Twin Tigers
Curious Faces/Violet Future
Twin Tigers, along with similarly inclined groups like Soundpool, a faulty chromosome, Raveonettes and Blacklist, are interesting cases; not as much part of a burgeoning scene or any of that nonsense – too geographically and aesthetically diffuse – but it’s a fascinating look at what popular music would have looked like around 1994 if Nirvana and grunge had never broken and instead bands like Jesus and Mary Chain, Stone Roses, Lush and My Bloody Valentine had ended up dominating the “alternative” scene. That’s not to say that Twin Tigers are some sorta nostalgia act, no, no, I’m just idly musing on a moment that was lost. The music on Curious Faces/Violet Future does tend to induce dreamy reveries, y’see. Twin Tiger’s sound is all tension and release, a roar dissolving into ambient hum, anthemic choruses subverted by white noise and detuned guitar goodness and bratty, playground-style vocal yelps set against noise breakdowns. The songs are surprisingly punk-rock in length, which, while a gutsy gambit, tends to be their undoing some of the time, as I get the feeling they’re racing against the clock to cram all of their ideas into an allotted time slot. They should allow their ideas and sonic schemes to stretch out, shit, fucking sprawl all over the place, and not be so concerned about being catchy or direct. (Amp up the inventive arrangements to fucking 11 – take it higher and higher, I don’t want them to end up sounding like Hum or somesuch.)
“Red Fox Run” mines the same rich vein of spacey majesty that bands like Repeater and Blacklist nod out on – all Spacemen 3 jaggedness leavened with the stately soaring pop of an Echo and the Bunnymen. Check out the tumbling knives of lead guitar that lead into the oblique chorus of “I Want You In My Car.” We need more oblique sinister references like that in songs. It’s gotta feel like the end of a world populated by dandy spies and double agents.
“Watershed’s” just this close to being shoegazer rockabilly! “Fantastic Plastic,” on the other hand, sounds way too familiar and normal – don’t care for it at all. Way too close to Smashing Pumpkins. And how bad is it when the best thing about “Golden Daze” is the feedback coda? However, “If” balances the scales with a great sneering childlike chorus about drugs, and fantastic noise breakdowns coupled with central riffs that sound completely off and detuned but still crystalline. “Invisible Zombies” overflows with falsetto spookiness and drifty noir guitar decay; this is the most hopeful blueprint of what is to come. Fingers crossed and double crossed.
Twin Tigers: http://www.myspace.com/thetwintigers
