where is my tomato

Englishmen hard at work:

Some reasons I love Gomez:

1. They are English: This is self-explanatory, really. But what’s also nice is that they’re not all in England — Ian lives in Los Angeles, Olly lives in New York, and the rest are in Brighton. What’s even more exciting than the British are British expatriates living nearer by. There’s just something intriguing about people who end up in a place where they didn’t grow up.

2. Ian, Ben and Tom share lead vocals: Listening to an album feels like you’re having a conversation with a group of people, as opposed to one lead singer who ends up defining the whole band. Some days for me are Ben days, others are Ian days, and the best part is that there’s always a Gomez song to fit my mood.

3. How we met: I first came across Gomez when I went to see the 2008 Sgt. Pepper’s… Revisited concert at the Hollywood Bowl with my Beatles-loving friend Eric. It was a fun day in which we took a shuttle from Westwood to the Bowl, and on our bus ride back, the bus kind of lost its head and was going ridiculously slowly until we started going downhill, when it picked up speed, and then the horn started honking uncontrollably despite what the driver would do to stop it. Anyway, Ian Ball was one of the guest performers, and he sang ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘When I’m Sixty-Four.’ I remembered his name and looked him up a year or more later, and found that he was part of quite a nice band. I listened to a lot of Gomez during my London trip, so they also fondly remind me of that.

4. They are fun… and wise. Just listen here.

Their new album, Whatever’s On Your Mind, will be released on June 21 in the U.S. — June 6 in the U.K. Going to see them on July 14 at Terminal 5, hurrah!

Free download of ‘Just As Lost As You’ here.