Indie pop rock band Miniature Tigers from Brooklyn will make their third appearance in the Rio Grande Valley this Sunday, June 6 at Cine El Rey at 7:30 p.m.
Rewind to early 2009 when lead singer and guitarist Charlie Brand and his friends were coming to the end of their first major tour with pianist Ben Folds. In mid-March, they decided to conquer the South first by playing at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin.
Near the end of this tumultuous journey, there remained one stop, and no one, including the 25-year-old Brand, knew how it was going to turn out.
“We had no idea what to expect,” said 25-year-old about the planned concert in McAllen. Little did they know that in the future they would return to the Valley three times in only one year.
When one thinks of the Valley, they don’t automatically think music, much less of underground indie pop rock. After all, the Valley is an area rich in traditional and cultural music. This isn’t exactly free-spirited Austin where the minds of artists and musicians alike can grow to become national icons, though this area does have a few exceptions, such as actor Valente Rodriguez who appears in the hit television sitcom, “The George Lopez Show.”
Patrick Garcia of Goodbar Productions, who has booked bands like Miniature Tigers and other indie artists such as Cursive and New Found Glory since 2006, explained that the music culture of the Valley is still dominated by mainstream bands appearing on places such as the Disney Channel whose music is repeatedly played on local pop and reggaeton stations.
For the Tigers show, there was a big fear that nobody would show and that the whole thing was going to turn out to be a really bad idea.
“The scene’s interest remains captivated by the hair-straightener pop sound of 2002 still so we were terrified that nobody would show,” Garcia said.
As it turns out, it was the total opposite. “The folks that showed up were so respectful and into the music that it made it one of the most fun shows we’d ever played,” Brand said.
“In some places like Los Angeles, people just fold their arms and don’t seem to care about music,” Brand said. “McAllen is the polar opposite. People care passionately about the music and we feel that and feed off that for our performance.”
Fast-forward to today and the Arizona natives are set to return for their third performance this Sunday, June 6. They have gained more popularity and momentum than ever before.
Their video for “Cannibal Queen” off their 2008 album “Tell It to the Volcano” was featured on mtvU. Riding on the success of their first set of albums, the band will put out their latest and most emotionally charged release, “FORTRESS,” on July 27. Fans can anticipate this album to be very different from the rest of Miniature Tigers’ discography.
Brand explains that, from the very first track, people will notice the radical departure from their past work.
“I hate when bands put out two albums that sound exactly alike,” he said. “I love sitting down with a new album and being surprised by the sound. I think we get off on throwing people off.”
Expect this album to be filled with emotion and reflect. Brand said each song was made with its own unique vibe. The lyrics come from a very truthful and vulnerable state of mind, which is also the reason behind the name “FORTRESS.” He said it symbolizes “isolation and emotional walls people put around themselves.”
Miniature Tigers’ just-released video for their first single, “Gold Skull,” is available on Stereogum.com. One Twitter user tweeted to Brand that the video made him (the user) feel like he was “on a sexual acid trip.”
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