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by erin thursby
scopes1925@msn.com
What:
Tiger Army
When:
Sunday, January 27th, 8 pm
Where:
Freebird
Fans of Tiger Army are devoted. And they like tattoo parlors. I can tell because many of them have pictures on the Internet of a body part that has been permanently inscribed with the Tiger Army logo. It is a tattoo-worthy logo – a sharp-toothed growling tiger head (with glowing green eyes) backed by bat wings.
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These batgers or tigats are featured on the cover of their latest psychobilly album Music from Regions Beyond (2007) and on Tiger Army III: Ghost Tigers Rise (2004). The Regions cover has the batgers flaying from a radio tower out into the world.
Psychobilly music is one of those niche music genres I think everyone should experience at least once. If you haven’t seen the Horrorpops or Necromantix when they were in town, you should plan to go to the Tiger Army performance at Freebird.
Judging from my pubescent taste in music, psychobilly perfectly matches me. I grew up listening to 1950s pop, rock ‘n roll and rockabilly when the other kids where listening to New Kids on the Block. Later I got into old school punk. Psychobilly carries elements of punk and that 1950s mix of country hills music with the rhythms of bourgeoning blues/rock. It also owes a great deal to the early punk movement of the 1970s and 1980s.
My early taste in music understandably biases me towards this genre. Most of the bands are wonderfully over the top in their dress and styles. The girls lean toward exaggerated pin-up styles and crinoline skirts. The guys go all punk, sporting Mohawks and eyeliner.
Even though they tend to wear bright colors instead of all black, there’s also a goth culture sensibility. They like to sing about spooky stuff and psychotic people.
Tiger Army, like the rest of psychobilly, sings about the supernatural. Most psychobilly bands sing about horror with a sense of humor, but Tiger Army seems to take a more serious approach.
“[We] go beyond the treatment that…horror gets in psychobilly,” says lead singer Nick 13, “Typically it’s done a cartoonish or novelty way and I wanted to approach it…in a more psychological way.”
Topics of their songs range from unrequited, bitter love and lust to ghosties and vampires. Their sound leans less towards punk and more towards rockabilly but you can hear the Ramones somewhere in the music, and the lead vocals are both clean and convey the appropriate angst for each song. Psychobilly can get a little tired sometimes, what with all the genre borrowing and riff lifting they do, but Tiger Army actually features well-constructed songs that stand on their own merits rather than just being a genre commodity.
I suppose in the psychobilly biz, you got to have a gimmick, even if you’re good. Band leaders often adopt some sort of outrageous stage name. The leader of Tiger Army, christened Kearney Nick Jones by his loving parents, now goes by the name Nick 13. He may have taken the name from his first band, Influence13, but is surprisingly evasive when asked by EU about his unusual choice in monikers.
“Like a lot of things in Tiger Army,” says 13, “it has to do with questioning the conventional wisdom or attitudes that people have about what’s good and what isn’t.”
Although he hinted about the past symbolism of the number 13, I think maybe he just took the name because it sounded cool and hardly anybody has a number as a last name. I’m good with that.
Catch the Tiger Army at the Freebird this Sunday at 8 pm. Fans who’ve seen them before should come out, since they vary their sets. Even if you aren’t devoted enough to get inked and you’ve never heard of Tiger Army, it’s worth going to for a new experience.
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