Carpool Tunnel - Bloom (2021)

Like many 21st-century relationships, ?CARPOOL TUNNEL ?started with the swipe of an app. Just two weeks after an ad for Vampr hailed as Tinder for musicians came across Daniel Stauffers phone in 2017, the Bay Area drummer was in the studio along with two fellow Vampr users, guitarist Bradley Kearsley and singer/guitarist Ben Koppenjan, recording their debut single Afterlight with Grammy-nominated producer Billy Mohler. One new member bassist Spencer Layne and a $400 Craigslist van later, the brilliantly named band hit the road, bringing their California cool aesthetic and classically retro sound up and down the coast. In this live setting, free-wheeling and bereft of perfectionist attitudes, the quartet began laying the foundation for their long-awaited debut full-length album, ?BLOOM?. The album?, ?due out February 26, 2021, on Pure Noise Records, puts Carpool Tunnels sandbar psychedelic sound on full display, swirling 60s and 70s-era classic rock and blues with the sunny sounds of SoCal-soaked surf rock to create something thats both nostalgic and fresh. Months of road-testing the albums X tracks in front of fervent audiences imbued a sense of spontaneity and looseness into the songs, letting them effortlessly evolve into the versions heard on the album. Across the set, the band brings the California coast to life through breezy rhythms and soothing melodies, from the slinky, bossa nova-flavored Tarot Cards to the bouncy, angular Flora. The first single Empty Faces, a longtime staple of the bands live set, is perhaps the best representation of Carpool Tunnels juxtaposition of classic and contemporary. Atop doo-wop charm and fuzzed-out guitars, Koppenjan muses about the state of relationships in the modern age a muddied mix of emotions no other generation has been forced to confront. We all have people from our past [that] you dont really talk to anymore but still have a strange connection to, he explains. You might follow them on social media or have photos of them. You know nothing about them now but still feel connected to them because you see them all the time. The songs on ?BLOOM ?are of that same uncertainty, about navigating lifes newness and seemingly omnipresent obstacles heading into adulthood. Theyre sentiments and situations the band experienced firsthand in 2018 after moving in together in San Francisco. As responsibilities like school and day jobs piled up next to the more joyous task of writing an album, the close quarters taught the members a lot about themselves and one another. We were all trying to come out of adolescence and find ourselves, Koppenjan says of the mindset while writing the album. The message we came up with was, Like a flower, you too shall bloom. We were all blooming into ourselves and finding our sound at the same time. With ?BLOOM? under the belt, the band members arent wasting any time thinking about the future. The current pandemic and nationwide lockdown have left