NFV Song Spotlight: Slowpoke's Tiki Dream

I was doing some research about a particular Rocknite LA event at The Goldfish. I was like, okay, I've seen Cartalk a handful of times. I've seen Maddie Ross. Who's this Slowpoke band? I took a look at their Instagram page and the faces looked familiar. Of course, this being Los Angeles, it was very possible that I just recognized the faces from other bands. That is, in fact, true when it comes to Tamara Simons who plays in the band Goon that I've followed for a number of years. When I took a look at their Instagram page, they only had 20-ish posts with their first post coming in 2022. Hmm. I decided to take a look at their tagged photos. There were a lot more photos and as I scrolled through I finally came up with the answer. Yes, I did know this band. They were previously playing under the name New Media. 

Slowpoke at The Goldfish

Why did they change their band name? That, I wasn't able to locate, but it does appear that the band remains intact. I interviewed New Media back in 2018 and you might find it interesting on how the band met:

Q. What's the story behind how your band started? A. A very American mix of fate and boredom. Zach Noel (lead singer/guitar) posted a Craigslist ad looking for someone, Jack Meighan (bass), answered. They immediately hit it off, talked about old Wilco records, and started jamming. Tamara Simons (guitar) joined as another guitarist who had a history of playing music with Zach from high school. Julien Nicolai (drums) joined the band May 2018 because we thought 2 guys with glasses weren't enough. 

Slowpoke at The Goldfish

With the 2024-2025 NBA basketball season heading towards a close, I've got to say that I'm not sure how this band sticks together. During the set, Simons asked for someone to come up to the stage and give a thumbs up if the Los Angeles Lakers had won their game against the Denver Nuggets. The Lakers did win that game. It was a game of players sitting to get some rest for the playoffs. The Nuggets were sitting Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. As for the Lakers, one might question if LeBron James was still dealing with his groan injury or if the Lakers were keeping him on the sideline for a couple more games to give him rest before the playoffs. At the end of the set, Simons mentioned that the whole band was from Los Angeles except for Meighan. After getting a friendly catcall about this, responded, "I'm going to turn him into a Celtics fan." How has this band been together since 2018? 

Slowpoke at The Goldfish

This band plays loud rock music. They showed it off in their first song of the set "Tiki Dream." The song has the big riffs and the expected retro 1990s rock vocals. Playing the consummate front man, Noel put on a show. As the song came to a close, he did an intro of Simons and then the two went into a brief guitar battle, which ended with him taking a leaping jump and some head slams towards their drummer Nicolai. All that send his glasses flying. He played the last few beats of the song with a bit more care as the glasses landed right next to his feet, "I rocked too hard." A song about keeping hope alive.

Cynic that I am
Sliver of an optimist within me
Remain in the dark and to what end?
Time to clear the scraps and debris

Slowpoke at The Goldfish

The band got an encore, in a way. They thought they were finished and were just about to pack things up. The sound guy quickly spoke up via the sound monitors and told the band they could play another song. Simons responded, "It's like an encore. Thank you, so much." The band closed it out by playing their 2022 release "Slackers." An anthem rock song to end the set.