Tadaima

Whatever Feels Good (2016)

badseed

Tadaima is (or perhaps was by now) a bassless San Jose trio featuring guitarists Bob Vielma, of Shinobu, Gnarboots and Boboso fame, and Yui Fukunuga, and ex-Joyce Manor drummer Kurt Walcher.

Whatever Feels Good is their only recorded output, a short, sharp 5-song EP released in late 2016 on Vielma’s own Phat ‘N’ Phunky Records, and given a new lease of life on Quote Unquote Records this year because it seems Jeff Rosenstock is contractually obliged to release or reissue anything and everything Shinobu-related. Not that I’m complaining, mind you.

“There’s a big hole where your dreams should be”, begins the opening track, a cover of cult English indie band Mega City Four’s “Start”, the gloomy lyric contrasting nicely with the sunny, fast-paced pop punk on offer.

Track two finds Vielma covering himself, as the band rattle through a version of “The Martian Chronicles”, originally by Gnarboots. It sounds not unlike the Queers in those rare moments when they play it straight, drop the sweary abuse and write songs that don’t send you diving for the skip button if your kids are around.

“Ty Cobb” (not a Soundgarden cover) is a little more textured, with some welcome harshness in Vielma’s vocals, but the title track is the pick of the bunch. While other songs merely hint at early Weezer, “Whatever Feels Good” sounds like a Blue Album b-side in the best possible way. Here too there’s a little shade to go with the light, as Vielma declares “tomorrow’s gonna be worse than yesterday… and yesterday was shit”. This is the only song that breaks the two-minute barrier, largely thanks to an unexpectedly tasty guitar solo.

“California Love” (not a Tupac cover) brings the record to a close in less than 10 minutes, Vielma rhapsodising about “a bottle of rum and my best friend on the train”. Like much of the EP it sounds pleasantly familiar (in this case because I’m sure the riff also showed up somewhere on Shinobu’s 10 Thermidor) without being overly derivative.

Whatever Feels Good is a fast grower of a record – the songs go from mildly diverting to stuck-in-your-head-for-days within a couple of listens. It’s pop punk, but it’s not your dime a dozen Ramonescore. It’s less snotty and more sincere, a little fuzzier, a little more inventive. If they’re not exactly reinventing the pop punk wheel, they’re at least tinkering with the spokes – maybe adding some of those cheap plastic LED decorations you used to get in cereal packets in the 80s and 90s. Like most of what both Phat ‘N’ Phunky and Quote Unquote put out, it’s worth a listen.