Houston TX - This Years Tiger

In the vein of Small Brown Bike, Planes Mistaken for Stars, and Leatherface, Houston, TX’s This Year’s Tiger play Pabst-chugging rock ‘n’ roll, the sort adored by thick-bearded bros from Gainesville to Riverside. As it stands, the band sounds at home on a label like No Idea, though their self-titled, self-released EP shows plenty of signs that This Year’s Tiger is looking to move beyond that cliché sing-a-long style of punk rock.

The band’s latest offering is 6 songs deep and, while the band rarely wavers from a tested and true formula of breakdowns, gang vocals, and hoarse-throated semi-screams, who cares? What the world needs now is a damn good rock ‘n’ roll song, and This Year’s Tiger has some pretty damn good rock songs on it.

“Your Face Has No Melody” showcases TYT’s signature sound and opens the EP perfectly. “A Bullet For You” has your cliché but oh-so-true, got-your-back-if-you-got-mine chorus found so often in This Year’s Tiger’s songs: “some things you never forget – I’d take a bullet for you then and I’d take a bullet for you now.” So true.

“Playing Matador” is slightly more agro than the rest of the EP; “Anchors” more Helmet than Hot Water Music; and one of Tiger’s best tracks, “Raise Your Glass”, is a poor man’s Foo Fighters jam. “Like Snakes” shows This Year’s Tiger’s true promise, as snakewinding seventies’ leads battle chunky post-punk and requisite gang vox.

This Year’s Tiger are the type of band you might see playing the next Food Not Bomb’s benefit in your local organic grocer’s parking lot and you’ll definitely see them at The Fest in Gainesville. Hardly original, This Year’s Tiger is nonetheless a great listen and a promising debut.

myspace: www.myspace.com/thisyearstiger
mp3: "A Bullet For You"

"Chase This Light" by Jimmy Eat World

This is really upsetting.

The new Jimmy Eat World record is overall disappointing. Thoroughly disappointing. I had the opportunity to see JEW live at Emo's not too long ago, and they played the first single, first track of Chase This Light, "Big Casino." I was impressed then and I was impressed when I heard the song a month or so later on 101x. And I'm still impressed with it.

Too bad the rest of the album is a steaming pile of adult-contemporary shit. Adult - now I realize that yes Jimmy Eat World are growing up. They're not the vulnerable, ever-introspective songwriters who wrote "Table for Glasses" and asked "Can you still feel the butterflies?" I've grown up, too. Doesn't mean I bought a Chevy Tahoe or opened a 401(k) account. This is the epitome of adult alternative - the songs you hear sitting in the waiting room at your dentists office perhaps.

Or as the ever knowledgeable All Music Guide called them "the emo equivalent of Bon Jovi."

So true.... so sad, but still so true. Jesus - I mean plenty of bands that I grew up on have grown up themselves. Look at Chuck Ragan - definitely not writing Hot Water Music anthems anymore, but definitely not going to grace your dentist's radio anytime soon either. Jesus - even if ole Chuck did write a radio anthem or two I wouldn't care, if the songs were good.

"Gotta Be Somebody's Blues" just doesn't even SOUND like Jimmy Eat World. There really isn't anything I can pinpoint as to what separates this record from past JEW releases. For all intents and purposes they follow the same formula that was so successful on Bleed American and Futures - it just feels different. "Always Be" may have been written by Bryan Adams or Richard Marx. Did the songwriters behind Ashlee Simpson's stunning debut pen "Carry You," cause I can't quite tell. Wait... "Here it Goes" ... this was definitely pulled from Richard Marx' back catalog. Christ.

And no. This album will not grow on me. Guarantee it. 26 but I ain't dead. "Suck that lucky feeling right out of me," Jim? No sir - suck the life out of me. That's what your record has done to me. These are the records I always hate covering as a music writer - what can you say about it? There's nothing striking, edgy, even interesting about this.

"It hurts because it should," Jim? Well at least you acknowledge that.

And can we all please acknowledge the fact that the cover of this album clearly looks like a vagina?!



At least THEY know they're pussies.

Downloading the new Coheed and Cambria, Thrice, and Chamillionaire records as I type. Will these be any better. I'll let you know.



I also just read about a new DJ Spooky record called Creation Rebel that is apparently pretty amazing, although it appears to me more of Spooky simply digging through the Trojan Records catalog. Looking for it now.