It took the dredges of adulthood and a global pandemic to encourage Today is Tomorrow to reform their now-21-year-old high school band after a 10-year hiatus that saw the members grow up, get jobs, buy houses, get married, divorced, recover from a horrendous accident, grow apart and then rekindle their friendships and first love: making progressive punk rock music in a musty basement together.
“It’s just incredible to still be playing with your friends 21 years later,” vocalist and guitarist Jarrod Pimentel says. “Zero lineup changes, same basement… some better gear but some of the same.”
Today is Tomorrow started on Aquidneck Island in 2001, playing many shows in the local punk scene at the time. While their peers tended toward more straightforward punk, they decided to challenge themselves by including tempo changes, unique chord progressions, and baring their developing emo teenage souls lyrically. They had a good run in the local scene until 2005, when they cut down on playing shows but continued to have monthly jams in the basement of drummer Chris Correia’s family home.
That changed in 2010, when guitarist Chris Catalan (Cat) got married and moved to Colorado, which led to him and Pimentel losing touch until 2020. “Correia and I were a few beers deep and he convinced me to reach out to Cat,” Pimentel says of their revived relationship. “I called, we bawled, and started texting pretty much daily again while he was still in Colorado.”
Bassist and bucket-hatted enigma, Bill Medeiros, had also just gone through some gut-wrenching life changes and jumped at the chance to regenerate the band. They got together in that same basement, now owned by Correia, and got to work relearning old songs. This got their creative juices flowing, leading to the production of new songs that were similar to the NOFX meets Saves the Day and Hot Water Music while being narrated by Jack Kerouac style that they crafted years prior, but now with added life experience.
They went to New Alliance Studio to work with producer Chris Johnson (Worshipper, Leather Lung, Crescent Ridge, Summoner) on their debut album, Second Guest, which came out April 15 on 75orLess Records. The songs portray both the youth and wisdom that the two incarnations of the band brought to the table. The technical musicianship and sing-along anthems latch onto the listener’s ear, leaving behind little emo earworms.
“It’s really our second go at it all -we’re boring middle-aged dudes now with houses, current and ex-wives, mortgages, real straight jobs, and retirement plans,” Pimentel concludes. “This is our second chance with the band to really do what we want after letting it go so many years ago.”
For more on the new release, click here.
Today is Tomorrow is:
Jarrod Pimentel-guitar, vocals
Chris Catalan-guitar
Bill Medeiros-bass
Chris Correia-drums, vocals