Howler

Of course we should have known! If anyone was going to turn up a band, who posses that nonchalant American slovenly pop charm of early Strokes, then it was going to be Rough Trade.

Apparently tipped off by a local journalist, rumour has it that within days of the HOWLER demo reaching RT, they had a man on a flight to Minneapolis to see them rehearse.

‘Told You Once’ is the single, which is due at the end of next month – look! there they are in the video with their casual, come-and-get-me indifference! All fringes and faraway looks.

I like the way the drums clatter around at the end behind that increasingly scuzzy guitar. It is tormentingly Indie Disco (though there is more to this than meets the eye; not least a tune called ‘You Like White Women, I Like Cigarettes’, which has a more garage-style surf feel, which you can find on their website).

Word has it that they’ve been together for less than a year – although the singer’s been writing songs for ages – and there’s no word on gigs here yet, but we’ll let you know as soon as we get the nod. - www.goingdeafforaliving.com

To the extent that anyone in Minneapolis would recognize lanky, 19-year-old Howler frontman Jordan Gatesmith, it would be as the lead guitarist for precocious indie-poppers Total Babe, which up till a few short weeks ago had been his main project. Gatesmith began Howler just last year to combat boredom, and initially the band seemed like nothing more than one of his typical short-lived diversions between Total Babe commitments. "I was starting bands what seemed like every other week," he says. "We had a metal band for a while. We had one called Gay Animals, another called A-Cups, but none of them really lasted that long."


courtesy of the artists


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More About
Ian NygaardBrent MayesGeoff TravisThe Smiths (Band)Boniva
For whatever reason, Howler was the one project that Gatesmith couldn't let die. He describes the band's sound as "surfy," and to be sure, there's plenty of youthful, optimistic zeal in Howler's songs, but there's also a darkly romantic undercurrent reminiscent of early Strokes and Modern Lovers. In sharp contrast to Total Babe, where Gatesmith's guitar provided little more than window dressing, Howler is an unabashedly amped affair, stacked to the rafters with staccato riffs and solos.

Their recently released This One's Different EP is, true to its name, a weirdly wonderful snapshot of a band far too young and reckless to fully appreciate its own talent: five songs in 14 minutes, most of it sounding like a blotted accident. Save for radio-ready pogo-beat single "I Told You Once," Different plays like the best kind of dashed-off high school yearbook entry, full of in-jokes, asides, and random musings. When City Pages asks why they would title one of the EP's tracks "You Like White Women, I Like Cigarettes," longtime friends Gatesmith and keyboardist Max Petrek just casually shrug, as if it was hardly a choice at all. If you'd thought of it, you wouldn't name a song "You Like White Women, I Like Cigarettes"? They have a point.

While Howler's music may have an effortless appeal, Gatesmith has had to work overtime to round out the band lineup. He now insists that though he may add a bassist, the rest of those presently involved are here to stay. In addition to Petrek, Howler includes guitarist Ian Nygaard and drummer Brent Mayes. Nygaard met Gatesmith through So-TM, the label Howler shares with Nygaard's other band, Nice Purse. For now anyway, Nygaard plans on pulling double duty. Meanwhile, Mayes and Gatesmith knew each other from DeLaSalle, where both attended high school, though Mayes, a downright ancient 23, graduated four years earlier. Asked how he feels about being the band's elder statesman, he deadpans: "My bones are brittle, and I'm on Boniva."

It turns out that Gatesmith locked in the Howler lineup none too soon. The very next day following our interview the nascent band's fortunes took a strange and exceedingly rare turn. Howler's EP wound up in the lap of Geoff Travis, founder of Rough Trade Records and a legendary talent scout who is credited with giving the Smiths and the Strokes their respective starts. Travis was so taken with it he gave Howler a verbal offer on the spot to release the EP on Rough Trade in the U.K. and Europe. Moreover, he immediately sent one of his London A&R reps to meet the band and catch a live performance here in Minneapolis.

The band played on Friday night, May 20, at the Hexagon, and even in the venue's notoriously shabby confines and with rainwater pouring in through the ceiling, Howler burned bright. In front of perhaps the largest crowd of their career to date (maybe three dozen) and Rough Trade A&R, Howler tore through their eight-song catalog, including all five EP tracks and three new ones just to confirm that the EP was no fluke. As on record, live the band may be a bit rough around the edges, but they play with an uncommon confidence. Most young bands hold back, scared of making mistakes. But the way Mayes throttles his kit and Nygaard fumbles with the guitar pedals suggests not only are they unafraid of screwing up, but that they're more than willing to wipe out in front of a crowd if that's what it takes to learn—even if they never really do.

Howard Hamilton III of Red Pens, who was also in attendance that night and has watched from the sidelines as the band has evolved, believes that while the timing of the overseas interest in Howler may have been unexpected, it is well deserved. "You'd have to be crazy not to see their potential," he says. "Jordan is incredibly talented—I just hope he's ready for this."

HOWLER play with Red Pens this FRIDAY, JUNE 24, at the TRIPLE ROCK SOCIAL CLUB; 612.333.7399 - CITY PAGES

?Minneapolis indie pop band Howler was still in the zygote stage when we first wrote about them this past April, and though they still only have one small-run EP to their names, the band has already managed to catch the ears of the editors of British tastemaking music mag NME. The magazine is featuring Howler as #3 in their list of the "50 Best New Bands of 2011," praising them for their "garage rock with a sun-kissed feel" and drawing comparisons to the Black Lips and the Drums.

New NME music editor Matt Wilkison even went so far as to pluck out Howler as his top choice. "As for personal favourites, I'm gonna have to be annoying and pick someone we couldn't actually include in the playlists. Sorry. Why? Because Minneapolis garage tykes Howler are so new they don't even have anything they can officially offer us yet. They're excellent though," he writes.

It isn't the first time a Minneapolis band has flew under the radar at home but managed to gain some attention overseas. Think a European tour is in the cards for this young band? - CITY PAGES

3. Howler.
Basically: Garage rock with a sun-kissed feel.
For fans of: Black Lips, The Drums.
- NME

Trendy, young, American, post-punk lo-fi... whatever the cool kids call it. - SevenSevens

Minneapolis’ Howler is the solo project of Jordan Gatesmith, lead guitarist for indie pop band Total Babe. Jordan claims that the idea for the band came to him because he's “terribly A.D.D.”, and needs to be working all the time.

Fortunately for music fans he is not medicated for it, so he is constantly writing music and apparently creating new bands. After starting a new band each week for about 2 months, Howler emerged as the clear standout, and after a short amount of time recorded the This One’s Different EP.

Jordan describes Howler as “an 80’s punk band cleaned up just enough so you could stick a corsage on it and take it to the prom.” The result is something like The Jesus and Mary Chain during their I Hate Rock & Roll period. It's noisy, kind of lo-fi, shambolic, and deeply in love. Nice stuff then that's as dusty and dear as it is rock and roll. - The POP! Stereo

FRENCH - The Discoverialist

Howler: Jordan Gatesmith, guitarist from Total Babe, branches out with this new project full of pop styling, hand-clapping and sweet harmony. Howler's tunes have a pure joy to them, like the Fourth of July or a day at the beach. - City's Best

You ever think that something can sound the way something looks? Well, take a scene from a smoky basement complete with cigarettes, Dr. Martens, flying beer cans, sweet guitars and a great time, and you'll probably appreciate what Howler has done with their thoroughly garage rock EP, This One's Different. It contains just five tracks, all maxed out at less than four minutes, making up its slightly punk, slightly Jay Reatard-ish nature. And even if the songs are brief, they're still capable of transcending their runtime on the stereo.
The album's slowest track, "You Like White Women, I Like Cigarettes" contains a synthesizer part reminiscent of 1980s lonely pop and guitar parts that are low, fuzzy, physical and nostalgic, grabbing onto every sad leather jacket and carrying them over to its lyrics "I need a drink and a guitar."

Howler's instrumentation is definitely something else that earns a round of applause from all the basement kids, especially in appreciation of all those powerful chord structures, pretty harmonies and easy-yet-cool distorted guitars. (So-TM - Performer Magazine