Stuff People Said About "White Dog Rough Again"
"It starts, like an old barn-housed engine, with a blast of smoke, harmonicas that creek like rusty wheels and the percussive banjo rattling of startled chickens. By the time that leadoff tune “Misery” is fully airborne, it’s already apparent that Mighty Tiny has constructed a retro-futuristic flying machine using tin-pan alley songwriter tools and quasi-modern metals, with tendrils of gypsy punk fabric and Appalachian stringwork dangling from the cabin windows. It’s like the Hindenburg with better wiring!
For their full-length debut, the Mighty TIny misfits in dell’arte masks have medicated their stylistic psychosis with some added milligrams of steady-handed songcraft. The prescription leavesroom for erratic behavior and mood swings, falling somewhere between Faith No More and Mr. Bungle with veins oiled more so by Tom Waits’ whiskey than Mike Patton’s espresso." -Peter Legasey, Dig Boston "And even after the uninitiated recover from "What the fuck is that?" this Friday, when Mighty Tiny release White Dog Rough Again at the Middle East, some collective bafflement is apt to remain. Bafflement that has nothing to do anyone's costume. By weaving around and through elaborate permutations of bluegrass, dark folk, and circus music, Mighty Tiny have made themselves a band onto which you can project almost anything you want. And that projection would probably be "true," in a subjective sense. But truth and accuracy are not always the same thing. The only accurate way to describe this band is to be as literal and direct as possible. So, let's say Mighty Tiny are a classically trained violinist, a classically trained pianist turned accordionist, two jazz guitarists, a heavy-metal bass player, and a drummer specializing in funk/hip-hop styles. Concerned about toxic and false preconceived notions, they prefer not to say exactly where most of them started playing together in 2008. Electric Six songster and rabid Mighty Tiny enthusiast Dick Valentine makes brief but poignant vocal cameos on White Dog, the result of 130 hours of tracking and, Tompkins speculates, "easily that much, if not a considerable amount more," of mixing and mastering." -Barry Thompson, The Boston Phoenix "They call themselves an “experimental rock group,” but I think this is a misnomer. When I think “experimental,” I envision collectives of people from the woods of Vermont recording whatever pops into their head at the moment turning out unlistenable recordings. Thankfully, this is definitely not that. While not traditional rock, or really rock at all, Mighty Tiny makes what’s old new again, as if Cole Porter and the soundtrack for the musical Chicago were thrown in a blender with some klezmer, old burlesque house music, and prog rock influences. Each song has a slightly different flavor, but all sound cohesive as a whole. The second track, “Misery,” has a predominantly blues harmonica sound. I love the clarinet on “Four More Days.” There are some great strings—violin, cello, and viola—on “What Mammon Gave Away.” Other songs have smatterings of flute, trombone, several types of saxophones, as well as what they call a “thing-a-ma-jig.” Lead vocals are shared by Matt Tompkins and Max Rose. For someone (like me) who has been yearning for interesting, approachable music that’s a little different, the CD does the trick. It’s something I’ve been listening to over and over." -Robin Umbley, Noise Boston "The world goes a little mad in Mighty Tiny’s new “Misery.” We’re not sure where the line is between madness and misery or if they even border on each other, but Mighty Tiny doesn’t show much regard for coloring inside any lines in this track. In fact, they take it upon themselves to find any lines or barriers and promptly kick them over or at least stretch them a tiny bit, just for fun. Part of Mighty Tiny’s genre-bending lies in their ability to fully and totally dive into one area but then, zing, you blink and they are somewhere else. “Misery” jaunts down the highway like a van full of random kidnaps who, despite their kidnapped status, are having a grand old time in the van with all their noisemakers. The guy who picked up the harmonica seems particularly boisterous, to the point where we’d feel justified calling it a “mouth-harp” - and we never do that. “Misery” finds itself in several places before its just-over-seven minutes is over. The whole thing even seems to (literally) go to hell right around the midpoint, with crashing instruments and lots of screaming. But then it ends with an almost angelic ascension, wherein the voices that previously heralded our descent into madness put on some halos and bring us upwards." -C.D. Di Guardia, Boston Band Crush "Their new release, White Dog Rough Again, skips jauntily through a number of different styles and genres within each song, creating an interesting, if somewhat manic, listening experience. The best feature of this band is if you don't like a particular part of a song, just wait for a few seconds and it will be completely different. You shouldn't necessarily listen to this as a soundtrack for any particular task or commute, but I did find it an enjoyable exercise in active listening, which I don't often feel compelled to do." -Charles Murphy, The DELI Magazine "I’m having a hard time accurately putting Mighty Tiny’s sound into words, which might just be the highest compliment." -Jeff Cloud, Velvet Blue Music "What catches the eye is their stage presence. Each member wears a different mask when they perform, making them look as if they belong in a Tim Burton movie rather than a rock club. Some of the masks were bought for $10 at local stores. Others were imported from Paris." -Andrew Clark, The Boston Globe "What I’m getting at, is when I saw them, they didn’t have an album out, and their demos sold out immediately. Well, turns out their album’s out. And it’s fucking awesome. It’s called White Dog Rough Again, and I HIGHLY recommend that you get your little hands on it. You won’t be disappointed. It’s so fucking refreshing to hear a band that “does something different”, that actually does something different." -HOLYP!SS Stuff People Said About Mighty Tiny
One of Improper Bostonian's Top 10 Breakout Bands of 2010 "Mighty Tiny takes the stage. They look like the kind of band you’d find carousing at the sideshow of some Euro-circus run by Salvador Dalí or playing into the wee hours at a masquerade ball thrown by Edgar Allan Poe. Tonight this sexed-up sextet comes bearing new material to unleash upon the unsuspecting crowd. Yes, some of the songs are new, but it’s still the same ol’ Mighty Tiny we’ve all come to know and love and fear. Their music is still a grotesque conglomeration of gypsy tunes, Primus-style prog-rock, and pretty much any other style of music you can think of thrown in there for good measure. Onstage, the band is still a broiling font of psychosexual energy. They dance, skulk, and even seize to the sounds of their own twisted music. A cannibal feast for the eyes and the ears." Will Barry, The Noise Boston "Sporting Venetian masks straight out of Alex DeLarge’s fantasies, Mighty Tiny will close the show out with a frenetic mix of genres that has become their signature. When we say they mix everything, we don’t mean they mix different elements of rock that are all pretty closely related anyway, we mean they mix everything – theatrical influences from opera and Broadway, classical arrangements, blues rock, prog, folk, Romani, and whatever else finds its way into their collective band brain. They work their alchemy to blend all of these things, and then they unleash their creation into the world." -Boston Band Crush "Carrying bells and getting a chant going with the audience before they even hit the stage, Mighty Tiny can take charge of a curious crowd and hush a room in seconds... In a city where folks are inclined to stick to the comforts of acoustic jams or the latest incarnation of Brooklyn-based garage rock, Mighty Tiny have made themselves quite comfortable outside the box..." -Hillary Hughes, The Weekly Dig "The twisted world of Mighty Tiny extends from its music to the Venetian masks that members sport onstage... [Mighty Tiny] conveys songwriting chops that stand apart from many Boston bands." -Paul Robichea, The Improper Bostonian "As little about Mighty Tiny fits into the realm of usual... Mighty Tiny arent your typical Berklee-birthed, Allston-based rock band. Playing sophisticated carny music... Mighty Tiny offer throwback that's intricate and inviting..." -Michael Marotta, Boston Phoenix "The effort that the sextet puts into performance to make the show as entertaining visually as it is musically, is what sets them apart from so many other local bands... an eye-opening performance." -Kevin Junker, TeaParty Boston "Surprising arrangements, campy, theatrical, entertaining as hell, and wonderful" -Boston Survival Guide “Mighty Tiny is scary in a way that makes you smile - they seem strange, yet familiar in the oddest way - and just when you think you’ve figured them out, they pull out a new musical idiosyncrasy to further confuse you in the most delightful way possible. I think this is probably the only band I’ve ever come across where just about every style of Western music imaginable is fit into their musical pallet. Not only does the band have uniquely gifted talent for writing extremely catchy and bizarrely gorgeous songs, but they have the musical chops to back it up.” -Nick Garbien, Student at Large "I give this band about an hour to get signed. Punk, Burlesque cabaret meets Tom Waits. Armed with masks and dressed to impress. Mighty Tiny is mighty indeed. Accordions and violins flowed so well with their haunting yet soothing harmonies - there’s nothing else quite like this. If you hear anyone say the boston music scene is dead, punch them in the stomach and hand them a Mighty Tiny CD." -Agent Ichi, The Sound Spy "We as public are absolute at the mercy of its charms, not yet even this way stellaire performances since this can store what differently weak, undaring work are." -Dutch Film Correspondant Bjø∆n J'erggehnstråhum |
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If you were to chuck a live hand-grenade center-stage at a lavish Broadway musical, the smoking crater and scattered remains might somewhat resemble Mighty Tiny. Putting on a show that's "as entertaining visually as it is musically", Mighty Tiny creates intricate and modern music that comes straight from the soul of the golden age (Kevin Junker, TeaParty Boston). The musical influences of Mighty Tiny reach all the way from the classic compositions of Gershwin and Bernstein to the modern experimental realm of Modest Mouse, Mr. Bungle and Man Man (while stopping somewhere along the way to ask directions from Tom Waits and Led Zeppelin). Lyrically driven, musically lush, frequently beautiful, and occasionally hideous, Mighty Tiny shares borders with experimental rock, blues, punk, Americana, and tin-pan alley jazz. |
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