Tiger Lou

I suppose I can understand how Tiger Lou (or TGR LOU) have avoided mainstream radio, and even to some extent the non mainstream radio (which pretty much is Triple J and random community stations in Australia). They (when live) play indie rock, which is one of those genres that is saturated to the point that people rarely waste their time going through it for the gems. They have plenty of good ones to play on the radio anyway. (Indie is a not a genre in my eyes, for a variety of reasons that I am not going to put down here, but it honestly irritates me when someone tries to define a band's sound with the simple fact that the band is not associated with major commercial labels). Anyway, on to Tiger Lou. Swedish band Tiger Lou was formed in Nyköping 2001 by Rasmus Kellerman. After several EPs, the first full-length album 'Is My Head Still On?' was released in 2004 and was followed in 2005 with 'The Loyal'. On the albums Tiger Lou is a solo project with Kellerman writing lyrics and playing nearly every instrumental part himself. Live, however, he is backed up by Erik Welén, Mathias Johansson and Pontus Levahn. That is what wikipedia says, which covers what Tiger Lou is... Not how they sound.

I keep on saying 'they', when I should be saying 'he'. Rasmus Kellerman does all the music making, the band just helps him to play it live. While a Swede (big surprise there), he now lives in Berlin where he recorded his latest album. An interesting character, he apparently 'is trying to quit smoking, is disturbed by the thought of touching butter or margarine, prefers dancing to “Frequency” by Rex The Dog and ranks “Rushmore” as the best film ever.' Somehow I like a band more when I respect something about the band members.

Often solo projects sound as though they are missing something. Peter Tägtgren's band Pain is an example, despite still making pretty good music. Tiger Lou is not one of them. That the music was composed by one man came as a surprise to me. Tiger Lou is an example of how allowing one person complete creative control, letting them achieve the vision they want without worrying about other's wishes, can pay off. The sound is, to put it one way, focused. It knows what it is doing. And it does that. Well.

Mostly I am talking about his latest album, which I have to say is a masterpiece. 'A Partial Print' begins with my personal favourites from the album, 'The More You Give' and 'The Less You Have to Carry'. Which are technically one song. The sound is sparse yet somehow filled out, dark I suppose you could call it, or at least melancholic. No killer riffs, or catchy tunes on this one. It just sounds good. Check it out some of the songs on the myspace. The lyrics are also pretty damn good. They fall into place exceptionally, painting images with the music filtering through.

'A Partial Print' takes a while to sink in. While I first heard 'The Less You Have to Carry' and loved it enough to get the album, the rest of the songs seemed to be pretty unmemorable. The next listen I started to get into 'Crushed by a Crowd'. Then 'So Demure'. And it goes on, each listen revealing a new spark of genius in the album.

The earlier albums were a lot more 'pop', a fuller sound, but less 'there' to me. Despite a few listens, I can't seem to get into 'Is My Head Still On?' and 'The Loyal'. But those are the albums that I could see being played on the radio. If Last.fm is anything to go by, 'Oh Horatio' is his most popular song, and is a pretty good representation of the sound on the previous albums.

This band won't make it big, nor does it want to. But I like them, they sound awesome, and for that they should be better known. Hell, they had a song played on the OC. How can they not be on my radio? How can no one have heard of them? Check out their myspace for a taste. If you are like me, after one song you'll instantly decide to acquire the whole album. Which never really pays off for me usually, but this time I am so glad I did.