Paper Tigers – Under the Pavement, There is a Beach
Indulge me folks, I’d like to go on a brief monologue.
It’s Saturday, October 24th. I am dressed in a black and white sweater and a new pair of not-so-skinny jeans and I am proud of my outfit. I head outside to load up my gear and my bandmates/supposed friends immediately ask me why I am dressed like the Hamburglar. I’m now on my way to the Paper Tigers EP release show, devastated, questioning my life decisions, and wondering what I’m still doing being a local band guy on the weekends. I’m greeted at the venue (someone’s house) by a bunch of friendly faces – an individual dressed as a magic mushroom; a guy who says he’s a producer; and an alien/human hybrid dressed in all red who I’m still not convinced was a real person. Several of them ask me if I am supposed to be a mime or a burglar, and I respond, plainly, that this is just how I dress. At this point I am disassociating.
I take a look around the room, desperate for things to focus on. There’s the din from the band playing downstairs. The basement smells like unwashed laundry. There’s screen-printed t-shirts for sale… $20. A bargain bin of scratch-and-dent merch to sift through. Pins, posters, and a bona fide merch person. The local A/V enthusiast has rigged up a camera display to show the band playing on the TV upstairs – there is a couple full-on making out on the screen. The room laughs at them. It’s at this point, I snap out of my anxious operating mode and realize that I’m a part of something greater, wholesome, even. This is a special night. Microcosms like the Fredonia music scene don’t just exist organically anymore… It was a personal and much-needed reminder that we (we, being “local musicians”) do this (this, being “make music and play shows”) for a reason. The Under the Pavement, There is a Beach show brought a bunch of friends, family, and randoms together for an evening of celebrating independent music and art… And that means something in 2026… Even if you are dressed as the Hamburglar.
Under the Pavement, There is a Beach is the sound of a band in a room. It’s the sound of loud guitars that are cool enough to ignore the stale laundry smell. It’s four individuals coming together to create something real and tangible. The latter half of the 2020s has seen a resurgence of shoegaze sounds, and alongside their emo, dream-pop, and maybe a tinge of alt-country influences, Paper Tigers are successfully riding that wave. Opening track “Leaving the Sun Behind” shows the band’s ambition, or perhaps their hubris… A six-and-a-half minute opening track? In 2026?! It’s less the sound of excess and more the sound of four individuals coming together to write something collaborative. From the jangling intro to the fuzzed-out climax, this just isn’t the kind of song that comes together alone… In fact, this is the band at their most ambitious. This one gets our vote for album favorite – expect a musical journey of rolling drum fills locked in with a bass groove; a wall of guitar noise set off by a spindly lead; and heartfelt vocals that make you want to feel something again.
Throughout Under the Pavement, There is a Beach, there are common hallmarks. Paper Tigers is a guitar-driven band, so expect twinkling leads over either jangling chords or rip-roaring fuzz. “Useless Memories” is a gradual crescendo, the end sounding like an exponential version of itself. “Leatherwing,” conversely, keeps things smooth and understated – a monumental task for young band with Big Muffs on their pedalboards. Singer Justina-Joy Moore sings, “Lost in my walk / the image rinses out” – musings that are vaguely intriguing and sad in a blanket kind of way, so that anyone can fill in the blanks with their own ennui. Album closer, “Run Away” bridges the gap between the two. It’s a revelation that Paper Tigers don’t need to engage their pedals to captivate. They are embodying every version of shoegaze and themselves – quiet, loud, and the spaces in-between.
Other than the spoken word quirkiness of the title-track, there’s one other outlier on Under the Pavement, There is a Beach – the rawness of “Cut Me Open (Count The Rings).” This song has all of the white-knuckle energy of a band ready to explode. Recorded at SUNY Fredonia, it captures an (ostensibly) earlier version of Paper Tigers with edges that haven’t been sanded-down. The 8-track tones here reminded me of better times – perhaps spent with my friends in a basement, recording takes into a TASCAM recorder in my basement, and wondering what my peers would think at my release show.
Under the Pavement, There is a Beach is available now (October 24th, 2026). We’ve embedded the bandcamp link below, but you can also find it on Spotify.
Categorised in: Album of the Week
This post was written by Nick Sessanna