Go Ghetto Tiger
Gig Seeker Pro

Go Ghetto Tiger

Band EDM Pop

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Go Ghetto Tiger makes its weirdness work"

Backstage at a Puppet Show (Independent)
One thing Go Ghetto Tiger has going for it is that it doesn’t sound like any other act on the Vancouver music scene. In fact, the trio doesn’t really sound like anyone else, anywhere. The songs are powered by synthesizer lines reminiscent of late-’90s Euro-trance and drum programming redolent of ’80s electro-industrial, but they follow standard pop-rock arrangements. Singer-bassist Marc Blaquiere is something of a vocal chameleon, but he’s at his best when he sticks to the lower end of his range.
Backstage at a Puppet Show seems padded with unnecessary filler, such as the five instrumental interludes that serve mostly to show how many corny sounds Jason Urquhart can wrestle out of his keyboard. “Trick or Gift”, though, is a catchy pop number that would please anyone who has waited too long for a new Postal Service album. “Hell for the Soul” makes clever use of Auto-Tune and what sounds like the noise emitted by frying circuits, and “Goodbye” plays out like a dying android’s final transmission set to a glitch-hop backdrop. When everything clicks, Go Ghetto Tiger’s curious sound definitely works in its favour. - The Georgia Straight - John Lucas


"Go Ghetto Tigers aims to be tighter than most"

If you fell in love with the songs on 2007’s Go Ghetto Tiger, the eponymous debut from the Vancouver trio composed of MarQuo Blacquiere, Jason “Super J” Urquhart, and Skoty B, you’re out of luck if you want to hear them live anytime soon. In February, the group—which has been drawing fans with its mix of industrial noise, ’80s new wave, and ’90s indie rock—lost guitarist-vocalist Skoty B to time-commitment conflicts. Without him, eight of the nine songs on the record are off the set list, and the group is almost starting from scratch. But fear not—there are no tears in the Ghetto. While the group may have lost a guitarist, it has gained a new drummer, and Go Ghetto Tiger is more excited than ever about writing songs.
Sitting in a Main Street café, the band’s members hardly look the way they sound. Vocalist and bassist Blacquiere, 34, is the gregarious leader who, apart from fingernails painted with what appears to be Sally Hansen’s Ru-by or Not to Be nail polish, comes across as the kind of guy you might see in a sports bar watching the game. Sporting horn-rimmed glasses and a floppy, fringed haircut, 26-year-old keyboardist Urquhart offers a nervous handshake and seems your typical shy indie-rock enthusiast, and new drummer Jason Quirk is somewhere in between the two.
But after just a minute’s chat, Go Ghetto Tiger, or perhaps more accurately Blacquiere, is all enthusiasm and rock-star dreams. While the band may at some point add guitars again, right now it’s all about songwriting and whatever Quirk brings to the mix.
“For three years, we had a sequencer,” says Blacquiere. “We went on tour with an MP3 player with all the drum tracks on it.”
“I’m replacing a computer,” adds Quirk, who previously held down the back end for Vancouver punk/new-wave band IROC. “A robot. I’m actually still playing a bit like a robot. I’m a human trying to play like a drum machine.”
“We’re supertight. That’s our thing,” Blacquiere says. “Tighter than most. We’ll have to prove it to everybody. But I’m serious. Tighter than most.”
The group laughs at this, but frankly its members will have to be tight if they’re going to continue to make the music they do. Not terribly radio-friendly, and certainly not trendy, Go Ghetto Tiger’s body of work traverses some strange territory. For example, Go Ghetto Tiger’s opening track, “Deluxe Deluxe”, manages to recall ’80s also-rans the Icicle Works, ’90s indie-rock bands like Nada Surf and Soul Coughing, and, to add to the confusion, Vancouver’s own industrial legends Skinny Puppy. In other words, the song is every night at Luv-A-Fair rolled into three minutes and 32 seconds. Four tracks later, Urquhart’s “Before We’re Friends” reveals the soft-spoken musician’s affection for dreamscapes in the vein of Sigur Rós and synth-pop à la Violator-era Depeche Mode.
Sound like a muddle? Strangely, it mostly works, especially when Urquhart’s keys are at the forefront.
Indeed, if there’s anything that might be a bit over-the-top about Go Ghetto Tiger, one suspects it will be fixed with the new lineup. The beats that seemed a bit prefab on the debut will likely sound more soulful with Quirk behind them, and the effects-laden guitars that made the record just a tad too ’80s presumably departed with Skoty B.
“Our next record, we’re skipping 10 feet ahead,” says Blacquiere. “This past record was not as well crafted. I’m definitely feeling really excited about crafting more songs and making them perfect. We’re definitely a pop band. A lot of people say that we’re ’80s, and I guess I can kind of hear it, but I’m also a huge fan of noise bands—Fantômas, Mr. Bungle. I love death metal and speed metal.” - The Georgia Straight - Elaine Corden


Discography

Go Ghetto Tiger - S/T (2007, LP)

Backstage at a Puppet Show (2009, LP)

Photos

Bio

Spellbinding beats. Alien synths. Dark emotive vocals. Driving bass lines. Catchy melodies. All tied together with a mix of ear bending samples and pop meets post new-wave song arrangements.

These descriptions come to mind when describing the sound of Go Ghetto Tiger.

Founding members Marc Blaquiere, bass/vocals, and Jason Urquhart, keyboards/guitar, have been cultivating these sounds over a 4-year period in their native city of Vancouver, British Columbia.

The first 3 years saw them go through several line-up changes with such instrumentation as electric guitars, trumpet and additional synths. They took their first record, the self-titled Go Ghetto Tiger, on a Canadian tour in 2007 playing 25 venues to Ottawa and back.

With over 150 shows under their belt and a stable line up, the trio took to the studio to record a follow up album. Recorded over the course of 9 months at CastOpus studio with local producer Scott Boudreau, Backstage at a Puppet Show finds the band in top form with 16 songs of pure chaotic pop bliss.

2009 saw the additions of another synth player and a new live drummer the result has been an added energy and a more modern twist on their developed sound. Not wanting to rest they will head to the studio in the Summer of 2010 to record and track this new found energy in the form of a 4 track E.P. Dance floor knockouts; Lyrical poignancy; Layers of sonic warmth; Music that’s current & nostalgic. This is the new Go Ghetto Tiger a band that has found their sound and continue to evolve.