tigerrr beat

WINNIPEG — Look no further than Winnipeg's healthy punk, garage rock and roots scenes and you'll quickly see that the city is rife with brilliant guitarists. So it's interesting that one of the 'Peg's most exciting bands don't have one.

Tigerrr Beat are a lo-fi, stripped-down bass, drum and keyboards trio who've been lighting up the local music scene lately. Though they've only been a band since early 2007, Mitch Dixon (drums, drum machine), Chris Samms (keyboards, vocals) and Russell Wiebe (bass, vocals) have already snagged opening gigs for like-minded, high-profile experimentalists such as Holy Fuck, You Say Party! We Say Die! and, most recently, We Are Wolves.

"It's so exciting, especially We Are Wolves," says Dixon. "I saw them two years ago, and though they were amazing. So it's weird, two years later, to be opening for them."

It's not just Tigerrr Beat's dance-your-ass-off live show that's been earning them a steady following in Winnipeg. Their self-recorded, self-distributed Tigerrr Beat… Kill! EP is already completely sold-out thanks to high demand from scenesters who gravitated towards the trio's weird noise pop — a sound that echoes the spacey, electronic art-rock more readily associated with Montreal than Winnipeg.

The Tigerrrs are working on a full-length debut that's tentatively titled Very Serious. Unlike a lot of first albums, it will barely repeat anything from the EP.

"We're just redoing 'Cherry Stems,'' says Dixon. "We were going to redo more because the EP is out of print, but every rehearsal we'd write new songs.

"And that EP was recorded really early. I think we had only been together for three months. We've gotten tighter as a band, even within the last five shows."

The forthcoming full-length will be another DIY affair. Dixon's basement will serve as the makeshift studio this time, which he says fits in just fine with the band's lo-fi, experimental approach to making music.

"It's partly due to money, but mostly because it's fun. It could be a limitation, not having an outside person to point out things that maybe you can't hear, but it's nice to do whatever you want. We like really lo-fi, bass-heavy stuff. I've always liked the idea of taking something very minimal and pushing it to the extreme."

Tigerrr Beat will take their claws to Winnipeg's Ragpickers Antifashion Emporium on Valentine's Day and March 1.

—Jen Zoratti
- chart magazine (online)

"Our sound is pop music I guess, but lo-fi and dirty, with different influences, like early no wave," says programmer/drummer Mitch Dixon (ex-Black Photograph) about the guitar-less trio he plays in called Tigerrr Beat.

"I got bored of playing guitar," Dixon says. "We decided we wanted live drums in Tigerrr Beat, so I decided to play drums. We actually still use the drum machine, too. It adds a bit of a different sound. It's something different."

Thurl Ravenscroft would approve: They're G-r-r-reat! The Tigerrr trio are the authors of the sold-out debut independent EP titled Tigerrr Beat. Kill! The Tigerrr Beaters assured me they have three r's in their band name for copyright reasons, and they're pretty nice guys, so if you street beaters really need a copy of Kill! I'll bet they'll burn ya one each. Just ask politely and remember to pay 'em for it if yer lucky enuff to get one.

In the meantime, check the band out at one of two all-ages purrrformances scheduled for Ragpickers Antifashion Emporium on Feb. 14 and again on March 1.

"We've actually played Ragpickers five times already," says lead vocalist/synthesizer player Christopher Samms.

"The next one is a Valentine's Day show. Julia from Slattern asked us to play. Slattern is playing, and the other bands playing are called Digitall - it's actually Digitall's last show - and a new-wavy two-piece called We Eat Meat are playing too."

With all the hard-earned oompa hoopla surrounding Tigerrr Beat, U gotta figure there'll soon be an album to go along with it - well guess what streetos? There will be!

"We're working on recording our album right now. We have a title. I think we're going to go with Very Serious," Samms says. "It's going to be another independent production. We're doing it in between school, and work, and whenever we can. We're busy guys. We're hoping to have the album out in spring."

U can ear-check upcoming tracks from the forthcoming indie alb in person when the Tigerrrs roar at Ragpickers. Samms assures Tigerrr Beat will flick out ear-pleasing claw cutters like Plz Be an Emperor of Rome and Baby Children Are Animals Too.

"Baby Children Are Animals Too could be about everybody's childhood," he continues. "The other song doesn't have any words. We just sing 'la's' in the middle."
- uptown

B+
This three-piece noise pop outfit may bear the same name as a gossip rag for 12-year-olds, but there's nothing fluffy about this Tigerrr Beat. Tigerrr Beat.KILL! is a lo-fi, six-song sampling of what this stripped-down bass, drum and keys band is capable of. Spacey, squiggly keyboard hooks fill in the role of lead guitar, but the band's strange sonic trip is appropriately anchored by staccato handclaps and jerky bass lines. Under the Bed is the stand out of this set, and though singer Christopher Samms sounds like a dead ringer for Wolf Parade/Sunset Rubdown vocalist Spencer Krug on this one, his raspy, throaty vocals suit the fuzzy backdrop well. Experimental in its approach and punk it its DIY execution, Tigerrr Beat's weirdo pop is worth keeping an ear out for.
— Jen Zoratti - Upton Magazine

29. Tigerrr Beat - Kill! (EP)

Six songs of lo-fi perfection from this bass, keys and drums trio. Wearing their influences on their sleeves (think Spencer Krug in University), the band rock through wickedly sardonic, bass heavy, three minute ditties. Also, not fitting into the bar rock scene in their hometown of Winnipeg is a strong selling point if you ask me.
Wed, Dec 19, 2007
by: Nick Friesen

- PopZap