Certainly one of the great tragedies of 2007 (okay, not really) was the dissolution of Seattle's Pretty Girls Make Graves. Both formative to and formed by the early 2000s post-punk revival, PGMG paved the way for a many of the pop-inflected bands really hitting their stride now, including Tokyo Police Club and Vampire Weekend.
Another disappointing breakup from last year were the Blood Brothers, also hailing from Seattle, who brought a bit more brains to the post-hardcore scene beyond the crop of canned At the Drive-In pretenders.
The players from both groups have moved onto new projects, the most fertile of which appears to be Jaguar Love, notably because it comprises members of both disparate groups. Johnny Whitney (centre) lends his vocals to the supergroup along with bandmate Cody Votolato's guitar (bottom and yes, he is brothers with that terrible folk singer). Adding to the mix is J Clark (top) of PGMG, who covers drumming and keyboard duties.
Judging from the demos playing on their Myspace, the trio fuses the distinctive post-hardcore vocals and angular guitar of Blood Brothers with the pop sensibilities of Pretty Girls Make Graves, making for a fairly unique sound. It's the energy of the former with the rhythms of the latter, fit for doing dancing much more sophisticated than pogoing. They're even somewhat reminiscent of labelmates The New Pornographers.
Since forming, they've signed to indie heavy Matador (former home of PGMG) to release Take Me to the Sea August 19th, with an EP dropping June 3rd. And indeed, they are headed for a sea near you! They'll play Popscene two weeks from today, May 29th. Not enticed? Remember, Popscene featured Vampire Weekend in January just before they exploded and will have NLtS faves These New Puritans next month. It could be a big deal. It could be nothing. Check it out?
No comments:
Post a Comment