HEARTWATCH

As presented on “Fireproof” from their upcoming Wind House EP, San Francisco indie rockers the Tropics play exultantly poppy blood-pumping music that bears traces of everything from Scandinavian pop to disco-punk to classic ’90s alt-rock. It’s like Love Is All with the jagged edges smoothed out, blasted to U2′s arena-sized scope. Director Frank Door’s video for the song is a shot-for-shot remake of Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch’s “Good Vibrations” video, which is hilarious. Watch it below. - Stereogum

The Tropics
If you’re burning for high-energy indie pop, then check out the Tropics. The San Francisco band came together in January 2013, and they perform Friday to celebrate the release of their debut EP, “Wind House.” - SF Gate

Art must never stop.

Music must always keep going. There will never be a perfect song. There will never be perfect lyrics. There will never be the perfect composition, but we must move on.

It is not often you find a song that plays to this subject, but I found The Tropics new The Tropics_Sleepless Videorelease, “Sons and Daughters,” addressing this very situation. The song addresses it in every way possible.

The Tropics are a band based out of San Francisco, CA. As stated on their website, “Sons and Daughters plunges into the deep end of the final years in a classic coming of age story – years in which the nights are long and, for the first time, the potential for regret is fearfully discovered.”

Regret. A concept that goes hand in hand with progress.

Claire George’s vocals have a hint of anger, frustration, but most importantly, through regret, she has found a new identity. This is also highlighted through the “distance” you feel when listening to her vocals. She is singing right in your ear, yet the message is coming out of a well. The listener must discover it and make it their own, thus furthering this songs impact beyond a single message.

trop-sd-smThe composition of the music has the same effect. The song contains great guitar rifts, yet there is a rhythmic element that is knocking on dance’s door. It also shows through the songs complete change in deposition between the verses and chorus.

Through the expressed regret in this song, there is a glimmer of hope. Although it may not be explicitly laid out in the lyrics, the message is one of moving forward and to create something new. The essence of music and art.

The combination is excellent. The new found artistry is apparent. But you can’t catch the message.

It keeps moving on. - Vinyl Vortex OK

Further proof that San Francisco is again the go to city for right-on sounds. The Tropics come out swingin’ with their single Fireproof from the new album Wind House (Breakup) out 28 October. A near mirror image of Marky Mark’s 1991 cringe fest video Good Vibrations, their fresh video supplies an almost surreal backdrop to the real story. The Tropics bring the infectious garage-pop cool!

The Tropic’s Claire George recently filled us in on the track/video, “The song is one of our favorites off the new record “Wind House”, and was a song that changed significantly when we got into the studio and experimented with it. The video was incredibly fun to make, we were bouncing ideas around and were watching the Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch Good Vibrations video a lot, and just went for it! It took a ton of planning to recreate that video shot for shot. The guys in the band actually learned all those dance moves by watching the original video in slow motion and then practicing for weeks, that’s actually them dancing!”

We can dig it! We’ll be catching up with The Tropics very soon. Until then check out the video for the track you’ll have bouncing around your cranial cavity all day… - Global Texan Chronicles

San Francisco band The Tropics are releasing their debut EP, Wind House, on October 28th via Breakup Records. Their indie pop sound has been labeled as “exultantly poppy blood-pumping music” by Stereogum, who recently premiered the video for the band’s latest single, “Fireproof”. It’s great because the video for “Fireproof” is a complete cover of the video for “Good Vibrations” by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. - Groove Loves Melody

The Tropics have been on a video rampage of late, dropping shorts for two tracks off their forthcoming EP Wind House – first for “Sons & Daughters” and then last week a new video for “Fireproof” – in the last month alone. While we’ve now heard those two songs plus “Sleepless” (which the band released a video for back in May), The Tropics have yet to unveil the album en totale … until now.

Yes, we here at The Bay Bridged are ecstatic to be giving you the first full listen to Wind House, which is now streaming on Bandcamp before it officially drops next Tuesday, October 28 on Portland-via-Oakland label Breakup Records. Driven by Claire George’s stirring vocal performances, the five-track release is full of deliciously rich indie pop, replete with jangly guitars and a hepped up rhythm section.

Stream Wind House below, and then check out details on The Tropics’ upcoming SF show, an October 24 stop at Rickshaw Stop supporting Allo Darlin’ that doubles as their record release party. - The Bay Bridged

They’re saying that today is a holiday, but is it really a holiday if you still have to go work? Columbus Day? Indigenous People’s Day? Do we even know what we’re celebrating?! If you find yourself perplexed, unsure of whether you’re supposed to be heading to the office or if some cosmic force is simply toying with your dreams of a three-day weekend, than this week’s Musical Monday is undoubtedly for you.

The Tropics brand-new video for “Fireproof” may also instill a sense of confusion, but for reasons exponentially more delightful; a video that inspires the same sort of déjà vu as when that cute redhead you were checking out on Tinder might have just walked right by you in the organic exotic greens section of your local food co-op.

If you find yourself thinking, “I”ve totally seen this video before!” then you’re half-right. Working with the director Frank Door, the San Francisco indie rockers have recreated, shot-by-shot, the video for Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch’s 1991 hit “Good Vibrations.” (Yes, that is Mark Wahlberg).

Although the videos are brilliantly similar, the song “Fireproof” makes a statement all its own. Led by singer Claire George, the band gallops and stomps their way through three minutes of rollicking rock and roll. While the guitars’ coordinated riffs brings to mind garage-rock bands like the Strokes, the soaring chorus is the kind of melodic perfection that Stevie Nicks would jump on in a second. We can only imagine how much fun the band had making the video; on this day of utter confusion, hopefully it will bring you some joy, too.

“Fireproof” appears on the Tropics upcoming Wind House EP, out 10/28 on Breakup Records. Watch the Tropics “Fireproof” video, and Marky Mark’s original, below. - The Kitchen Sisters

The previous day saw a high in the 80s in San Francisco, but now that the sun has begun to set over a park in fully-gentrified Hayes Valley, the wind picks up as four of the five members of local indie pop group HEARTWATCH gather over Smitten frozen-nitrogen ice cream.

“People love to talk about how bands are leaving, everyone is leaving, San Francisco and getting priced out—and it’s true,” says vocalist Claire George. “A lot of musicians have left. I have a lot of friends who are leaving, still. We’re hanging on, and it’s cool because we feel really supported by the community.”

Becoming priced out of San Francisco is not unique to artists, but they are one of the more affected groups, with many musicians choosing Los Angeles, where the cost of rent is lower, and affordable practice spaces are easier to find. Those who’ve chosen to stick it out in NorCal have done it in part with the support of fans and their peers. Last month, at the Outside Lands music festival, a large group of HEARTWATCH fans chartered a bus and arrived with bunches of sunflowers for the band’s 12 p.m. slot, the first of the day. Many of them had been to every one of HEARTWATCH’s shows over the past couple of years, when they were known, until recently, as The Tropics.

“We’ve felt nothing but ridiculous support from the San Francisco music scene,” says guitarist-keyboardist Eric Silverman. “Everyone has been really into the band. We go see (other local acts’) shows, they come out to see our shows. People really care. People love music here.”

For now, they all have day jobs. George has a part-time engagement as a forensic accountant, working on anticorruption cases. Silverman will only say that he’s in the “ice cream business,” and may or may not have a side job as a magician. Guitarist Rowan Peter has worked at restaurants and also teaches guitar. Bassist Nate Skelton works in finance. Drummer Kern Sigala, the only one not able to make this get-together, manages a sporting goods store.

The band was built out of friendships new and old. Silverman and Skelton attended Santa Clara University together, where they played in various Grateful Dead-loving jam bands. They lost touch after school, before bumping into each a couple of years later at a concert. Silverman invited Skelton to join the early incarnation of the band.

Skelton and Sigala played together in another college band. When The Tropics needed a drummer, he was the first to get the call. Silverman met George when both tried out for another band on Craigslist. They decided they liked the company of each other more than the band for which they were auditioning.

“Then, Ro came in the mix, and that’s when I think things got real,” Silverman says. Adds Skelton, “It was this crazy energy that immediately started happening. Everybody was just so excited to play again. We couldn’t wait to practice.”
That’s when Silverman realized he would cross a lot of firsts off the list with his band mates: Their first experience to tour—at least the Bay Area, their first band to write music with depth and variety, and their first band to look at music as a career option.



Perhaps the most excited of all was George, who not only had never performed in public, but had never been in another band. She admits to being green, but her outgoing personality and natural stage presence was perfectly suited to lead a band.

She’d wanted to be a singer since she was a young girl, but never had any formal training. An inability to read music kept her out of school choirs and performances. Then, a love of high school sports took over—to the surprise of her band mates, she now admits to being a high school national championship-qualifying rower—and that took up her time. But she never stopped singing.

“I’d been singing my whole life in cars to Mariah Carey and Fiona Apple,” she says.

After graduating from USC, she moved to San Francisco and was working in accounting, from which she needed a creative outlet. In the end, that’s what brought her together with Silverman.

“Eric had to pull me out of my shell a little bit,” she says. “In terms of confidence on stage … being able to hit our notes and belt, and sing in front of the boys, I was very shy at first. I would have to have a few glasses of wine before practice.”

The band’s stature in the Bay Area began to grow, both quickly and organically. As The Tropics, they released their first EP, Wind House, in late 2014. The record’s five songs evoke various pop elements, from the ‘70s through today. Attendance at live shows began to grow. They got a prized slot performing at the Outside Lands music festival.

But right before the summer, they had to deal with their biggest challenge to-date—not rising rents, but a legal standoff with English electronic/chillwave musician Tropics, who’d beaten them to the name by two years. Shortly after starting the band and putting up a Facebook page in 2012, they were messaged by a representative for the English Tropics and asked to change their name. They dealt with it by adding a “the” in front of their name, and thought it was the end of the encounter.

“We really didn’t think it mattered, and … part of it too was we really didn’t know where this (band) was going to go,” Silverman says.

Instead of getting nervous, they were flattered that someone overseas now knew who they were. They weren’t afraid of any legal action, Skelton explains: “We were so young that we had no aspirations of being known outside of our friendship group. You don’t really have to worry about it until you start making any money, really. He could try to sue us—we (didn’t) have any money.”

The band believed it was the end of the confrontation, and were completely wrong in their assessment. The English artist’s management reached out again, this time threatening legal action, when the two acts both had shows at the same in San Francisco venue within a month of each other late last spring.

This time, the band had money to lose, and their hands were forced because they had a packed summer schedule that involved two festivals, including Outside Lands, from which they didn’t want to lose any steam.

They decided to rip off the Band-Aid.

“You pick (a band name) without really thinking about it,” Silverman said. “You don’t realize that when that’s attached to you for two or three years, you become attached to it from an identity perspective. If we’re not that, who are we?”

They decided to make the best of the situation presented to them, and working together, chose HEARTWATCH, the name of one of their early, unreleased songs. As added benefits, they’re unlikely to have to deal with gig posters full of palm trees, rainbows and sunsets, and were given a chance to rebrand after already knowing the direction in which their music is heading.

“It takes a band time to figure out what they sound like, you know?” Skelton says. “When you start a band, you try to sound like something but then you really grow into something unique and original.”

The big new name reveal came following a few songs at a sold-out show—the same one where the English Tropics would perform a few weeks later. The frantic decision to do so was made at a 10 p.m. practice the previous night in Silverman’s garage, Peter said.

As the crowd was buzzing about one of San Francisco’s best up-and-coming bands, George stopped to speak. Says Skelton: “It was very nerve-racking. The first sentence out of (her) mouth made it sound like we were breaking up.”

“Claire said, ‘This is the last time you’ll ever see The Tropics,’” Peter adds.

The crowd began murmuring, and then the room grew tense. Then, the screen behind the band flashed their new name and logo.

“I’ve never felt more vulnerable in my entire life,” George recalls.

The speed bump has proved to be minor, and the quintet has recovered, going so far as to make a name change kit for fans, complete with stickers to ease the transition between The Tropics and HEARTWATCH.

In the coming months, the band will undertake their first real tour of West Coast cities, with their sights set on the country next year. A debut album, recorded in the last few months at Portland’s Jackpot! Recording Studio, will follow later this year or early next. They’ve already released one song that should appear on the album, the new wave-driven, shimmering “Faultlines.”



Like many of their newer songs, it was written with all five of them playing together in the same room until the melody presented itself.

“There are other songs (where) someone will bring an idea in and we’ll flesh it out more,” Peter said, “Everyone will add their part and we’ll talk about where we think it’s going and what needs to happen.”

Typically, a guitar riff comes first during songwriting. If they’re not in the same room at inception, they’ll email various parts to each other for opinions and suggestions.

Peter is responsible for many of these emailed missives, while Silverman has hundreds of voice memo inspirations recorded on his phone that would cause massive embarrassment if ever released into the world.

George works on the lyrics either at the same time as the band works on the melodies, or afterward.

“While they’re jamming, I’m basically scat-singing over stuff,” she says. “I can’t really write around other people yet. I usually go home and listen and work with the music and struggle and torture myself in my bedroom at night.”

Musically, the songs are a cohesive unit and should not surprise fans of the EP, Skelton says. Thematically, they will be a mix of pop love songs and songs about the energy the band members share as collaborators and friends—about “us having courage as a band to go for things and hoping other people feel the courage to do those kinds of things,” George says. - Paste Magazine

Local Indie-poppers The Tropics are set to release their debut EP “Wind House” with Breakup Records on the 28th of October, and are gearing up to do it in style. In addition to playing a show at El Rio (one of this author’s favorite places to make questionable choices under the cover of palm trees) on September 11th, they just dropped this absurdly dope video.

Filmed in 48 hours during The Music Video Race, and featuring both strong vocals and a dude fist-slamming a cake, the video for Sons & Daughters attempts to “uphold the timeless essence of the city.”

The slow motion shot of a band member licking an unknown colorful substance off a mannequin head makes a strong case for the video’s success. - Uptown Almanac

From San Francisco comes the five piece band of The Tropics. With their debut Wind House EP dropping on October 28th, the band released today the single Fireproof. A blood aching indie rock little gem that aims to be heard massively, calling to mind bands like Sons & Daughters (they actually do have a song with that name!) and Love Is All but emitting a pop n’ roll installed energy that’s hard to find out there! But if somehow you erase all the above, the video alone is a reason why to put them on your list, Marky Mark's Good Vibrations is replaced by The Tropics's Fireproof directed by Frank Door!!! - Sound Injections

You might recall I shared the video for this song some weeks back, but now that the band’s released a stream of the track on SoundCloud and re-issued a new cut of the video, I’m here to spread the love again. The Tropics hails from my beloved city of San Francisco, and they certainly swept me away the moment I heard their song Sons & Daughters. It’s a bewitching indie rock tune with some very dark undertones and freak folk style. Sons & Daughters is The Tropics’ latest single. It will be on their debut EP Wind House, out October 28 on Breakup Records. The video for the tune was created during the filmmakers meet indie bands process of an annual contest in San Francisco named Music Video Race. This is the second MVR video I’ve featured today so far. I’m on a roll. - I Heart Moosiq

From their forthcoming debut release, Wind House, which comes out October 28th on Breakup Records, The Tropics are here with a new video (for a new single) titled “Sons and Daughters.”

The Tropics, along with the help of Prav Potu and Adam Warmington, put together the video for “Sons and Daughters” as part of the Music Video Race that took place in San Francisco this summer. The clip is beautiful decadent and visually captivating (including the whole paint everywhere part). The entire band is decked out in all white attire in an all white room, and the middle of the video finds the group splattering paint all over the room and each other in slow motion.

The song is similarly rich, featuring a very subtle sound that highlights front woman Claire George’s powerful vocals. There’s a beating pulse, that erupts into a slow, dazed fury that is delicate and spectacular. - The Bay Bridged