Tiger Army - V..._
I am a pretty big Tiger Army fan, I admit it. Have been for a long time. I’ve seen them live at the House of Blues in San Diego, Octoberflame in Santa Ana, and most recently at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. I’ve seen Nick 13 solo at Hootenanny. They’re one of the few bands I will still make an effort for and get excited to see. So, it’s not easy for me to pick one album to write about, I love them all.
All that having been said, I have to give the nod to their 5th album, V…_
The thing about Tiger Army is they, and I mean Nick 13, mix together everything that I love: 50’s rock, punk rock, English guitar pop with dark romantic lyrics. They’ve been a huge influence on my art over the years, from the lyrics to “River City” to incorporating keyboards to having a solo project when you’re the sole songwriter of another project. They’re a punk band, but the musicianship is second to none. And refreshingly, they’re pretty apolitical. The only thing I’ve ever heard him say, at Octoberflame in 2016, is “Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump? These are our fucking choices? Pretty sad.” That pretty much summed up how I felt at the time too.
This record departs from many of the others in it’s tempos and textures. It’s a lot different from the previous record, Music from Regions Beyond, but yet, it’s still a Tiger Army album in every way. Nick 13 did a four-part video (total of about 25 minutes) on a road trip of the American Southwest that explains where this record’s inspiration came from. Nick takes his art very seriously, but you can tell how much this trip influenced him and how contemplative the record is because of it.
Nick 13, much like Nick Cave, takes a lot of influence from other art forms. This is something I’ve done since the beginning and I credit this to spending countless hours at the Bartholomew County Library when I was a kid. This building was designed by I.M. Pei is without a doubt, one of my two favorite buildings in the world (the other being the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles). The building itself, plus the books, old magazines, old records and their extensive VHS collection all helped to shape my creativity and imagination. It is why music is visual in so many ways to me. The feelings it evokes makes me imagine scenes.
As Nick explains in the documentary, he’s influenced by the attention to detail found in older things. Nowadays, things are fast, cheap and disposable. We used to build things to last. They were timeless. Now, we don’t care about our work, we don’t care about our things and we don’t care about each other. So, when people call me a dinosaur, I take it as a compliment.
Not only does Tiger Army take this kind of pride in their craft when it comes to writing, performing and recording, but they do it with their merch, and especially their music videos. Art comes first. On their terms. Their way.
Because of this, their fans go on the journey with them. The tone of the albums changes a bit, but it’s always Tiger Army. We appreciate the attention to detail. You can hear the love of the work. It reminds us of a time when these things mattered.
And that’s why it is timeless.