TIGERSTYLE – ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’

TIGERSTYLE – Northampton, England, United Kingdom.

– Photo Credit: Mark Kidsley Photography – Click Here

You have to shout each time you read it: TIGERSTYLE!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m a bit fussy with the current wave of Pop-Punk, but that being said, from what we’ve seen at MF, there is a strong scene in the UK and that’s fantastic.

We found Northampton lot, TIGERSTYLE, in Facebook’s UK POP-PUNK group; a group that you quite frankly should join (RIGHT NOW) if you’re all about the genre. On a personal note, I spend a lot of time in music groups on book-face, and I have to say, they really do themselves credit. Find the group in question, HERE.

But back to the task at hand, MF finally found time to sit down with TIGERSTYLE and their new EP, Where Do We Go From Here? and managed to put a few words together in a mildly comprehensible form for you lovely lot. Unfamiliar with the band? Whet your appetite and check out this track from their second EP, The View From Above:

Like that? Well, good news, they’ve gotten better.

A sizeable amount of contemporary UK Pop-Punk bands are filtering Rock-like structures into their respective sounds more and more, and it would be fair to say TIGERSTYLE are – to an extent – doing the same.

However at the same time, the up-tempo classic Pop-Punk rhythm that further popularised the genre after the groundwork laid by the Descendents, and later by bands such as Green Day, Blink-182 and New Found Glory, is rearing it’s ugly head.

‘Barefoot’, the leading track from the new EP, is a good example. A third wave/90’s feel ploughs its way through the decades that have passed, to where it could easily sit on a bill with today’s stalwarts from Such Gold to Knuckle Puck, and Real Friends.

‘I’ve always heard that people say absence makes the heart grow fonder,  I’ve never heard such bullshit in my life. There’s nothing that I need, except to make the absence longer, In the hope you’ll someday fade away’

The band’s earlier sound was more focussed on the jagged-riffed Hardcore break-down led – try saying that in one breath – sound of the earlier 2000’s. Track two flirts with this sound as well as a more Rock-like structure, and some of the best vocal melodies on the release.

‘Signals’ leans a similar way with jagged riffage and harder drumming, but still keeps the Pop sensibility of the vocal melodies strongly up-front with a cheeky old-school rhythm infusion here and there.

Where Pop-Punk is an American-led genre, much of the vocals are often Americanised in accent to varying degrees. TIGERSTYLE’s English accents creep through just enough to stand out from the OTT nature of the nasality of the Post-Tom Delonge world.

‘Projections’ reminds me of The Wonder Years. There’s a compliment in there somewhere.

‘And after all is said and done, We still can’t make up for lost time,  And honestly it’s for the best; I was never yours, you were never mine‘

TIGERSTYLE have really come into themselves with this one, with a faster and more “classic” leaning sound. There is nothing negative I can really say about this release, a bit more pace perhaps but that’s just my own subjectivity. As it stands, the Midlands boys should be proud. Nice one.

Fancy doing it TIGERSTYLE? Fancy a break from my bad jokes? All the following info and direct links below should assist with that:

• The band’s Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr profiles for updates.
• For streaming, check the band’s profiles on bandcamp, Spotify, Deezer and their Youtube Channel.
• Where Do We Go From Here? is available from their bandcamp for a cheeky £1, as well as on iTunes and Google play.
• The first two releases are also on bandcamp for the oh so wonderful ‘FREE/Name Your Price’ bracket.
• Merch? They have that too, over on their bigcartel page.

#StayFresh