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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

