The Pomps shouldn’t exist right now.   Their members already play with established bands; They have spent most of the decade since their formation on hiatus, and they keep starting families.  Yet, at its best, the act of playing music is as addictive as any substance, and these four gentleman from Boston’s growing sprawl recognize what a travesty it would be to leave their catalogue lacking a proper full-length.  

“Bottom of the Pomps” (the band’s first release for Bad Time Records) isn’t really a sequel to 2012’s mini LP “Top of the Pomps”, but, it is an appropriate title for an album from a band working with very low stakes.  Its not the proverbial “nothing left to lose”, its just the relief of working no expectations.  The result is, to put it bluntly, gorgeous.  A band whose lyrics were previously acid-tongued screeds against the thriving American right wing have found a way to celebrate fatherhood, laugh at the absurdities of being in a band in (EARLY!) middle age, and leave their aged and petty grievances to history.

Sonically, the band uses 2tone ska and early reggae as the backbone for overdubs informed by the glory days of British Indie (sorry to “think blank meets blank”, but, think “the Housemartins meet The Upsetters”, but also, feel free to imagine ANY 2 bands that you like).  But, the band members have learned so much from touring as members of Big D and the Kids Table (Ska Punk Legends),  Have Nots and Stray Bullets (Ska Punk SHOULDA BEEN Legends) and Westbound Train ( in the process of becoming Traditional Ska/Rocksteady Legends), that the man hours alone keep this record dipped on the Ska side of the Ska/Indie divide that I just made up.    It is a wild 42 minute journey through swirly guitar jangles, bubbling organs, stories of hope and petty theft,  and, yes, LEAD BASS, that is guided by experienced and steady hands.  “Bottom of the Pomps” puts to bed any of the aforementioned existential questions about the band, because, with this LP, the band can finally say it will last forever.