The Republic Tigers Came Back!

One night after their national television debut on Letterman, The Republic Tigers came back to DC9 on Friday; they played the same venue only 3 weeks ago.  

While they played most of the tracks off of their recently released record, Keep Color, (which I reviewed in a previous post) they were kind enough to play the requested "Annie Sinkin' Down, Down, Down"...a song off of their The Republic Tigers EP.  Yes, I requested it and yes, I am kind of obsessed with them at the moment.  They don't perform that song very often so it was super cool of them to play it.

Hopefully they'll come back soon.

In a weird twist to the night, the friend I was with attempted to steal the lead singer's tambourine. I don't know why that happened, but it was hilarious.

Here's the video from the Letterman show...

JMMP.

Album Review: The Republic Tigers - Keep Color

Artist: The Republic Tigers

Album: Keep Color

Release Date: May 6, 2008

Label: Chop Shop Records

I stumbled upon The Republic Tigers while trying to find some good bands to see in the DC area.  In fact, I probably would have skipped over them had it not been for their name.  For some reason, I really like it and I can't tell you why.  I'm not trying to be cryptic.  I just like it.

Anyways, after liking their name, I checked out their music and was hooked.  They have an interesting fusion of spacey vocal melodies, acoustic pop and electronica...in fact, I've been trying to relate them to another band, but I'm having trouble; maybe The Shins mixed with a musically upbeat Death Cab for Cutie.

The album, Keep Color, itself is compromised of 12 songs of about the same tempo.  I feel like when an album has little variance in the type of songs musically, their success hinges on vocal divergence across the songs.  With tracks like Weatherbeaten, Give Arm to Its Socket and Stranger to the Eyes of a Child-Man, TRT accomplish that; however, the album falls short when it comes to accomplishing that comprehensively across the album.  It is important to say that the songs that do do that, are well worth a listen, so I recommend checking out this album.

Another supporting quality is The Republic Tigers put on a great show, so if you have the chance, check them out.  They are playing Letterman 5/22 so that'll give you an idea.

The songs on their myspace page aren't their best/ones I was talking about earlier, so I'm going to work on uploading the new album to my blog.  I hope to have them up tomorrow.

Time to zzzzzzzz.

JMMP. 

Listen with Conviction

The music industry is flooded with people who think they know what they're talking about.  You know how I know this?  Bands that are complete shit are still getting press.  I know it's a matter of personal preference.  Believe me.  I have friends who like Nickelback.  

Really though, something far more topical is just because a band puts together a string of notes and chords that hardly make sense (but are seemingly "cool") and throw together a vocal arrangement that is hardly mellifluous doesn't mean they are a good indie band.  Not to mention, just because a band has a "different" sound doesn't mean they are the second coming of the Lord Baby Jesus (think Vampire Weekend).

I guess I'm just annoyed.  When I listen to bands other people suggest, I wonder "are you really listening to this with some conviction?"...I mean, how can you really get in to a band like this?  I partially believe it is because people choose to like what will make them look the coolest, or the dopest, or the radest (yup, just made a couple of those words up).  I think we should be honest here and chalk it up to poor taste as well.  This probably doesn't come as a surprise to you intelligent readers, cognizant of what is right and wrong in the music industry, but it needed to be said.

What I have below is a list of bands that I feel very strongly about. Bands that I have a strong conviction towards.  Bands that I hope you'll enjoy as much as I do. 

Circa Survive (Listen to "In The Morning and Amazing")

The Sound of Animals Fighting (Listen to "The Heretic" and "You Don't Need A Witness")

The Most Serene Republic (Listen to "Sherry And Her Butterfly Net")

Tokyo Police Club (Listen to "Tessellate" and "In A Cave")

The Republic Tigers (Listen to "Buildings And Mountains")

What bands do you have conviction towards?

Also, going forward, this blog will be a lot less whiney.  I just felt I needed to prologue all the amazing music to come.

JMMP.