Weekend Intermission is our regular feature where we look at an artist or band not from the Nordic countries, just to mix things up a bit.
It’s the second time Tigerside has been here and the first time was in the very first week of NMC’s nascent existence, slap bang in the middle of the pandemic with ‘Any contact’, which looked like a plea from Billy No Mates to be befriended on Facebook.
It took them over five years to get that first single out and it’s heading in the direction of a decade for this second one, ‘Projection’, but having patience is a great virtue in this music business and they eventually found what they’d been looking for in the shape of producer and mixer Dave Tolan, who works out of the Hope Mill Recording Studios in Manchester, a brisk walk from Tigerside’s original base in Salford’s finest music pub, The Eagle Inn.
In fact I do believe I was enjoying a pint of Holt’s Bitter if you can call it enjoyment in the ‘beer garden’ there on the night they sealed the deal. One day I’ll dine out on that story.
It had the same impact as The Righteous Brothers meeting Phil Spector, or Frankie goes to Hollywood chancing on Trevor Horn.
Tigerside always had a sound that set them apart from other bands but one that arose out of a mélange of styles (a popular word in Salford), encompassing, well I’ll use their own word – posthousepunkpop – one which used to adorn their Facebook page until they abandoned it in favour of an arty farty quote from Oscar Wilde.
It wasn’t one that I thought would be easy to record, mix, produce and serve up as the finished article before the arrival of Mr Tolan, who has worked inter alia with The Charlatans, Primal Scream, Gloria Gaynor, Tori Amos and Patti Smith.
Despite the hiatuses (is that the plural or is it hiati?) here they are again, still baggying along with what is still only their second single, ‘Projection.’
One of the things I quickly learned about Tigerside is that they are all completely mad and getting any sense out of them is less realistic than Oldham Athletic winning the Champions League. I just read a recent interview with them and even though I know half of them I couldn’t glean anything meaningful out of it at all.
And that’s what you must expect with ‘Projection’, a song with no apparent lyrical cadence, just a jumble of words.
This weekend we’ll be running the rule over the second album from Oslo’s Das Body, in some ways a similar band to Tigerside in that they write lyrics which don’t appear to mean much but which could just be intensely profound and catch you out, embarrassing you at what proves to be your last dinner party where everyone else but you has got the drift.
Anyway, there’s a lyric video so you can make your own minds up.
Musically, dare I say it, they seem to have moved slightly mainstream with this one, shock, horror. Its sharper and smarter and has a discernible melody that sticks around throughout a consistent chorus that only takes a break short enough for backing vocalist Esther to shine for a few seconds in a bridge with only a slender variation on the main theme, and is held together by the sort of rhythm section that will transport you rapidly to the dance floor.
As for the video I haven’t a clue what that’s about. Set in somewhere like San Francisco I guess judging from the hills, and in the 1950s, it teases you by injecting some of the Tigerside humour in the form of subliminal messages, RAF Typhoons and paper planes, eagles, images of folk you feel you should know but don’t, kaleidoscopic images and Lord knows what else.
It is as baffling as the lyrics but one day it will be considered a work of art. And I’ll be describing it in Pitchfork.
As I write this they are playing a gig at the Dublin Castle in London’s Camden Town, a venue that was first popularised by local boys Madness (how apt). The gig is sold out. The last one to have the ‘full’ sign outside was Amy Winehouse.
I made that up but it shows at least that they are in good company. Keep your eye open for them in your neck of the woods. I project they are going to be in demand.
Every time I write about Tigerside I say I’m going to finish the story about how they got their arcane name and I’ve been edging closer, even though I’m sworn to secrecy about it.
Now where was I up to? Oh yes, It all began many years ago when guitarist Paul Gregory and his brother got into an argument about
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tigerside
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tigersideofficial/
