vinyl tigers - vinyl tiger

Vinyl Tigers

Vinyl Tigers
self-released; 2014

4.1 out of 5

By J Simpson

At this point, rock 'n roll has been declared dead more often than Paul McCartney or Elvis Presley. Thankfully, New Jersey's Vinyl Tigers didn't get the memo, and have gone about dishing 14 tracks of ramshackle folk garage blues punk psychedelia anyway, and we are the better for it.

The members of Vinyl Tigers have been at it for a while, being born of the ashes of the band Sudden Ensemble, who got some love from the notorious British DJ and tastemaker John Peel. Regarding the switch to Vinyl Tigers, the band quote the author of The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton, "Ever get the feeling that the whole thing is changing? Like something is coming to an end 'cause something else is beginning?" It seems that what is changing is the idea of clean, delineated allegiance to a particular style or genre, as Vinyl Tigers switch it up, blending choppy, chunky folk, krautrock futurism, and weirdo bedroom scuzz, to great effect!

Vinyl Tigers self-titled debut is both saccharine and acerbic, with back-and-forth male and female vocals. The female vocals have the same sense of arty adventurousness and bubblegum indie pop as Kim Deal's post-Pixies outfit The Breeders, while DK's vocals have a similar warm and worn quality to Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis.

Both of those bands are decent touchstones, as they employ a similar blend of pop sensibilities and experimentation, as well as lo-fi recordings, being spun into hi-fi gold. Other similarities would be the ramshackle, swaying folk of Beck and the slacker waltz of Lou Barlow's Sebadoh. Singer/guitarist DK also works as a visual artist, and worked as an artist on the Royal Trux comic book, and has carried over a similar sense of twisted rock 'n roll; wild, weird, and completely unique.

Vinyl Tigers are the new face of punk rock - unbeholden to tastes and trends, doing what they want. Ironically, this sound is in vogue with the current tastes in psychedelic rock, with much love being given this year to Ty Segall and The War On Drugs. The time is right to hear this lo-fi swagger, and find something really unique and interesting.

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