Its long been believed in psychological circles that guys cant express their deepest emotions. They fall in love, they fall out of love, girls break their hearts, friends fuck them over, and theyre left staring blankly at the floor like monkeys whose bananas have just been taken away.
But imagine, for a minute, that four such heartbroken monkeys were given instruments as a replacement. These instruments arent new to the monkeys. Dave Thomas, for example, had been witnessed dextrously swinging his guitar around his neck by the strap while screaming, too, no joke in live Bored! performances for years. He also had a manic race round the lions den with another seminal Geelong band, Magic Dirt. Meanwhile, James Saunders had been assaulting his own guitar at the behest of various Melbourne pub bands Red Shift and The Stuntcar Drivers. Michael Evans was planting one foot on the foldback while strapped into a low-slung bass with The Detonators and Johnny Casinos Easy Action, and Daniel Dempster had spent far too much time bashing the living shit out of a drum kit fot the Sailors, The Martians and The Wigshop.
OK, so here they are, these monkeys. Theyre all friends, they like to hang out and stuff, watching what goes on out there beyond the bars of their cage. Then one day they find that all their bananas have been taken away at once. Things have changed, they wake up realising theyve lost their power to someone else, that things have fucked up, that this is no good, its actually fucked. Instead of staring at the grass and picking their arses, they grab their instruments and go nuts.
This album is the raw result of four guys expressing their emotions the only way they know how. Expressions of hate, expressions of lust, expressions of distress and anger and, ultimately, love. Its nice! If you want to hear what happens when a mad monkey grabs a tiger by the tail, this is it. There are chaotic mad screeching twin guitar assaults, ultra-violent beats and all those primal screams youd hear in the jungle if you werent too scared to venture into your own dark places. But just as the assault is getting a bit too brutal, its all tempered by beautiful, melodic breathers where the boys seem to come to some sort of acceptance. Were all human, see, and flawed, even the monkeys.
This is an album youll dance and scream to. Its a layered sound so complex in its chaos that youll go nuts too on first listen. Its rocknroll, thats all. Its something that you can play when you feel like youve loved someone too much, or youre worried about your sanity, or someone elses, or youre just angry or frustrated that things arent quite right. You can play it and feel these monkeys pain in your heart, because its your pain too. And it feels great. Some people rock badly, some cant help but knock your fucking head off. Tiger By The Tail does the latter. Give it a listen. Go on, everyone needs all the help they can get in the zoo.
tigerbythetail@aanet.com.au
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Tiger By The Tail are:
Dave Thomas: guitar / vocals
James Saunders: guitar / b-vocals
Michael Evans: bass
Dan Dempster: drums
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Tiger By The Tails self tiltled album was recorded and mixed in 48 hours at Birdland Studios melbourne Australia. Produced by Lindsay Gravina and Tiger By The Tail.
David Thomas, Michael Evans, Daniel Dempster, James Saunders.