It's cool to be a vinyl junkie - or at least it is cooler than being a trainspotter - and there is always the possibility that someone out there may someday hail you as an arbiter of good musical taste. With vinyl addiction, however, comes responsibility – no, more of a duty – to purchase anything in yellow vinyl, blue vinyl, green vinyl, cardboard vinyl – you're getting the pocket emptying picture by now – and picture disc. Thus, it was no surprise that the "Banned At The Troxy" picture disc by Tigercats found itself on the turntable of love at Bluesbunny Towers.
Research being a responsible thing to do, it was duly discovered that said Tigercats were a fivesome from London who show the benefit of education in their little musical adventures. "Banned At The Troxy", for a start, has all the bouncy guitar pop style of that you would have expected of an up and coming band in eighties' Glasgow complete with cardigans and wry humour. To use a more up to date comparison, Tigercats reminded me of the Felt Tips only without the decayed humour but with added, damn your 21st century eyes, metrosexuality.
On the flipside – for this is vinyl, after all, there are two more tracks. "Skydiving" is altogether more intense than its topside companion and it made me wish I was that sensitive. Or perhaps not. However, there is a little bittersweet gem hiding out as the final song. "Jonny" takes what would be a positively fifties innocence type love song and infuses it with modern day obsession and confusion ("…I don't need no promises because I self medicate") to make something vaguely disturbing. You see, it's sung by a woman and there's only one in the band and there also happens to be Jonny in the band. Draw your own conclusions but I feel that a Fleetwood Mac emotional collision is on the horizon.
All in all, these three songs highlight the fact that Tigercats put more into their words than their music and that makes them much more than retro pranksters and that, my friends, is more than good enough for me.