reel tape. After recording half of the album analog, the duo headed up to a studio that shall remain nameless in San Francisco, per the recommendation of Galaxia Records, to finish up the last half of the album. The result was underwhelming to Knost and Kee. Singer Knost attributes this to a variety of reasons, among them the value of recording analog.

They then decided to come back home and finish the album where they started. The end product is Eternally Teenage, a 14 song album more suited to their sparse and sweet lo-fi sound. We spoke to singer Knost in anticipation of his new album, out Tuesday, and show Saturday at Burger Records in Fullerton.

See the interview after the jump!

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Is that a permanent addition to the lineup?
The band in general is ever changing. It's the nice part about being a two-piece. We can play just as a two piece in a bookstore in a quiet environment and we can put the accents and the frosting on if you want to play bars where everyone's drunk, you know?

You've toured across the country with Japanese Motors. What's the best part of playing in Orange County?
There's a lot of really great bands. You go to some cities and theirs a lot of separation because people move to places like New York or Los Angeles to persue a career in music- and that's great because you come across people and new ideas. But in Orange County, a lot of the people you see over and over and you watch people's music develop- everyone's taste and style change. You feed off that energy. A lot of guys we play music with played in other bands and it's a nice community. Everyone more or less gets along. It's exciting; it's stimulating.
     Orange County, in relationship to Los Angeles, comes off as the red headed step-child but it creates a really cool modest sensibility about the place. No one has an ego.
 
Where's your favorite place to play locally?
House parties are what keep the community going. When the Growlers have shows at their warehouse, it's really cool because it's less of a business, you know? It's hard for a venue to be able to pay a band and let all their friends in for free and give away drinks for free because a lot of the kids don't have money to- well, if they can even get it because they're probably underage, right? They don't have $9 for beer. Or you can go to the liquor store on 19th Street and get beer for $2. House parties are more affordable and more accessable.

Tomorrows Tulips performs Saturday with Dirt Dress at Burger Records, 645 S. State College Blvd., Fullerton. (714) 336-0561. 4 p.m. All Ages. Please don't park in front on their neighbors.

Also, Tomorrows Tulips performs Sunday with Dirt Dress, Allah Las, and Black Sea at the Prospector, 2400 E. 17th St., Long Beach, (562) 438-3839. 10 p.m., $5. 21+