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Thursday, June 15, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS
Tigers Jaw talks new
album and Detroit show
By DOM POLSINELLI
Summer Senior Arts Editor
It’s all too easy for modern pop-
punk/emo bands to throw a couple
chords together with some relatable
lyrics to garner millennial atten-
tion. We see it happen all the time.
However, after nearly a decade of
songwriting, Scranton’s Tigers Jaw
has never shown the scars of this
age-old mediocrity and continuously
proves their dedication to their art.
On newest record spin, the band has
rounded out their catalogue, includ-
ing fast-paced, classically distorted
cuts like “Make It Up,” and newer
sounding tracks like
“Brass Ring.” As a
whole, the album plays
off like nostalgia with
some fresh twists, the
perfect mix of new cre-
ativity with comforting
familiarity. This com-
ing Saturday, Tigers
Jaw are bringing their
talents to El Club in
Detroit in support of
spin, and the Daily had
the
opportunity
to
speak with keyboard-
ist/vocalist Brianna Collins (oppo-
site Ben Walsh on guitar and vocals)
about the new record and headlining
tour.
“I guess what was most important
to get across is that — I know for Ben
and I — we knew what we wanted
the record to sound like. I know Ben
specifically always has a clear vision
with tone and… we wanted it to be a
cohesive record, but also give each
song the individual attention that we
felt it deserved,” Collins said of the
goals for the new record.
These goals are ultimately what
brought Tigers Jaw to greater
heights on the new record. The
album uses Tigers Jaw’s unique
brand of dreamy emo-pop, making
gorgeous use of Collins’s work on her
keyboard. The album is just varied
enough to make individual tracks
— most notably “Bullet” and “June”
— stand out on their own, while feel-
ing cohesive in a complete listen. The
dichotomy between Walsh and Col-
lins’s voices has always added a dis-
tinctive dynamic to their music, and
it’s exploited even further on spin.
The record even features the first
Tigers Jaw songs that are entirely
written by Collins on her own, with
drums and other compositional com-
ponents added by the multi-instru-
mentalist Walsh. Collins’s original
songs are a staple of spin that helps
the record stand out from past efforts
from the band.
“I think [spin] definitely differ-
entiates because I’ve never been a
primary song writer... I don’t think
I’ve ever been as vocally present on
a record. I think Charmer was prob-
ably the first record where we were
considering adding harmonies and
where my voice fit into it,” Collins
said. “Dynamically, it’s not too differ-
ent from how Tigers Jaw was before
as far as like — you
know — you have
two different song-
writers
putting
songs together in
one record. It feels
like Tigers Jaw to
me.”
Collins also gave
insight
into
her
songwriting:
“It
definitely
was a crazy process
for me, especially
because I’m not like
a strong guitar player, but I felt more
comfortable writing songs on guitar
other than piano. Rhythmically it
made more sense for me… It was a
lot of time and effort, but I’m really
proud of the songs. They’re like my
first three children, I guess,” Collins
said followed by some laughter.
Having Collins take the reins on
three tracks truly pays off on the
record. Second single “June” shines
brightly as one of the band’s most
well-written melodies to date. The
band consciously chose “June” for
release ahead of the album to show-
case her talents and involvement on
the record. With their updated selec-
tion of music, Tigers Jaw shows an
awareness of their fan base by plan-
ning a mix of all of their material to
perform on this tour, sure to please
fans both old and new.
“Because I know when I go to
see a band — even if I’m so excit-
ed for their new record — it’s not
the only thing I want to hear. So,
I think we’ll definitely keep that
in mind when we’re making our
setlist. Some old favorites, maybe
some songs from previous records
that we haven’t played too often
or haven’t played in a while to
keep it fresh,” Collins assured.
After a year of scattered shows
and a Riot Fest appearance, the
band is excited to get back to what
they love most: touring. With sup-
port from Saintseneca and Smid-
ley (whose beautifully varied
debut self-titled album happens
to be one of the best releases of
2017 so far), the shows are certain
to be nothing less than spectacu-
lar.
The intimate settings of club
shows are often what are most
exciting for bands, especially
when they’re gaining popularity
as quickly as Tigers Jaw. Commu-
nity is important to the band, and
they’re looking forward to chat-
ting with old fans and meeting
new ones at the shows.
“Obviously we enjoy touring.
We love playing smaller shows
that are more intimate. Like, after
a show meeting people, seeing
people that we’ve met over the
however many — a decade, we’ve
been doing this,” Collins said.
“I’m definitely excited to do a tour
— to just get in a van, different
city every night, hanging out with
our group of friends that we tour
with. I just love the routine of it at
this point. I love knowing kind of
what you’re getting into.”
Collins continued to stress the
importance of the music com-
munity in comparison to festival
appearances:
“It’s a different vibe because
people are obviously coming to the
show to see your band or one of the
supporting bands that you were a
part of choosing for the lineup that
you love too. So I feel that it’s like
a community atmosphere, where
you’re all there for a similar pur-
pose.”
With their energetic live per-
formances and gorgeous new
material, there’s never been a bet-
ter time to catch Tigers Jaw in
performance. Coming to one of the
best venues available to southeast
Michiganders, Saturday night’s
show will be an intimate, reward-
ing musical experience. Most
importantly, it’ll be music coming
from artists who love their craft.
“What’s most important to us
with the band is that it’s some-
thing that we love doing.”
By LAURA DZUBAY
Daily Arts Writer
Anyone who watched through the
fourth season finale of “Orange is the
New Black” knows that it ended on
its most intense cliffhanger yet. The
finale, which left off on the question
of whether or not Daya Diaz (Das-
cha Polanco, “The Perfect Match”)
would shoot a sadistic prison guard
(Michael Torpey, “Veep”) and kick
off a burgeoning riot, not only kept
the audience in very real suspense;
it also closed off an excellent season
that asked sincere and authentic
questions about morality, society and
the extent to which life, death and
human decency are valued within
a system of incarceration. It would
stand to reason that the fifth season
could either continue meeting the
standards of greatness the show has
already set for itself or, understand-
ably, fail to live up to them.
It sort of ends up doing both. The
fifth season narrows its focus more
than any other season before it and
tells the story of a three-day-long
prison riot, a creative and ambitious
move that seems to offer as many
opportunities as it takes away. The
restricted timeline definitely makes
this a unique season, as the audience
gets to see what all of their favorite
characters would do if they were
suddenly the ones at Litchfield with
the power, but it also makes the show
a
little
less focused and more
jumbled.
“Orange is the
New Black” has a
sprawling cast of
characters, which
works better when
all of their arcs
aren’t packed into the same con-
densed, chaotic timeline. At times
this can feel aimless, when unrelated
scenes featuring so many different
characters are forced into one epi-
sode. Another problem is that since
the season encompasses such a short
amount of time, each character’s arc
is the same throughout; the problems
people are dealing with in the first
couple of episodes are largely the
same ones they’re facing closer to the
finale. This approach makes sense for
a three-day-long timeline, but it also
makes it hard to truly develop the
characters and change them by the
end of the season.
That being said, this is a show with
some truly terrific characters, and
many of them have a chance to shine
this season. Red (Kate Mulgrew,
“Star Trek: Voyager”) spends the sea-
son trying to get revenge on Piscatella
(Brad William Henke, “Fury”), which
both adds necessary tension to the
season and pushes her into amusing
new territory when she inadvertently
takes speed with partner-in-revenge
Blanca Flores (Laura Gómez). Linda
(Beth Dover, “Life Partners”), Man-
agement & Correction Corporation’s
oblivious and uncaring Director of
Purchasing, poses as an inmate in
order to stay out of trouble during
the riot, which finally opens her eyes
to the unlivable conditions she has
helped to create for the inmates. Flaca
(Jackie Cruz) and Maritza (Diane
Guerrero, “Jane the Virgin”) use their
newfound internet access to start
a makeup tutorial channel on You-
Tube, which ends up providing some
of the comedic moments that work
best in this increasingly dark and
twisted season.
However, the season’s true stand-
out is Taystee (Danielle Brooks, “The
Angry Birds Movie”), whose well-
argued negotiations with MCC and
passionate determination to make
sure the late Poussey (Samira Wiley,
“Nerve”) is properly honored are
what really anchor this season and
get at the heart of what it is trying to
say. While other inmates are using
their newfound power to get revenge
on last season’s abusive guards or
passing the time with talent shows
and makeshift coffee shops, Taystee
— with the help of a brilliant perfor-
mance from Brooks — is working
hard to keep the real conversation
centered around the gross misman-
agement of the prison. This helps
both to keep the focus of the show
on what is important and to make
sure that the show treats Poussey’s
death with the respect and attention
it really deserves.
Season Five does face some
struggles in its attempt to stretch a
three-day-long riot into 13 episodes,
particularly when it comes to keep-
ing its storylines tight and organized.
However, part of the reason why
this comes across as less strong is
because “Orange is the New Black” is
in most ways a very strong show. The
fifth season may not entirely live up
to the expectations left behind by the
fourth, but it still benefits from many
powerful performances and creative
bits of storytelling. Perhaps most
importantly of all, it continues its
well-executed criticism of the innu-
merable problems that exist within
America’s prison system, and its
insistence that the audience consider
the concrete ways in which those
problems might begin to be solved.
Tigers Claw
8PM
Satuday, June 17
El Club
$16-18
‘Orange’ strains
Orange is
the Black
Netflix
Season 5 Review
MUSIC INTEREVIEW
TV REVIEW