Tigers Jaw

A band whose music has matured from pop-punk to emo to indie rock, Tigers Jaw have earned a growing following for their melodic but insistent music and emotionally powerful lyrics. Always urgent and usually tuneful, Tigers Jaw's music has been evolving since they began recording, but the constant factors have been a spare yet engaging sense of melody, a willingness to open their hearts and minds to the listener, and an energy that brings a forceful impact to even their most pop-oriented songs. 2008's Tigers Jaw typified the scrappy, heavily dynamic sound of the band's early days, 2010's Two Worlds found them in a more confident mood with a full-bodied sound, 2014's Charmer was a transitional effort as their emo roots gave way to a poppier, indie-influenced attack, and 2021's I Won't Care How You Remember Me demonstrated they could adopt a more polished and thoughtful approach without sacrificing their passion or perspective. Tigers Jaw were formed in 2005 in Scranton, Pennsylvania by guitarist and vocalist Adam McIlwee and guitarist and vocalist Ben Walsh. The two began working up material and recruited bassist Dennis Mishko and drummer Mike May; a keyboard player dropped out before the group's first show, and through mutual friends, Brianna Collins was invited to join the lineup. Several months later, Mike May left the band, and Pat Brier took over on drums, solidifying the band's membership. In 2006, Tigers Jaw recorded their first album, Belongs to the Dead, on a portable recording rig in an attic where the band rehearsed; the album was released by Summersteps Records, and in 2008, they went into the studio with producer and engineer Joe Loftus to cut their second full-length, simply titled Tigers Jaw, for Photobooth Records. Tigers Jaw's popularity began to spread, despite the group's touring opportunities limited by the members' academic commitments, and in 2010, they signed with Run for Cover Records, which brought out their third album, Two Worlds. (Run for Cover would also reissue the band's first two albums.) A split EP with the group Balance & Composure was also released the same year, and Tigers Jaw would release split singles with like-minded bands the Sidekicks, Tiny Empires, and Code Orange over the next few years. In 2013, Tigers Jaw released a new single, "Hum" b/w "Cool," but the group soon made the announcement that Adam McIlwee, Dennis Mishko, and Pat Brier were leaving the lineup, and the band was going on hiatus. While many believed Tigers Jaw was breaking up, Ben Walsh and Brianna Collins made it clear they were keeping the group together, and they set out on a tour with the help of guest musicians Derrick Sherman (guitar), Andrew Fisher (bass), and James Fisher (drums). McIlwee, Mishko, and Brier agreed to rejoin Tigers Jaw in the studio to complete their fourth album, and Charmer was released in the spring of 2014. Spin, the band's much anticipated fifth studio long-player, was released in May 2017; their first to be recorded as a duo, it was also their major-label debut and the first release on producer Will Yip's Atlantic imprint Black Cement Records. By 2019 the duo had regrouped as a four-piece with Theodore Roberts playing drums and Colin Gorman on bass. Moving to Hopeless Records that same year, the refreshed group issued their first single, "Warn Me," for the label at the beginning of 2020. Returning to the studio around the same time, the band set to work on their sixth album, with Yip once again in the producer's chair. With the COVID-19 pandemic putting touring on hold, the group issued the first results of the sessions at the tail-end of the year, releasing the singles "Cat's Cradle" and "Lemon Mouth." The album I Won't Care How You Remember Me, their most polished effort to date, arrived at the beginning of 2021. ~ Mark Deming