“To Be So Cool” is a personal favorite for the Pretty Flowers’ Noah Green.
“It’s a blast to play live,” says the frontman for the Los Angeles-based indie outfit. “The lyrics just seemed to kind of flow, and I didn’t try and overthink writing them at the time.”
The latest single from the band’s upcoming LP, Never Felt Bitter (Forge Again), comes eight years after its debut. Why Trains Crash solidified the Pretty Flowers’ crafty, hard-driving post-punk inclinations, which tend to veer toward the Replacements, Teenage Fanclub and early Wilco. Since then, they’ve honed their chops as one of the busiest, most respected underground bands in Southern California.
Months after he wrote “To Be So Cool,” Green was watching the 1987 British black comedy Withnail And I for the umpteenth time when he noticed how closely the lyrics in his song mirrored the charming, self-destructive protagonist from the film.
“The ‘I’ character sees Withnail going through life,” says Green. “Maybe a student in a community-college English class will tease that idea out in an essay at some point.”
We’re proud to premiere the Pretty Flowers’ “To Be So Cool.” Never Felt Bitter is out March 27.
—Hobart Rowland
