Posted by tonywonder in 2010 | 0 Comments
Miniature Tigers, feat. regular-sized Japanese women
LOL SOMEBODY'S NOT MAKING MINIATURE TIGERS ANYMORE
Miniature Tigers: “Japanese Woman”; “Rock ‘n Roll Mountain Troll”; “Bullfighter Jacket”
Miniature Tigers’ “Japanese Woman” begins with these lyrics: “There’s a Japanese woman that lives in my closet / eats up all my food when she thinks I”m at the office.” These are, potentially, the best lyrics of 2010, and quite possibly the best lyrics of the Obama era, and they also hold an outside chance of being the best lyrics of the next four million years, at which point the sun explodes and the earth will be engulfed in flames and yet somehow these lyrics will improbably survive and birth a more complete civilization. As for the song itself, it bops around efficiently, inspiring happy feelings wherever it goes, like a jackrabbit or a subprime mortgage lender circa 1997.
Miniature Tigers’ second album, Fortress,* is founded on a tribal-sunshine-pop sonic blueprint (yes, like Animal Collective and Local Natives and Delorean and every other band out there…hold on) – but they use this blueprint as a foundation to establish an individual, left-field charm that differentiates them from the genre’s more serious practitioners. Frankly, Miniature Tigers are hilarious, singing about Japanese women and Rock ‘n Roll Mountain Trolls and something called “Coyote Enchantment” (which as far as I can tell refers to the enchanting effect of a coyote’s sidelong presence – an effect that I’m pretty sure is something the band made up). They also know their way around a hook, avoiding the masturbatory avant-garde instrumental tropes of the aforementioned tribal pop genre (perhaps best exemplified by a Panda Bear live show) in favor of the angular, economic pop braggadocio of The Kinks – while still retaining some beautiful bouts of eccentricity, like the “yah yah yahs” kicking off “Bullfighter Jacket.” As with all correctly-done pop music, Miniature Tigers aren’t very complicated, but endlessly appealing. In conclusion, listen to these tracks while watching cartoons in the summertime.
* Technically, it’s written as F O R T R E S S. However, that’s incredibly hard to type out, and I don’t think it changes the pronunciation of the album, so whatever.
