AMG Review of Paws Across America 2002

Heather Phares
All Music Guide

Tigerbeat6's Paws Across America celebrates the label's most extensive tour of North America yet by collecting tracks from all of the artists hitting the road. The stars of the collection and tour are Numbers, Stars as Eyes, and Cex, who each have two or three tracks apiece on the album. The jerky dance-punk of Numbers' "I'm Shy" and "Prisonlife" appears here in remixed form, while the previously unreleased track "Go to Show" that kicks off Paws Across America is one of their catchiest and most forceful songs to date. Stars as Eyes contribute more moody atmospherics that teeter between electronica and instrumental rock with the eerie, screechy "Cellophane" and the pretty update of synth-pop that is "Northern Waste." And while only two songs can't fully capture the scope of Cex's twisted eclecticism, the folky hip-hop of "Hate the Game" and abrasive rap of "Wrist Elbow 2" give some inkling of his breadth and depth. The rest of the collection is just as willfully unpredictable, veering from pretty, playful pieces like Nathan Michel's "Magellan" and Nudge's "Mouthed" to more aggessively envelope-pushing tracks like Knifehandchop's "Taking the Soul Out of Music vs. Vertical" and Zeigenbock Kopf's "Sex With a Man." Though it's certainly not a definitive collection of the label's entire roster, Paws Across America is a fun, snapshot-like look at Tigerbeat6 circa late 2002/early 2003.