REVIEW: Sledding With Tigers – ‘A Necessary Bummer’

March 27th, 2014

Matthew Leimkuehler

Artist: Sledding With Tigers
Album: A Necessary Bummer
Genre: Acoustic, Emo-Punk
Record Label: Antique Records

“If self-loathing was a sport, then I’d finally be good at a sport. And if self-loathing was a sport, I’d be the goddamned MVP. Someday I will learn to love myself as much as I love everyone else.”

Not one record this year has opened with three lines that conduct an electric wave of emotions the way Sledding With Tigers opened with its latest release. A Necessary Bummer, the debut LP from Sledding With Tigers, is a marvelous sentiment to the nature of honest music. It does not romanticize the most weighing of human emotions, it only conveys transparency from beginning to finish. It is a record truly ready to lift the hearts of those who are feeling a bit too heavy at that moment.

Sledding With Tigers have successfully tapped into the essence of post-modern suburbia bluntness the same way artists such as The Wonder Years, The Front Bottoms, and even blink-182 have done in recent decades — by being as straightforward of a lyricist as possible. This element is evident from the burst of the first note to the waiver of the last line. Songs such as “Not So Body Posi After All” show frontman/brainchild Dan Faughnder being as completely and utterly forthright about his battle with finding comfort in his own skin, which is a battle everyone can relate to one way or another.

The record shows many emotional sides of Faughnder, such as in the cleverly-titled number, “The Devil and A California Burrito Are Raging Inside Me,” where the listener is taken through an acoustic-punk waltz of discovery. Faughnder subtly exclaims, “all of my problems are little problems, yeah, all of my problems they don’t compare. But I’m done with feeling bad, for feeling awful,” giving the listener an uplifting feeling through his words. Do not fear, Sledding With Tigers also show a loud and aggressive side on songs such as “Oasis By Wonderwall,” which has a chorus that bursts with gang vocals ready to fill basements and town halls everywhere.

Another aspect of A Necessary Bummer that sets Sledding With Tigers apart from the recent outbreak of acoustic punk acts is the fitting use of folk instrumentation on each track. The listener will find the violin use on tracks such as “Handshake (Never Trust Relationship Advice From The Lead Singer In A Pop-Punk Band),” is gripping and adds needed texture to the simple and cozy melody being delivered. This element of the record is also found truly effective with the keys added to “I Got The Blues Macaroni And Cheese,” where this particular layer of the song has the potential to be stuck in the listener’s head for hours to come.

Sometimes, a record hits you and sweeps you off of your feet when you least expect it. A Necessary Bummer is one of those records. There are moments when music finds you when you need it most, and that’s what this record has done for me in recent memory. The forthright honesty and overall simplicity of A Necessary Bummer is exactly what I needed at this point in my life — and it could be exactly what you need, too. Embrace an artist ready to touch and move you with songs built around overcoming sadness and diving into tomorrow head-first.

SCORE: 8.5/10

Pre-order A Necessary Bummer via Antique Records today.

Review by Matthew Leimkuehler (@callinghomematt)