EP Special #2 – Collider, Netherfriends, Spring Tigers, and Tigers Jaw
It has been a little while since I busted out the last one of these, but ever since crafting the first special multi-EP review post, I’ve been catching and collecting a bunch of exciting EP releases by bands new and old. I have a bunch more of these posts in the pipeline, but for now, let’s focus on what we have right here.
Today’s digest brings us releases from four bands, as geographically diverse as they are sonically. First up we have San Francisco’s garage-popsters Collider, followed by Chicago-based psych pop outfit Netherfriends, Spring Tigers hailing from everyone’s favorite college rock town (Athens, GA), and to add a little regional obscurity, Scranton, PA’s Tigers Jaw. (Rhetorical editorial question: Is Tiger the latest indie rock animal fad, after deer and bear? Just wondering.)
Collider – Down In Saturines
Everything about Collider says to me “youth.” This isn’t a slam – far from it. Just like when you listen to Sonic Youth these days and hear maturity and experience, with Collider you can immediately sense that these folks have exuberance and energy and simplicity on their side. They sing what they know, play as they can, and get on with it. There isn’t a lot of messing around, beyond some mid-length jams here and there and a little experimentation with echo and fuzz. Instead, this record is straight-forward indie rock by young folks that know a hook when they hear one and clearly like to play their instruments and sing together.
As for specific tracks, like any band there are keepers and some that maybe aren’t. The keepers include “The Neon,” with its glint-eyed spoken word segment, “Isolator,” with its choral get-down, “Safe to Say” with its chuggy underbelly, and “Translator,” which somehow channels The Flaming Lips and a tiny bit of The Pixies.
Released back in February, Down In Saturines is currently available as a free download here.
Netherfriends – Calling You Out
Primarily the project of Chicagoan Shawn Rosenblatt and assorted friends and “hired gunz,” Netherfriends is one of the best things I was turned on to this year thanks to the intrepid cold-calling of ambitious rock bands everywhere. Who knows if we’ll do such a thing, but if Citizen Dick gave an award for “Best Band to Stumble Upon,” Netherfriends would be right up there for me, along with Brooklyn’s Monogold and Seattle’s Iji. Why, you ask? Well, because the sounds are catchy, the lyrics clever and smart, and I kinda like the album cover (above).
More substantively than that, though, is the fact that there are some killer songs on this here record. “Friends with Lofts” is destined to be in my Top 20 by the end of the year, and certain to make my Happy New Year mix tape I send to my nearest and dearest. (Wait, that’s illegal, right? I take that back. I’d never do something like that. HYPOTHETICALLY this song would make such a HYPOTHETICAL mix tape. Please don’t sue me, Netherfriends – then we’d never be friends. Ha. Get it?) The lyrics in “Really?” make me grin (along with the bird call samples), and they have songs with names like “Oh-Hi-Oh” and “Nunya (Beeswax).” What more do you need? Just trust me already – this is something you should own.
Calling You Out was released September 1 by Emergency Umbrella and can be purchased here.
Netherfriends – Friends with Lofts
Spring Tigers – Spring Tigers
Happy Anthem Pop. Perhaps my favorite genre. Certainly the one that got me through grad school. And one I’m not hesitant at all to include Spring Tigers in. A little louder than I’m From Barcelona but quirkier than The Polyphonic Spree, Spring Tigers are exactly what I’m gonna need to get through the long, bleak Cleveland winter that the weather recently has started to foreshadow. For whatever reason, this record sorta reminds me of that Butch Walker release a couple years back, though less artificial. I guess that’s what you get from Athens these days – folks who can write upbeat pop songs and still play a solid electric guitar, with a dash of gizmodgery thrown in for good measure.
While lead man Kris Barratt’s British inflection is more obvious (see “Car Song”) some times than others, he’s always on his game and the band that plays with him plays capably and loudly enough to keep you thinking of it as a group effort and not something akin to the Frontman and Back-up Band model. Despite lyrics like “Don’t get your knickers in a twist,” the band keeps thing live enough to deaden any notion that Spring Tigers might be a novelty. Instead, they are a real rock band with a penchant for the theatrical and goof-ball sound props. Besides, I love me a rock band with straight keyboard action.
Spring Tigers will be released on October 20 by Bright Antenna. Until then, readers making their homes in the old confederacy can catch the band live as they play a series of dates up and down the southeast coastal corridor (and a stint at CMJ in New York).
Spring Tigers – New Improved Formula
Spring Tigers – Just Suggesting
Tigers Jaw – Spirit Desire
As much as I love the fact that Tigers Jaw is from Scranton PA (how many times can you type Brooklyn before your heart just breaks?), I gotta admit that the lack of a possessive apostrophe in the band name is making me crazy. I mean, if the jaw in question doesn’t belong to the tiger alluded to, just who does it belong to? Now, I’m not gonna get all grammarian on your ass (or Tigers Jaw’s ass, for that matter), as I make my share of grammatical mistakes myself. In fact, there is a strong likelihood that one could quibble with the grammar in every sentence in this paragraph. So, I’ll resort to that cop-out de rigeur: I’m just sayin’.
I would also like to say that Scranton’s finest have something going on. The guitars especially are interesting, frequently imbued with something guttural and foreboding. This could verge into metal territory if the sound engineer had mixed differently, but as it is they provide a driving background for the fatigued and occasionally somewhat withdrawn lead vocals (and, oddly, the drums, which were mic’ed way up, at least compared to the rest of the mix).
A brief four-track effort, Spirit Desire leads off with the title track – a dark track about fear and love and a relationship that’s likely a lot worse than the narrator realizes – and moves quickly through a straight-forward light punk ditty in “We Are Great, There Is Only One (Tigers Jaw)” before getting to the best of the record, “Crystal Vision.” Assuming what we find in “Crystal Vision” is the direction future Tigers Jaw albums will go in, I plan to be making room on my shelf for a new Scranton section.
Spirit Desire was released by Tiny Engines way back on August 11th and is currently available on iTunes. Cautious consumers can stream the tracks before purchasing here.
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