Nine-Month Nostalgia: ‘Tiger Blood,’ The Vaccines
ABOVE: THE VACCINES. PHOTO COURTESY OF LEON DIAPER
The Vaccines, a British indie-rock quartet formed last year, may have the current market cornered on throwback charm—they write fun little ditties that beg comparisons ranging from the Jesus and Mary Chain of almost 30 years ago to Interpol at its decade-past best. The band’s newest video, though, calls to mind a more recent (and specific) time: about nine months ago, to be exact. It’s for a track called “Tiger Blood,” presumably in homage to Charlie Sheen’s infamous Twitter rants on the subject—which, with three seasons’ perspective, are already starting to feel like a quaint little footnote in American entertainment history, aren’t they?
The video, too, feels like spring: despite the bummer lyrics (“Watching you walk out of here, it hurts”), it’s a smiley romp in the sun. On grainy, warmly-lit film, the boys beat one another up in a park with what appear to be wrapping-paper tubes; they play leapfrog; they disperse an assembly of seated pigeons—and, oh yeah, they play a sold-out gig. History’s revealed the Charlie Sheen saga as something more depressing than gleeful—but the Vaccines’ “Tiger Blood,” at least, is all in good fun.
