Thursday, August 13, 2015

She Rides Tigers: Chicago's Thrilling Brit Pop



The first time I came across She Rides Tigers (SRT) I got pretty well impressed by their music. Later on I was told that they could be easily compared to bands like the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC), Queens of The Stone Age (QTSA) or even Royal Blood. I’ve found this sort of comparison a bit risky due to the fact that one knows quite well the full discography of both BRMC and QTSA as well as of Royal Blood’s mega successful first album.

SRT surprisingly good debut EP “Standing on The Edge” sounds rather different from them all as we hope to be able to demonstrate in this article. We’ve been also told that SRT could make a connection to both early Alice Cooper and Slade. Absolutely disagree with this idea. Alice Cooper stands aesthetically miles away from SRT and is a lot less raucous and lacks the epic melodicism of SRT. Early Slade was also discarded.

One recalls the days back then when we first got into Noddy Holder’s band success during the first half of the 70s just before Punk Rock showed up. SRT really sound to something else pretty much different from Slade and their northern glam rock for the working class. Later on while reading through SRT bio I came across another lot of well-known bands from which SRT supposedly draws some inspiration.

Taking into account the kind of sound they produce we’ve found that their inspirational mentors go from the notoriously obvious Led Zeppelin to the much less obvious psychedelic influence of both Temples (pretty much into The Kinks) and Tame Impala (pretty much into Cream). Anyway, there is much more on these influences/references issue. SRT also acknowledge some mentoring to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, T-Rex, The Who, Cream, Sex Pistols and finally (we agree on this one) Oasis. Pretty eclectic!

One of the most interesting things about trying to write about music, whether it is an EP/LP review or an in depth article lays upon the kind of research I like to do about it to more appropriately understand the way cultural background and emergent musical influences of a band actually articulate in order to weave a particular sonic outcome. Usually what bands take as their most cherished influences isn't as much reflected or noticeable in the music as they consider it to be.

This turns out to be quite puzzling sometimes. Almost an archaeological challenge trying to build some sort of connection between the references bands say they pretty much have in opposition to the aural effect they exert in our eardrums.

On the other hand the sound of most bands we write about shows that there usually are less obvious influences behind official ones which contribute rather surprisingly to the final aesthetic sonic product. This seems to be precisely the case with SRT.

When we start listening to this solid, exciting power trio from Chicago, formed by Joe O'Leary (vocals/guitar), James Scott (bass/vocals) and Matt McGuire (drums/percussion) blasting their deliciously electrifying rock & roll all over the place we inevitably feel the compulsion to check list all their influences as mentioned a few lines above and see if they really match with the final sonic blast seal of “Standing on The Edge”.


We have done it and digged through the full discography of all those bands mentioned and easily dismissed the direct influence of most of them behind the crafting of the raw, visceral infection-contagious, hook and riff powerful energized sonic blow of SRT and their highly recommendable debut EP.

Objectively and as stated a few paragraphs above we see no sign of Alice Cooper whatsoever in the work of this trio hailing from Chicago. Alice Cooper lacks raucousness, melodicism and most of all lacks the essential sonic references which mould the soundscape of SRT. The same applies to Slade? Noddy Holder and his wild bunch managed to have quite some success during the 70s mostly during the first half of the decade, nevertheless when you go dig for Slade early albums namely Play It Loud (1970) and Slayed? (1972) and essaying a comparison with the sonic boom of SRT we easily conclude that the connection is too fragile to be even taken into account.

But what about The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who, Cream or The Sex Pistols? Can we spot any direct overwhelming and unavoidable influence of these famous bands upon the final result of SRT “Standing on The Edge”? Probably we can, but only through some kind of mediation made possible by the contribution of other bands that according to our understanding seem to really have huge ascent over the SRT aesthetics meaning that only very indirectly can those so called influences actually affect the Chicago powerful trio.

So which are after all the backbone influences behind SRT drenched guitar and excitingly pounding rhythm section? Nothing better than a track by track inquiry through SRT debut EP to clarify our point of view and conclude that the band is the best perfect blend of two of the most iconic and representative BritPop bands ever: Sterophonics and Oasis. This is their hardcore influence at least as we sensed it. BRMC has slight influence on SRT mainly through “Specter at the Feast” album mostly noted because of some kind of post punk bass lines though in general one can hardly spot many similarities between both bands considering BRMC’s previous albums' aesthetics.

The same goes with little difference for QTSA though we can spot a bigger influence than with BRMC for there are traces of “Rated R”, “Era Vulgaris” and “...Like Clockwork” albums in the SRT sonic proposal though the dirty aggressive experimentalism articulated with a more direct rock sound we acknowledge in most of the QTSA albums is not so easily found in “Standing on The Edge”, but SRT isn’t supposed to be a carbon copy of the bands they like or are influenced by.

We dare to say that from the first track of the EP (Chase The Flame) to the very last one (Stronger) there is a massive presence of both Stereophonics and Oasis. While going through each one of the albums from both these bands we acknowledged major influences in the whiskey vocals, the drenched fuzzy distorted guitar trademark of Kelly Jones and Noel Gallagher, the thick vibrating bass lines, the steady pounding drumming and most of all the highly admirable feature of “Standing on the Edge” which is a sublime re-enactment of the epic melodic patterns, atmosphere and anthemic vibrations able to bind a whole generation together around songs such like “Local Boy in the Photograph”, “I Could Lose Ya”, “Trouble”, “Doorman”, or “I Got Your Number” (Stereophonics) or “Wonderwall”, “Live Forever”, “Supersonic”, “Champagne Supernova” and “Look Back in Anger” (Oasis).

In spite of being an American band SRT were able to somehow resurrect that inflammable generous memoir of the best ever made BritPop sustained in some zepplelin-esque roots rock painted with some strokes of The Cult from “Sonic Temple” and “Beyond Good and Evil” era. "Standing on The Edge" is beyond doubt one of the best EP’s we have reviewed this year. Nicely played not overproduced and superbly appealing to the ear (drum). Well done Joe, James and Matt! This is an 8/10 EP for INDIEVOTION and it surely leaves room for some justified great expectations concerning the SRT first album in a near future.