The Inevitable Past Is the Future Forgotten

After 13 years, influential San Diego indie rock trio Three Mile Pilot returned with 2010’s The Inevitable Past Is the Future Forgotten. While the band has always been overshadowed by the members’ more popular side projects (Armistead Burwell Smith IV co-founded Pinback, to be joined later by Tom Zinser, and Pall Jenkins went on to form the Black Heart Procession), 3MP’s reunion album illustrates that they were a defining force in the indie scene — underground or not. The songs bleed the blood of Pinback and Black Heart, but there’s a magic chemistry between Smith, Zinser, and Jenkins that makes their music unique. The Inevitable Past picks up where 1997’s Another Desert, Another Sea left off, with cathartic but punchy rounds of bass, guitar, and drums accented by piano, organs, and airy vocals. The setting is continually pastoral, but in 3MP's maturity, they’ve developed a more poppy accessibility. Bittersweet songs like “Grey Clouds” and “What I Lose” are more subdued than prior work, but ultimately The Inevitable Past is a solid addition to the discography of an indie rock fixture.