Old Tiger

In July of 2009 - in an old, dusty garage in Ocean Beach, CA - Dustin Lothspeich played 4 rudimentary songs he’d written for his buddy, Eric Boone. They both quickly realized that the songs’ blend of vintage r&b and 60's southern soul were something they both wanted to explore more. Just a couple of weeks later, their friend, Matt Phillips, overheard the two working out arrangements for those 4 songs behind that garage door and immediately knew he wanted to be involved on bass. Thus, Old Tiger was born.

Combining elements of gritty soul, old-school r&b and 50's-era doo-wop, the group began practicing regularly while Lothspeich continually presented new songs, one after the other. By late October, Old Tiger would begin recording a dozen original songs inside a creaky North Park house with little more than Phillips’ dilapidated laptop, a couple of low-budget microphones and a 12-pack of whatever beer was on sale at the Vons across the street. The recording sessions were slow but steady; their goal was to channel their collective love and penchant for all things Stax Records and the Golden Era of Motown into their own material. After roughly 4 months of recording and mixing the results – the guys emerged with a solid collection of material ready to be tweaked, mastered and pressed as their debut full length record.

After the recording sessions, they were also determined to take their music to the people. Another two months of tireless rehearsals resulted in their first show in May 2010: a surprising headlining gig at San Diego’s sizable Brick By Brick Club. It was a rousing success, and unexpectedly propelled them into a 30 minute set on "These Days", the morning show for San Diego’s local NPR radio station, KPBS. More and more shows followed at San Diego venues such as The Soda Bar, Eleven, The Beauty Bar, and The Tin Can Alehouse.

In June 2010 – tapped personally by 94.9 FM’s own Tim Pyles and "SD: Dialed In" blog creator, Rosemary Bystrak – Old Tiger played their biggest show yet at San Diego’s most infamous venue, The Casbah, with seminal Canadian alt-country band The Sadies.

In August 2010, they released their self-recorded debut EP titled "The Definitive Collection" on iTunes and amazon.com, and the band has been touring nonstop since - visiting LA, the Inland Empire, Long Beach, Pasadena & Tucson, AZ with their new brand of rock n' soul.

In other words, we'll be seeing them around.