Tiger

Album: Maximum Balloon (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is a track from the self-titled debut solo album by producer and TV On The Radio guitarist Dave Sitek, recorded under the guise of Maximum Balloon. The song features Sitek's friend Aku, who is singer for the Brooklyn psych-rockers Dragons of Zynth.
  • Sitek told The Guardian: "This was the song that started the whole thing, the flame that burned the forest. I was in the studio waiting for something to upload so I just started making a beat, then I added bass and a guitar part and some crazy Parliament s--t. Out of boredom I even added some vocals of my own. It started as a joke but I figured that if I could get Aku to sing on it he could make it a real thing, so I begged him to come to the studio and fix my vocal parts."
  • The lyrics were written before the whole Tiger Woods sex scandal blew up. Sitek told The Guardian: "The double entendre in the lyrics ["you let your tiger out"] was intentional, although we didn't plan on it coming out during the whole Tiger Woods thing. It could be the best Nike commercial ever! Or the best condom commercial."
  • This song went viral when Daisy Lowe, Gavin Rossdale's model daughter, stripped to the track in a video shoot for Esquire. Sitek recalled to Rolling Stone: "She heard it and then called me and was like, 'I hope you don't mind I used the song for a video I did. I'm dancing around in my underwear.' I was like, 'okay.'"

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