LITTLE ROCK — The last album from central Arkansas indie rockers Underclaire was the excellent Making Sky. There had been a few local shows, but the momentum was waning as priorities changed for some of the band members and Underclaire went on a break.
Singer-guitarist Mike Mullins wasn’t ready for a hiatus, however, and kept working on tunes and jamming with other Little Rock musicians.
All of this, we should point out here, took place in 2010, which, according to the Chinese calendar, was the Year of the Tiger.
Remember that.
So Mullins and Underclaire bassist Rob Brackett started collaborating with Jason Tedford of Iron Tongue and Elise Davis’ Josh Tate and a band started to take shape.
“We tried jamming with other musicians, but nothing really clicked. But when we played with Jason and his pal, Josh, it really did click and we formed the band right there,” Mullins says.
The new band would be dubbed The Year of the Tiger and the four-piece is headlining a show Saturday at Stickyz Rock ’N’ Roll Chicken Shack in Little Rock’s River Market District.
Alas, Tedford’s schedule with Iron Tongue and his work at his Wolfman Studios precluded him from signing on full time, and the group went searching for someone else to round out the lineup.
Enter keyboard player and Little Rock music scene vet Jeremy Brasher.
The Tiger was changing its stripes, and it was what Brasher was able to do with a demo of a song called “Flesh and Blood” that convinced Mullins and crew that he would be right for the band.
“I’d been playing in Underclaire for 13 years and we were always a guitar band. I’d never really strayed from that too much,” Mullins says. After hearing a synth line that Brasher incorporated into “Flesh and Blood,” the sonic possibilities were suddenly much more open.
“We thought, ‘Wow, here is something we can do. We can sound this way’ and we started writing.”
For Brasher, who plays guitar and sings in The Moving Front and Stella Fancy, this was also a different way of working.
“In most bands you hash out song ideas. But this was interesting because I just worked on it in my house and hammered out a few things,” he says. “You’re kind of outside the songwriting process, but you also get to add your own flavor to it.”
Brasher laughs and compares his role in Year of the Tiger to keyboardist Brian Eno’s in English glam forefathers Roxy Music. “Though that might not be an adequate sonic comparison,” he chuckles.
“Flesh and Blood” kicks off Year of the Tiger’s debut EP, the self-issued Midnight Hands, which Tedford produced and engineered. It’s a driving, swirling song with equal parts hooky guitars and weaving keys propelled by a strong rhythm section. It sets the stage aptly for the rest of the five-song collection.
Those familiar with Underclaire won’t be too shocked. Mullins still sings and his guitar is still in the mix, but Brasher’s synths and drummer Tate’s samples and programming add another layer of texture to the songs that make them sound more fleshed out and fully realized. It’s progressive alt-pop with electronica flourishes that aren’t intrusive.
Lyrically, the songs also eschew the more complex themes that were covered in Underclaire, Mullins says.
“We wanted to try to write less complicated songs. We set out to just write more dancy, rock songs.”
Year of the Tiger has gigged around Little Rock over the past year, though Brackett has bowed out and Andrue Sullivan has replaced him on bass. As for Saturday’s show, Mullins says it won’t be a by-the-numbers set. Expect the entire EP along with some new songs and “chilled-out stuff interspersed between songs” as a change of pace.
Year of the Tiger
Where: Stickyz Rock ’N’ Roll Chicken Shack, 107 River Market Ave., Little Rock
Opening act: Falcon Scott, The Binary Marketing Show
When: Saturday, 9 p.m.
How much: $5
Information: stickyz.com
(501) 372-7707
Weekend, Pages 34 on 01/12/2012