Review: Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger! ‘Bloom’
Hailed by Stephen King as ‘best band name’ in a recent Twitter post, Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger! are from the ancient city of Foligno near Perugia in Italy. Compared to their quirky moniker, the trio who formed in 2006, actually have a rather traditional setup with Diego Masciotti (guitar/vocals), Giovanna Vedovati (bass) and Nicola Vedovati (drums).
Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger! have a string of releases to their name including the Whispers and Be Yr Own Shit EPs, 2013’s debut full-length Forever Young, 2017’s Corners and now the long-awaited third album Bloom. The band have also played with the likes of Iceage, Mogwai and post-punk legends The Slits as well as being featured at South By South West in 2010, 2011, 2015 and 2017 where they were selected by My Morning Jacket’s frontman Jim James as one of its best acts.
Their single Whispers featured in the short film Music Land World written and directed by Richard Naylor who has worked on long-running sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf. With this impressive resume, will the music stack up? It’s gonna be fun finding out.
Memory opens the record in a mournful fashion, one could apply the dreaded term emo but from a time when that genre had some vestiges of credibility still attached to it, so bands such as Rival Schools. There is also some really cool Kevin Shields style glide guitar on the latter part of the track. A promising start. Stones is one of the album’s preview tracks with its accompanying video both visually and sonically captures the cool detachment of The Jesus and Mary Chain. Dark Age / Dark Thoughts is a little heavier, a little grungy even. Shades of Nirvana and Cobain’s angst filled songwriting makes itself known as does post-punk that elevates it into a classier affair and prevents it from going into full on self-indulgent self-pity mode.
Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger! demonstrate an ability to draw on influences without being a slave to them, which makes Bloom such an excellent release…
Endless is the album’s longest track at nearly seven minutes and its second preview single (at the time of writing), is reminiscent of mid to late ‘80s Dinosaur Jr with the laidback J Mascis style vocals and noise-pop inclinations; there is also a drone like quality present which I found appealing. Empty Pool is Sonic Youth at their most no wavey and discordant from around the time of Bad Moon Rising which pleases me no end, while Blanket tips its hat to The Cure, what with its distinctive goth sensibility and when that band were at their peak producing amazing tracks such as Pictures Of You.
In Between is another grunge blast that once again has the spectre of Kurt Cobain looming large, especially in the vocal department, and parts of the track resembling Polly. It is certainly one of the album’s most direct sounding, punchier tracks and Hands Down bares some hallmarks of post-hardcore ala Elliot Smith’s pre-solo outfit Heatmiser. Some great dynamic songwriting here.
Afterwards recalled, for me anyway, bands such as the overlooked and underappreciated Das Damen. It’s the kind of ‘80s alternative rock that one would associate with the SST label, noisy enough to be on there in the first place but always with an eye on the future. Superb. Melting Forest brings the album full circle in a manner not too dissimilar to opener Memory. Plenty of tasty distortion and Cocteau Twins dream-pop loveliness but with Joy Division gloom added in for good measure. The perfect album concluding track.
Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger! demonstrate an ability to draw on influences without being a slave to them, which makes Bloom such an excellent release. If you haven’t already, you need to check these guys out now.
Label: To Lose La Track Records | Coypu Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Twitter | Instagram
Scribed by: Reza Mills
