Boston and Iceland alt-rock band roar back through a chaotic, noisy, and acerbic album about our modern temperament on Wednesday, August 12
Anyone who says there are no second acts in American lives has never wielded a guitar or sang into a microphone. It’s likely that person has also never performed live at music festivals like Boston Calling and In Between Days, been nominated multiple times in the Boston Music Awards and New England Music Awards, or helped shape the sound of an indie music scene at both the club and underground levels.
That’s what Paper Tigers achieved in a few short years just after the pandemic, sending a jolt to the sonic senses with a maximum-volume approach to alternative and indie rock through a string of releases that positioned the band as Boston’s next great breakout. But shortly after the release of debut album Charmer nearly three years ago, the band went quiet, and a once promising future for a scene stalwart suddenly fell uncertain.
Now with a streamlined lineup and renewed focus, Paper Tigers are making up for lost time with frenzied new album East Coaster, a chaotic, noisy, and anthemically aggressive collection of bangers that crashes the streams on Wednesday, August 12.
In true Paper Tigers fashion, East Coaster – titled for the type of temperament those from or living in this part of the country tend to possess – is a mechanical fireball of a record, exploring lyrical themes of love and loss, anti-social behavior, and anti-corporate American sentiment through a relentless, experimental sound that’s both claustrophobic and compassionate.
A taste of what’s to come arrives through the record’s first single, a dizzying trip of dystopian alternative rock called “Go Out,” arriving on Friday, July 24 and featuring guest vocals from Olivia Beatrice Martinez of acclaimed indie-pop group Don’t Tell Iris.
“It’s good to be back,” the band admits. “This album is our best and certainly most mature record yet. We’re well rested and ready to melt faces with our new record. It’s been a minute since Paper Tigers were ‘active’ in any visible sense, but the truth is we never really stopped. We’ve just been writing, quietly, in the background this entire time.”
Three years in between releases these days can feel like an eternity, but sometimes life needs a moment to sort some things out. Now a studio project with no plans to perform live, Paper Tigers consists of the core songwriting duo of Boston’s Michael Medlock (vocals and lyrics) and Iceland’s Bjarki Guðmundsson (guitar and programming).
Contributions on East Coaster include bass on “Go Out” by founding member Matthew Hughes, and Guðmundsson’s fellow countryman Emil Þ. Emilsson, “easily the most dynamic drummer we’ve ever worked with,” they add, who provides the beat across each of the album’s 11 songs. The album was co-produced and co-engineered by Bjarki Gudmundsson and Cody Von Lehmden, also of the aforementioned Don’t Tell Iris.
“We’re stoked for this new phase of the band,” Paper Tigers add. “Although we’re not performing live anymore, we’re happy to just write, record and release music and other content. We exist solely on the interwebs now. The biggest change for us was geography. Bjarki moved from Boston to Iceland in the summer of 2024. That spring and summer, we went through a really productive stretch of writing. Those few weeks really were the seed of everything on this record.”
The first shot arrives in “Go Out,” taking Paper Tigers’ classic aural chaos and wrapping it tightly around arena-rock choruses and propulsive energy, where a rollercoaster assault of guitars and revved-up beats intertwine. Like on many of the songs of Easter Coaster, a wave of sound overwhelms as a cascade of infectious melody permeates this instant contender for Song of the Summer. Like most of the record, it’s unhinged with a calculated fury.
“‘Go Out’ is essentially from the perspective of an anti-social individual in a relationship with a social butterfly,” the band reveals. “Basically, the older we get the more we enjoy staying home and we’re tired of apologizing for it.”
Getting Martinez involved was a proper twist of fate. Paper Tigers have always rolled deep with Don’t Tell Iris, dating back to the days when the group went by the moniker Little Fuss, and when they were recording the song with Von Lehmden, they decided the chorus needed a higher harmony in the vocals. So they enlisted Martinez.
“Cody was like ‘You know what? Let me grab Olive real quick and see if she’s cool with jumping in here’ – thank God she did, because it makes the entire song!” they add. “It’s now our favorite track, which is why we decided to make it our first single. Her voice is amazing.”
It certainly sets a tone for the torrent of sound that exists elsewhere across East Coaster. Opener “This is Going to be My Year” explodes out of the gate after a slow-burn intro, blossoming into the type of kaleidoscopic sound the band was initially known for. Tracks like “Keep a Light on Just For Me” and “My Pistola” swerve into industrial rock territory, with a kinetic energy and restless spirit.
“There were moments in those two songs where it felt like Bjarki was creating something genuinely new and growing as a musician,” the band says. “Writing those two songs really paved the way for the rest of the album.”
The gritty “A Company Man” centers around Medlock’s experience getting laid off from his longtime corporate job; the impatient “Tempest in a T-Shirt” details the lyricist’s past transgressions and relationships when he wore a younger man’s clothes; and the soaring “The Pope of Allston-Brighton” calls back the band’s former stomping grounds – where only Medlock remains in the creative Boston neighborhood.
With its coarse and confrontational sound, Medlock’s lyrics eagerly explore the human condition and what it means to be alive and aware in 2026. We’re all feeling sad and numb, we’re all experiencing paranoia and discomfort, and Medlock’s words align the moods of what we’re all feeling with the sort of pent-up aggression that’s aching to explode out of us every day.
Anchoring beats with distraction and distortion, East Coaster is a combustible record with soft edges, where a pulverizing snarl and dystopian mindset are firmly rooted in the distrust we have with everything around us.
This is not easy listening, because life in 2026 is not easy living.
“A big part of the process was leaning into sounds that were kind of ugly or rough that only really work once they’re disguised inside other noise,” Paper Tigers reveal. “The guitar tone throughout is rough and might sound unconventional, and some of the early drum parts weren’t drums at all. We built beats out of broken-up, chopped guitar parts and distorted drum machine loops. Later we recorded real drums, which shifted the whole tone of the songs and actually helped us understand them better, like we could finally hear what they wanted to be.”
In this new era of Paper Tigers, the differences in how Medlock and Guðmundsson work added fuel to their creative fire. Where past disagreements may have derailed a certain vision or cohesive end result, here the two merged over viewing East Coaster from differing perspectives and practices, at least in terms of songwriting, and the compromised middle ground is where the soul of the album emerges.
“It’s probably why this all works,” they say with a laugh. “Michael moves fast, chasing that lightning-in-a-bottle moment. Bjarki is the opposite as he’ll sit with a song for a long time, looking for the one small detail that makes it interesting. This record is a pretty good snapshot of that push and pull.”
With past accolades and attention firmly behind them, existing in a past life that, viewed from afar, feels like a long-ago first act, Paper Tigers launch into a new era with a refined sound and renewed focus. Those songs that were first assembled over the long three-year break are finally ready to be consumed by the public, and crafting an assault on the senses that’s a true reflection of our daily chaos is all too fitting for life in 2026.
And they know this new mood might not be for everyone, even if we’re all experiencing the same emotions.
“For those who enjoyed our last album Charmer… you’ll either love or hate East Coaster,” Paper Tigers conclude. “No in-between. It’s a slightly more experimental record and a bit of a departure from anything we’ve done before. We like to describe it somewhat akin to the relationship between Weezer’s Blue album and Pinkerton. Charmer was our polished, stadium rock, radio-friendly record and East Coaster is us with the handcuffs off, just being ourselves. It’s a little more ‘out there’ with less worry around it being successful, whatever that means, in today’s world. It’s our favorite body of work yet.”
It’s a second act, meant to be played at maximum volume.
Connect with Paper Tigers:
HOMEPAGE . MULTI . SPOTIFY . APPLE . BANDCAMP . FACEBOOK . INSTAGRAM . TIKTOK . YOUTUBE
Paper Tigers are:
Michael Medlock: Vocals
Bjarki Guðmundsson: Guitar and programming
Matthew Hughes: Bass
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‘East Coaster’ credits:
All songs by Paper Tigers
Lyrics by Michael Medlock
Produced and engineered by Bjarki Gudmundsson and Cody Von Lehmden
Bass on ‘Go Out’ by Matt Hughes
Backing vocals on ‘Go Out’ by Olivia Beatrice Martinez
Drums by Emil Þ. Emilsson
Artwork by Paper Tigers
Press photo by Bjarki Gudmundsson
