Album Review: The Inevitable Past Is the Future Forgotten by Three Mile Pilot

What gives them the right to walk back into our lives with nary a word of explanation? Why did they go? Where have they been? What gives them the right to walk back into our lives with nary a word of explanation? All questions that should be put to the prodigal sons of indie-rock miserablism upon their return after a 13-year absence, but with an album as good as this any scolding seems almost petty. Still shrouded in mystery yet sounding clearer in their intentions than ever before, the familiar mix of strained vocals, propulsive yet unobtrusive instrumentation and haunted piano refrains serve as a perfect example of why we missed them so damn much in the first place. .

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This is a welcome return from Three Mile Pilot, a band whose main members Pall Jenkins and Armistead Burwell Smith IV were placed on hiatus in 1998 to form the Black Heart Procession and Pinback. And while those bands keep producing albums of high quality, their high points of Amore Del Tropico (2002) and Blue Screen Life (2001) now seem some way behind them. And that’s what makes The Inevitable Past is Forgotten such an exciting release.

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Back in the music industry's Roaring 90s, labels indulged in two particular types of spending sprees that were often related: trying to locate the "next Seattle" and forking over lucrative record contracts to bands with heaps of alt cachet but almost no commercial prospects. Which explains how San Diego's Three Mile Pilot scored a deal with Geffen that lasted about as long as it will take to read this review. Now, Three Mile Pilot return after more than a decade of silence with The Inevitable Past Is the Future Forgotten.

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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.

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First album in 13 years from the Pinback-spawning Californian four-piece. Mischa Pearlman 2010 It’s been 13 years since the release of Three Mile Pilot’s last album. In that time, its core members – vocalist Pall Jenkins, keyboardist Tobais Nathaniel, bassist Armistead Burwell Smith IV (also known, more simply, as Zach) and drummer Thomas Zinser – have been busy cultivating other careers for themselves.

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There is a top-notch notion that the best parts of music are the meshing of sounds and diversifying them. On Three Mile Pilot’s The Inevitable Past is the Future Forgotten, the opening chug of angular rock prefaces the album into some sort of ancient time code. Everything feels like the late 90s, with the alternative rock station in the background.

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The Inevitable Past Is The Future Forgotten may seem like an unwieldy album title, but it makes sense when you consider that it’s Three Mile Pilot’s first release in 13 years. If you’re not familiar with 3MP, since their hiatus in the late ’90s, the group’s members went on to form Pinback and the Black Heart Procession, a fact that is evident in the Three Mile Pilot’s most recent output. That said, time hasn’t tempered the band’s sound; swirling synths and driving drums make songs like “Same Mistake” some of the band’s most accessible and inventive output to date.

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