Monica Topping
Radio Radio Radio

Tomorrows Bad Seeds has an unmistakably SoCal sound. Clearly influenced by Sublime and Pepper, most of the original members of the band were born in the South Bay region of Los Angeles. They were surfers, taggers and b-boys before they formed the band.

Moises “Moi” Juarez is the band’s lead singer, and while he has never had any formal vocal training, he says his mom is a really good singer and has always sort of trained him, as he grew up. Juarez grew up with a fear of the stage, but overcame his fear by performing as a break dancer. He loves singing soul music (“Stevie Wonder is my idol,” he says.), but loves even more that he’s gotten to use his voice and his band’s blend of surf-punk, hip-hop and mellow reggae to tour with bands like The Wailers and Pennywise.

Tomorrows Bad Seeds was formed by Juarez and guitar player and turntablist Mathew McEwan in 2002, after Juarez says the two were both having girl troubles and decided to hang out and start playing music. Juarez met McEwan’s cousin Johnny on McEwan’s 21st birthday, and they recruited him to play drums and found another friend to play bass.

The band lineup was shaken as the original bass player took a job as a longshoreman and could take less and less time off work to play shows, so they found Andre Davis to take his place. Sean Chapman had gone to school with the original band members and had led his own locally successful bands through high school, so Tomorrows Bad Seeds pulled him in as a second guitarist and singer. Drummer Pat Salmon (“We call him Pat Slammin’,” says Juarez.) joined the band in the last couple of months, replacing McEwan’s cousin.

The band name was a take-off on the graffiti crew that the original band members grew up around, called TBS. Torrance Bomb Squad, The Bastard Sons and Tomorrows Bad Seeds are amongst the made-up meanings for the acronym, and the way Juarez saw it, if they called the band one of those things, the kids they grew up with, who were turning 21 and starting to be able to enjoy the bar music scene, would know who they were.

Tomorrows Bad Seeds released its debut album in mid-2007, called “Early Prayers,” and are close to releasing a follow-up, called “Sacred for Sale.” Juarez laughs and says he’s not sure why his band’s album names have a spiritual bent, because they’re not particularly religious, but that’s just how it goes. The new album, due out sometime this spring, will feature former drummer Johnny on seven of the tracks and new drummer Salmon, on four tracks which he learned when he first joined the band and recorded almost immediately.

Tomorrow Bad Seeds goes out on the road this week with SoCal acoustic rocker Trevor Hall. The two bands have never played together before, but Juarez says Tomorrows Bad Seeds has heard Hall’s recordings and plans to strip down a portion of its set to something a little more acoustic and less thrashy — a return to the band’s roots — in order to not scare off Hall’s mellower fans. They’ll be on the road with Hall through mid-February, followed by a few Florida shows with John Brown’s Body, and a set of Knitting Factory dates with 311, then it’s back home to prepare for the release of “Sacred for Sale.”

Tracks from Tomorrows Bad Seeds’ prior recording can be heard on the band’s Myspace page, at www.myspace.com/tomorrowsbadseeds1.

They’ll be playing this Thursday, Jan. 28, at Humboldt Brews in Arcata. The show will get going around 9:30 p.m. and there is a $10 cover. This is a 21-and-over show.