Blind Tiger, Tiger
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Blind Tiger, Tiger

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"Beateroute - All Ages Pages"

Blind Tiger, Tiger is a new band formed out of the ashes of Edmonton’s shoegaze stalwarts Storyboard. They play infectious indie pop with considerable earnest, bringing cutesy, twee, and milder shoegaze influence to bear on the bubblegum pop of acts like The Postal Service. BeatRoute spoke to horn player Catherine Hiltz about the differences between this project and their past band, Ted Haggard and other inspired topics.

BeatRoute: Forgive the obvious, but what twisted devilry inspired the moniker?
Catherine Hiltz : It’s a reference to a drug that doesn’t exist yet.

BR: While we're on the topic of the obvious, which acts would you say have most significantly inspired the work you're doing?
CH: Keeping the obviousness thing going, I'm going to say the Arcade Fire. I think it's hard to be a Canadian band now and not be somewhat influenced by them. Also S-bands: Spoon, St. Vincent, Stars, The Shins, Sufjan Stevens, and the Spice Girls.

BR: If the band were to bear children, how many would it have?
CH: Since the band contains siblings, that question grosses us out. However, we're strong supporters of adoption.

BR: The sonic severance from Storyboard is near total, to the point where the link between the two bands is virtually indistinguishable (a few more shoegazey moments excepted). Was this deliberate?
CH: We didn't make a deliberate effort to sound unlike Storyboard, but we also didn't at all try to emulate Storyboard. Starting a new project was a great opportunity to throw away all of the rules we'd internalized about what we can and ought to do. After four years of shoegazing, it felt like time to leave behind the ethereal bawling and try for some kind of exultance (not to belittle shoegaze, which we still love and appreciate). I think we have tried to retain Storyboard's sense of sincerity and emotional nakedness - just with different emotions.

BR: You have a song about the twisted doublethink of outspoken homophobe/closeted boy-john Ted Haggard, and another about the spheres of responsibility surrounding the extinction of animals. Is Blind Tiger, Tiger a political band?
CH: We're more interested in human nature than in politics, but the two seem to go hand in hand. Instead of writing an overtly political "Ted Haggard sucks" song, we wrote a song that asks what would happen if Ted Haggard just gave up spouting his hateful crap and gave in to his (gay gay gay) desires. Because, as much as he's an asshole, Ted Haggard must be a really tortured person, and all of the totally rotten shame that must be going on inside of him is almost more interesting than what he represents politically.

BR: Any plans for the release of a material artifact documenting your tonepoems? A tour?
CH: We've been trying to finish our three-song demo forever now, and hopefully once it's done, it'll be available for free. We hope to start playing outside of Edmonton on a regular basis, and we do have one really exciting prospect for an out-of-town show that we don't want to speak of yet, but it's really far south. And west. If you catch our drift...

BR: Everyone in the band is pretty svelte. Do you think there's like a maximum weight one can reach where people start to lose interest in indie rock?
CH: We hope not. It's actually kind of embarrassing to be a bunch of skinny white kids playing quintessential skinny-white-kid music.

BR: What do you think of Beatroute? No, seriously.
CH: Beatroute does fine work and doesn't get too much newsprint on your fingers. It's double-plus-good.

Who: Blind Tiger, Tiger w/The Details, Team Captain and Sink This City
Where: The Jekyll and Hyde (10610 100 Ave., Edmonton)
When: November 2 - Beateroute Magazine


"Congratulations, world! Two new bouncing baby bands"

Oh man, it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged (since well before we got ourselves a WordPress site!), but during my absence I have absolutely fallen love with two bands so new they don’t even have websites or press kits yet. Will you love them, too? If you have any good sense, you will.

Blind Tiger, Tiger - www.myspace.com/blindtigertiger

One read through their myspace page and attending blogs will clue you in to the fact that Blind Tiger, Tiger is possibly one of the wittiest, most hilarious bands to have ever graced the Great White North. More importantly, however, there’s nothing funny about how freaking great their music is. Sure, their self-described influences, which read “all the indie Top-40″, might seem trite and willfully dismissive, but any band whose music is simultaneously instantly hummable and yet so sonically rich as to merit repeated listens is definitely worth their weight in gold. Or in tigers, as the case may be. - Soundcheck Magazine


"Sled Island Writeup"

An infectious boy-girl indie pop band that doesn't hide their fantastic tunes behind cluttered, amateurish arrangements or swelling walls of white noise. And really, that's what sets Blind Tiger, Tiger apart from their contemporaries: they don't blindly follow the increasingly alarming indie rock trend of cheating to make you feel. -S.P. - Sled Island Festival


"BLIND TIGER, TIGER HOLDS THE FORT"

MARY CHRISTA O'KEEFE / marychrista@vueweekly.com

‘I had a dream last night about this secret hall; this perfect place for us to play. It was in my elementary school building, hidden up a staircase. The room was a beauty: it had a chandelier, lights cascading down the wall, this rich, luxurious interior,” Jessica Faulds describes. “And I was working out the most mundane details about booking a show there. It was the most boring dream ever!”

Faulds has an impish laugh, which she uses as pointy-sharp punctuation to her wry observations. She unleashes it as a kind of after-the-fact editor to her words, a weapon that shades intent and playfully skewers meaning, hopscotching through conversation with a breezy sense of provocative mischief.

A similar exhilarating smarty-pants fluidity flows—often at breakneck pace—through the freshly released debut EP by Faulds and her Blind Tiger, Tiger bandmates.

The furiously melodic outfit arose from the atmospheric ashes of Storyboard, a shoegaze quartet that keyboardist Faulds and cellist Catherine Hiltz were half of for years. The Storyboard demise was long and bumpy, dynamics complicated by strong personalities and conflicting visions. Even a serendipitous encounter with Metallica’s famed therapist yielded only short-term peace (“Everyone cried,” Faulds quips).

“When Storyboard broke up, I thought, ‘Am I just not going to be in a band anymore? That’s such a lifestyle change!’ The Edmonton music scene is such a great thing to be part of,” Faulds recalls. “Catherine and I talked about starting a new band before Storyboard ended. At first it was very speculative, then suddenly very real.”

Hiltz, Faulds’ longstanding friend and musical companion, adds, “Jessica had songs, we had ideas, and we started with that.”

Recruitment began close to home, with the ladies tapping Faulds’ younger brother, Jamie, a multi-instrumentalist with a sweetly theatrical voice.
“He’s on glockenspiel and sax—we’re pulling on all his high school talents,” his sister chuckles.

After a couple imperfect fits, the fledgling band pulled in Hiltz’s former schoolmate, drummer Sean Macintosh, and offered former Vancouverite Jordan Payne free reign with guitar and bass.

“I had a pretty strong idea of what I wanted the band to be,” Faulds contends. “We’re going to do everything we’re not allowed to do with Storyboard—all the stuff that was supposed to be too cheesy!” She laughs wickedly, “Now I’m the control freak!”

Hiltz shakes her head. “We’re collaborating more and more as we get to know each other. This band is fun, open, anything goes.”

“I like fun,” the songwriter replies. “Fun’s alright.”

The band’s inaugural EP, What the Hammer? What the Chain?, captures Faulds’ philosophy perfectly, kicking off with a lavish instrumental that gradually crescendos into a cacophonic celebration of sound—an overture that breaks ground for the ecstatic musical whirlwind that follows, buoying aloft lyrics that are witty but far from empty. Faulds’ poeticisms springboard off cultural and literary notions (“I have to use my English degree for something”) to tackle environmental degradation, existential awe, fairy tale outings and endings and interpersonal warfare—mighty topics wrapped in a deceptive coat of bright pop.

It’s little wonder, perhaps, that having dreamt up ornate “Tiger pop,” Faulds’ unconscious would create an idealized hall to play it in.
“But we’re pretty happy to be releasing the EP at Fort Edmonton,” she reckons. “It’s an appropriately special setting.” V


Fri, Jun 13 (8 pm)
Blind Tiger, Tiger
With My Robot Unicorn, the Neighbourhood Council, DJ Generic
Kelly’s Saloon at Fort Edmonton Park, $10

(http://www.vueweekly.com/article.php?id=8766) - Vue Weekly


"Blind ambition"

Pop tigers set to release debut EP into the wild

Francois Marchand, edmontonjournal.com
Published: Monday, June 09

If you bill it, they will come. Or so seems to be the reasoning behind local indie rock band Blind Tiger, Tiger's decision to hold their upcoming CD release show at Kelly's Saloon at Fort Edmonton Park.
"It's not related (to us)," BTT's Catherine Hiltz laughs when asked how the band fits in such a "rustic" setting. "Not related at all.
"The venue situation in the city is a little bit dire right now, so we planned something unconventional -- have a fun party in a location that some people might have some nostalgic memories of."

Well, it certainly isn't the typical venue for a five-piece that prides itself in playing quirky, tongue-in-cheek songs layered with guitars, horns, glockenspiel and the oh-so-hip combo of boy/girl vocal combinations -- a recipe that won't feel unfamiliar to fans of other Canadian indie uber-groups.
The band has already been invited to perform at Austin, Texas' South By Southwest festival, as well as at Canadian Music Week in Toronto -- all of it before their forthcoming debut EP, What the Hammer? What the Chain?, had even seen the light of day.
Soundcheck Magazine (no relation to our weekly podcast) even gave Blind Tiger, Tiger a spot on their "100 Reasons To Love 2007" list alongside such heavy-hitters as Spoon and Vampire Weekend (note: BTT were the only band on the list that didn't have an official recording to their name).
That's quite the vote of confidence coming from music industry insiders, and critics are already raving about what the band could be able to accomplish.
"We just really like Canadian indie pop," Hiltz says, "so anything like the Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, we've been compared to a couple of times because we've got lots of horns.
"I'm a huge Beatles fan, so I'm not sure if that's audible or not in the recordings. But with some shoegazy elements -- we still like to keep a little bit of ambient noise going on."
The more ambient side of Blind Tiger, Tiger doesn't come as a surprise. Hiltz and bandmate Jessica Faulds were both members of local shoegaze rock outfit Storyboard a couple years back. After Storyboard called it quits, both of them decided it was time to make music that was a little more direct and poppy.
Blind Tiger, Tiger eventually started working with musician/producer Eric Cheng (Portraits, Spreepark), who helped them put together What the Hammer? What the Chain?
"He made us an offer, actually, to record our EP for free, which was really great," Hiltz says. "He's put in a huge amount of work for us, so we're really appreciative. The catch is that we apply for some grants in September, and when we record our full-length, we'd actually pay him that time around."
She laughs.
Hiltz admits the band knows it's time to get serious and work to keep the momentum going. Though the band doesn't really have a label, Hiltz says she would prefer the band keep it DIY.
Hopefully, she says, Blind Tiger, Tiger's debut EP will help them break free from Edmonton and lead them to tour closer to the epicentres of the Canadian indie-rock scene -- Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
But that will only happen "if we keep working hard and we keep trying to get our name out and doing interesting things," she says, "not just by-the-book 'this band will play this show at this venue' kinda thing."
--
Blind Tiger, Tiger are releasing their debut EP, What the Hammer? What the Chain?, at Kelly's Saloon (Fort Edmonton Park) on Friday, June 13th, at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $10 at the door.
Get a sneak preview of their music in this week's Soundcheck Podcast.
- ED magazine, Edmonton Journal


Discography

What the Hammer? What the Chain? EP, 2008
1. Twist the Sinews
2. Pastor Haggard finds True Love
3. The Red List
4. 1950 DA
5. Schoolyard Games

Here & Noun Compilation, 2008
• Pastor Haggard Finds True Love

Wilkommen In Spreepark Compilation, 2008, Champion City Records
• Hotel Spreepark
• Die Spreepark Falle
• Theme D'Olympique
• We're Reinventing Music
• Spreepark Jetzt

Photos

Bio

"Almost as good as Katherine McPhee for cooking up wicked-cool Bedazzler patterns" - Mark Abraham, Cokemachineglow.

Blind Tiger, Tiger was formed when former members of shoegaze outfit Storyboard decided to stop playing music that makes you look at your feet and start writing songs that ask you to meet the world at eye-level.

The band specializes in explosive pop warm enough to melt the dirt-crusted snow of their local Edmonton. Guitars, keyboards, cello, and glock, intertwine to support oh-so-trendy boy-girl vocals that tell stories of evangelical preachers gone astray, unhappy serial killers, and the death of the last polar bear.

Blind Tiger, Tiger's idiosyncratic self-recorded demo caught the ears of promoters in Austin, Texas and snagged the band an invitation to SXSW, as well as a spot on Soundcheck Magazine's "100 Reasons to Love 2007" list alongside acts like Okkervil River, Spoon, and Vampire Weekend. Blind Tiger, Tiger was the only band without an official release that made the list.

Blind Tiger, Tiger has just finished recording a five-song EP with Edmonton art and media wizard Eric Cheng (Spreepark, Hills Like White Elephants, Portraits) to be released June 13, 2008. A tour supporting the EP is scheduled for late June and early July and includes performances at the Sled Island Festival and the Saskatoon Jazz Fest.