Bakersfield pop punk band Tripline has new CD out - By N.L. Belardes

I was there for the dawn of MTV. All I had to do was sit in my parents’ living room with a bag of Oreos and watch the TV music age enter a new era. You got a sense you were listening to music that not many people ever heard. I loved that feeling.

Didn’t matter that our TV was a piece of crap. Didn’t matter that we were poor, or that we could have graced the poster for a dysfunctional family in a broken home. The videos didn’t care who watched them: rich, poor, whatever. They played for 24 hours, non-stop, throughout my entire screwed up youth to anyone who had access.

Today, music videos aren’t any fun on MTV. I go to youtube for that, even to local Bakersfield band sites where youtube videos keep me plugged in.

I digress. This isn’t a blog about videos. It’s about connections.

There’s a new local 9-song CD out in the pop punk genre by Bakersfield band, Tripline titled Right There. Rural rock punk? Maybe. Pop punk? Certainly. Either way, it’s local fun punk ala The Filthies, The Pants and Dirty Spanglish. There’s a lot of hardcore punk in Bakersfield, but not too much fun pop punk.



And yet I can’t help but feel the MTV connection with this music. It’s Big Country, 1983—that’s what I’m thinking about, minus the bagpipes, accents and gimmicks. It’s the harmonies and melodies of Stuart Anderson reminiscent in lead singer, Spencer’s deep voice, guitar chords and guitar solos that remind me of that old Big Country Scottish debut on the video circuit.

Another Oreo please.

That was me after school: Oreos and MTV.

I’m still just as boring.

Tripline is one of those bands with catchy songs that if they were on MTV after school, I would listen in.


Even puccas like Tripline! Beware angry puccas.

I talked to lead singer Spencer the other day about connecting to youth. It’s the problem with local bands and even Noveltown. How do you get music to today’s youth in a town where most people are afraid of downtown? (hint: if our city cleaned up the downtown image, there would be a strong resurgence of people interested in a wide variety of downtown culture).

Kids would love Tripline (check them out on myspace).

But kids are too busy at the marketplace to realize what they need to tap into locally.

Tripline’s song “Broken” is probably my favorite and grabs me like Big Country used to in those after school music-filled moments. “…broken dreams. Chasing down the reason, but the reason is you. Get out there and chase it cause it’s something you can do.”

That’s almost an old Big Country line… The message is clean, strong and well-packaged.

“Problems” is a song about helping someone, but that someone needing to understand that everyone has problems. It’s a great message for a song that could really empower today’s youth. A thought changing song in today’s era where we all want to blame each other, or cry too much about our problems. Who doesn’t have problems, right?

There are a few slow songs on the CD: “Yesterday,” and “By My Side” are slow songs without the pop punk distortion of the rest of the album’s striking hooks and riffs. Chicks will dig the message of the slow songs. I tend to skip to the fast music and power riffs.

“Lose Myself” declares, “I’m going to save myself from me again”. We’re our own worst enemy. A good message for today’s society that constantly needs to pull itself together. Stuart Anderson of Big Country could have listened. He hung himself in Nashville in December of 2001.


Yes, Puccas and Tripline... try them, they're fun!

I dig the speed of track 8, “Until Your Last Breath” and the last song, “Right There”. The final song on the CD has those Big Country harmonies and drumbeats that I loved so much. “I just want to let you know, I’ll be right there. I’ll be right there… for you…” comes the lyrics. It’s a passionate triumphant pop punk melody that hints on love, longing and the strength of being together. The song pile drives a great solo near the end that makes me spin the song at least twice.

Tripline doesn’t have the Scottish tones and bagpipes of Big Country—and that’s OK, we’re nowhere close to Scotland and the U.K. Tripline is more of a rural rock punk Bakersfield sound that comes driving right out of each song. It’s the ag countryside and oiltown angst, only in this case, clean fun pop punk…

I tried to contact the band to ask some questions but didn't get a reply. Maybe Spencer will answer in the comments section...

Tripline performed recently at the Kern County Fair and sold a pile of CDs. You can pick one up at their next show… or just contact them on myspace.com.

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Monday, October 09, 2006. You can leave your response.