Tigers Jaw Pre-Order! (or “Holy crap, we actually released a 2nd record”)
Things have been awfully quiet at Tiny Engines HQ, and even though we’ve got plenty of ambition and aspirations to spare, we’re also pretty picky about the records we put out. The Look Mexico 7-inch was a terrific success and we couldn’t be more proud to have made Gasp Asp Tiny Engines’ inaugural release. Of course, we wanted our second 7-inch to be just as spectacular.
Enter Spirit Desire, the latest offering from Scranton, PA’s Tigers Jaw. And yes, they realize there should be an apostrophe in their name. Get over it, grammar freaks.
If you’re not familiar with this incredible five piece, take a quick trip over to Beartrap PR and listen to a couple mp3s. The band’s 2008 Self Titled full-length was one of my favorites last year and Will ranked it #4 on his Best of 08 list. As for Jeff, he knows a good thing when he hears it and was quick to jump on board. He’s also the only one of us who has seen the band live, so bully for him.
Needless to say, even before we heard any of the songs for Spirit Desire, we were angling to work with the Tigers Jaw kids. Listening to the incredibly infectious tracks that would eventually appear on the 7-inch sealed the deal.
So fast forward a few months later and here we are; the masters are at the plant and we’re taking pre-orders for this awesome slab of wax. The songs are amazing, keeping with Tigers Jaw’s nostalgic yet completely fresh indie-rock-cum-pop-punk M.O., but injecting even more tension, energy and ridiculously contagious melodies into the mix. The title track is the darkest, most foreboding they’ve ever written. Still, it’s probably the catchiest as well. It’s this mash-up of styles and contrasts that make Tigers Jaw so damn unforgettable.
We’re pressing 450 copies of Spirit Desire, with 150 on purple vinyl and 300 on yellow. While the 7-inch contains 3 songs, each copy will also come with a free mp3 download that features a bonus fourth track not included on the record. Of course, if there are any of you are interested in simply picking up the digital version of Spirit Desire, it should be up on iTunes, eMusic and other online digital services soon.
The vinyl Release date is tentatively scheduled for “late summer” but if all goes to plan, we should have copies ready to send out before the band leaves for tour on July 10th. For more info and to pre-order our copy, go here!
And finally, as a rad little bonus, everyone who pre-orders a copy of the record will automatically be entered to win a Spirit Desire test pressing, as well as our final two test pressings for Gasp Asp. We had a lot of requests for the latter but I just couldn’t bring myself to put them on eBay. I figured that the fairest thing to do was to have this contest / giveaway thingy.
To sweeten the deal, both Gasp Asp test pressings will include a limited-edition, hand-numbered, hand-screen printed jacket with exclusive artwork by Josh from Look Mexico. Our buddy Dustin Garrett did us a huge solid and printed these bad boys for us…and they look so friggin’ good. Not only did he use three different paper colors to mix things up, he was also generous enough to give us 54 copies. That means that we have a bunch left over for you guys. You can pick one up here!