The Republic Tigers

Under each song entry in the liner notes to the Republic Tigers' debut full-length CD, a credit goes to whichever band member or members (or nonmembers, in a few cases) "initiated" the song in question. For example, "Fight Song," the album's rah-rah rock anthem — complete with tomahawk guitar riff and tribal drums — was "initiated by" frontman Kenn Jankowski and his former Golden Republic bandmate Ryan Shank. "Made Concrete," a swirling, melodic blissout of guitar and keyboard programming, was initiated by guitarist Ryan Pinkston. A crew of digital-age composers, the Tigers pass around song files like intraband demos, loading them onto ProTools rigs and sculpting massive creations from the initial song chunks. The Rep Tigs have taken the Radiohead formula and raised it several powers. Starting with the hard elements of rock — guitar, drums, bass line, melody — they stack on vocal layers, atmospheric keyboards, sampled sounds, chimes, echoes, hums, whirs and whatever else sounds good at the time. In creating these brilliant, crystalline pop hymns, the Tigers blur the line between old-fashioned songwriting and computerized songmaking. "The Nerve," a song about a robot boy longing for a human girl, illustrates the concept perfectly — with Keep Color, the Republic Tigers have made that union concrete.