Young Mammals

Jaguar, the latest record from Houston’s Young Mammals released earlier this month, was inspired by Jean Rouch’s 1967 film of the same name. According to singer and guitarist Carlos Sanchez, “The energy of the film…the idea of becoming a jaguar in the city resonated with me. That’s what started the initial writing for our record.” While I’m not personally familiar with the Rouch film, I will nevertheless posit that the record definitely has a classic cinematic quality, from its lyrics to its music, that takes the listener along on its journey. “Crane” opens the album with its rough around the edges pop rock. The interplay between the guitars of Cley Miller and Sanchez works beautifully as they at times clash and crash into one another before intertwining in tense harmony. The album’s title track is next with its traces of New Wave drama and structure. As the tune’s dynamic peaks and valleys roll along, Sanchez sings “My baby’s a jaguar, she’s a jaguar” with conviction and glamour. This narrative reveals itself again just a track later on “Turfed” where lyrics bemoaning that the “Jaguar won’t be mine” are softly crooned over the beautifully layered ballad.

“I’m Sleeping” is a poppy and joyous ode to sleeping the days away with a driving, danceable beat. “Mango Beach” opens with a Beatles-esque arpeggio and descending bassline that leads into a mellow, sparsely populated track that gives the song a live quality. While Young Mammals do rollicking wall of sound style rock such as on “The Slight”, “Mango Beach” displays their ability to create an intimate atmosphere and the crisply recorded bass of Jose Sanchez anchors the track in a vivid way. “Rat In The Summer” gradually builds a wave of musical tension that crests fantastically as chiming clean guitars and crunchy distorted ones intermingle over soaring vocals and evocative tones and percussion for a musically immersive experience.

“Auroras” is an exuberant pop punk shimmy and shake with caterwauling guitars and shouted lyrics, overall perhaps the most raw tune on Jaguar. It is followed by the ballad “Heavenly” and the juxtaposition between the two tracks showcases Young Mammals’ ability to bring the same level of emotion and technique to a track regardless of its tempo. “Morning Vice” closes the album by unleashing a beefy riff over Justin Terrell’s powerful drums on the listener. As dreamy vocals and jagged guitars crash together on the chorus, the tune’s bouncy, pristine bass propels things along. The instrumental portion highlights the almost surf rock beat and the understated synth work of Collin Hedrick adds a fullness of sound to the track. - Impose

Young Mammals, a power-pop band from Houston, blasts through 10 songs in 31 tight minutes on their upcoming album, Jaguar. The concise tracks are neither rushed nor lethargic, because after nearly 10 years together, the band knows how to get its point across in just the right amount of time, like on the psychedelic but driving "Rat in the Summer" or the quick energetic burst of "Auroras," which lead into the downcast "Heavenly" as the album draws towards a close. Jaguar is due out November 11 on Odd Hours records. - All Music Guide

In the fall of 2012 I picked up Parquet Courts' album Light Up Gold on the recommendation of some blog or another. Since then I've picked up every release from the band, always finding a song or two on each that blows my mind with its exuberance. Obviously my admiration isn't exactly unique – the band is universally loved by everyone from casual indie rock fans to the most erudite of critics – but in my record collection, Parquet Courts is one of the few new buzz bands that has achieved bankability. So even after Kate declared she was too tired to go to the show, and I secretly felt the same way, I felt I owed it to the band to make the drive to Lawrence. So at 8pm I pointed the Prius toward Kansas and cranked the new Shellshag album.
Young Mammals from Houston started the night at exactly 9pm. The band is a four-piece that dwells in the indie rock '90s but has some of the post-punk bounce that the genre incorporated in later decades. Lead guitarist Cley Miller is all over the place with delightfully noisy, noodly, or meandering leads. Bassist Jose Sanchez serves a similarly destructive role, ripping songs apart as he jumps all over his fret board. This left drummer Justin Terrell and rhythm guitarist Carlos Sanchez to provide the driving rhythms that are the cohesive foundation of the band's sound. Carlos Sanchez's vocals played it safe most of the night though when they picked up a bit of yelp, the set got more exciting. After a polite 25-minute set, the quartet stepped aside. Friendly gents, good songs, good band, see 'em.
At 9:45, Kansas City three-piece Lazy took the stage. For those with a passing familiarity with Lazy, a quick tangent may be helpful. This three-piece version of Lazy had performed as "BB Gun" as recently as a few weeks ago, but at that time that band was described as the side-project of Lazy frontman Brock Potucek. However, Potucek has since disbanded the old Lazy line up, and has now rechristened "BB Gun" as "Lazy." Do they still play the old Lazy songs? No, instead Potucek's move is reminiscent of Mark E. Smith who once noted that any group that included him could be the Fall, up to and including "me and your granny on bongos." So Lazy is dead, long live Lazy. With that history lesson, and all the taxonomy behind us, let's turn our attention to the stage.
Lazy is a post-punk band in the grand, 1978 tradition of the genre. Amazing bass lines delivered by Potucek defined most of the band's set, while the guitar work of Brenton Wheeler provided bursts of angular energy, and new drummer Billy Belzer added primal rhythms powered by his snare and floor tom. Both Potucek and Wheeler provided vocals, but it was the complicated compositions full of electricity and sharpened edges that took center stage. Dare I saw that the new Lazy is even better than the old?
There was a long pause before the headliner took the stage – like over 40 minutes long. During that time the audience packed in tighter, beefy guys in backward baseball caps showed up from nowhere and claimed spots up front as if by birthright, patrons were over-served, and we all just stared at a stage devoid of musicians, but completely populated with the equipment placed there before the doors even opened. Each time a band member would walk out on the stage to fiddle with an effects pedal or cord, the audience would cheer for that brief moment. Then, when the band member would wander off, the audience would return to their previous conversations, only slightly more antsy than before. Whether the delay was caused by club policy, or if it was of the band's choosing, at 10:50 everyone seemed bored of the game, and the show began.
Brooklyn-based headliners Parquet Courts opened with "No No No" from its forthcoming EP Monastic Living, due from Rough Trade on November 20th. That song began a 90-minute set that drew from all corners of the band's career, allowing for frantic explosions of thrash, simple pounding garage rock, wiry post-punk, and even expansive, languid instrumental jams. The band sounded good – sloppy when it could be, tight when it should be – but the audience wouldn't have known if the band had gotten it reversed. The Wednesday night crowd was there to party, and the bros in the audience were hard drinkers that band felt compelled to match shot for shot. After the second song the area in front of the stage had become a jostling pit that stumbled this way and that, tossing the women in the audience to the periphery, leaving room for the shirtless hulks too bleary-eyed to pump their fists with the rest of the audience, much less sing along to the underground hits like "Sunbathing Animal" that engrossed the audiences in the wings.
Still, the entire audience responded to each song with shouts of sycophantic praise so prejudiced that even the band found it comical. While guitarist Andrew Savage changed a broken string, bassist Sean Yeaton urged the audience to continue its "Sean is great" chant so long that guitarist Austin Brown began to play over it, announcing "We normally save the 'Sean is Great' song until the encore." There weren't many moments of this crowd interaction (a fact that Brown recognized late into the set), but the highlight had to have been when Brown and Savage told the story of their last area show – an unpromoted basement gig in Kansas City in 2011 or 2012 where the band played to a small audience in an unheated house where both the toilet and the bathroom sink were clogged with the same putrid material. The band has relayed this story in interviews as the worst show they ever played. For some reason hearing that story live instills a certain amount of pride in me. Hey Brooklynites, you want to be rock & rollers, you're going to have to come through Kansas City and claw your way up from there. It's survival of the fittest.
I continued to snap photographs throughout the set, taking my lumps from falling bodies and awkward elbows, but I was never able to lose myself in the band's music. There was a lot to process, and my lizard brain consistently lost out to its analytical counterpart. While "Borrowed Time" was the same thrill ride as when I first heard it three years ago, it was obvious that this band wasn't "my" band any longer. It now belonged to a wider audience, and some members of that wider audience were just jackasses that I had no interest in teaming up with even for a 90-minute set.
The band closed with the epic "Content Nausea" – also the closer of the band's 2014 album Content Nausea released under the band name Parkay Quarts – and then immediately unplugged their gear and walked off the stage. The audience cheered for an encore, and the house kept the dream alive by leaving the lights low and keeping the house music away, but after a minute or two we all realized that the band was not coming back out, the house lights came up, and the audience members lit upon the stage like vultures to pick away the set lists. I thought about waiting for the band, to tell them that their promotions company set me to cover the show, to tell them where photos from the night would be, to tell them them I was glad they returned to the area, persevering through KC's aromatic plumbing issues, but by the time I packed up my camera gear there was already a queue forming outside of the backstage door. "It's okay," I thought, "the band has plenty of adoring fans ready to buy them shots, and I'm sure they're not clamoring for a Too Much Rock button anyway." With that, I walked to the car, and started my late-night drive back to Kansas City. - Too Much Rock

You ever want to throw your lame job away and start "hanging out" on a professional level? Then you should probably take some cues from Young Mammals. The Houston band plays acid-washed rock music that's perfect for an endless summer of maxing and relaxing. Today, they're premiering their new video for "Jaguar," a cut off their recent album of the same name. The video follows the band just chilling hard, going from the beach to different bars, and having the best time possible. The song is the sonic equivalent of a cool, sunny day in the sand, guitars reverbing out like smiles.

Of the video, singer Carlos Sanchez says, "When we were making the video and hearing the song over and over again, Trey, the director of the video, said that the song sounded mean to him. Once he said, 'The meaning of the song changed for me.' Rather [than] it being a positive song about a fierce jaguar, [it's] a negative song of a person chasing an idea of becoming a jaguar." - Clrvnt

Childhood friends Cley Miller and brothers Jose and Carlos Sanchez have been making music together for quite some time. They now form Houston band Young Mammals, formed officially in 2005. They made their underground mark with the debut of the Carrots LP in 2010 and a subsequent string of 7″ releases. About to release their sophomore album, Alto Seco, they’re sharing an exclusive stream with us, unveiling ten tracks that range from blustery power-pop to hushed art punk, with a youthful energy pushing equally through evocative guitar chords and gutsy vocals. Alto Seco comes out October 7 on Odd Hours. Catch the stream of the album below, following a short interview with the band. - Impose

Formed in 2005, Houston indie outfit Young Mammals’ kicked themselves into the local underground scene with the release of their Carrots LP in 2010, followed by a slew of 7-inches. New single “Speedboy” is a gutsy, lo-fi earworm. It’s infectious as hell: a kick-drum hammers away underneath buoyant, power-pop-infused chords come in waves that rise and recede, each one taller and more cogent than the last. It’s not quite punk, but it’s noisy enough to cut with a serrated edge, especially during the strident, electrifying outtro.

Young Mammals’ record Alto Seco is out October 7th on Odd Hours. - Wondering Sound

If you truly love a band, an artist, or anyone who’s creative; then you should champion their growth. We all turn a blind eye to changes in art. A great example of this would be comparing Rolling Stones albums from the eighties to their albums from the sixties. The fact is, that the best bands and artists change over time. A band who has changed over time, is Houston’s Young Mammals. “I don’t think people are gonna’ like it cause’ it’s so different,” explained guitarist Cley Miller when I asked earlier this year about their new album. That new album, “Alto Seco” is definitely different than previous Young Mammals albums. However, I don’t see how anyone who listens to it, can’t immediately fall in love with it. In ten tracks, the band takes you on a path of rock, pop, and indie sounds that don’t disappoint from track to track.



The opening song, “Lose The Grip,” is pretty much the perfect opener for what’s to come. Utilizing an almost U2 kind of opening, the band quickly segues into an indie rock vibe that’s catchy, while not being hokey. Gone are the overpowering pedal sounds of the band’s past recordings in favor of a more straightforward and leaner sound. That vibe is carried over into the second track, the fast and quickly paced “Speedboy.” There’s such a simplistic feel to the way the hooks are presented while staying fresh and having a head bopping chorus. By the time you’ve gotten to the slow paced and almost Cure sounding third song, “Alto Seco;” you should be cool with how these guys have changed. There’s growth here for sure, especially with the landscaped guitar sounds all over the song that have the feel of a Starflyer 59 tune.



Halfway through the album, you’re greeted with a really simplistic and almost swanky vibe on “Rabies” where singer Carlos Sanchez’ vocals emote such passion without sounding too personal. The dual guitars on the song really make a basic structure come off with a more lush and fuller than you’d hear from acts with more complications in their songs. “Build A House,” swings in with a pop rock force that definitely makes you realize why it was dropped as a stand alone last year. It’s a truly crafted pop song that hides behind soundscapes of guitar, that never bury the true nature of the track. The fuzz heavy sound of the eighth song, “Queen” really comes off as a possible second single from the album. It’s definitely a standout that is simple while still sounding diverse, and it’s length is quick enough to leave you wanting more. The album gets finished off with a hollow body guitar laced track, “Littlefield.” The song clocks in at a little under seven and a half minutes, but it never feels like there’s too much of it. Vocals slip in and out of the song with almost a whisper, but the track consistently slings along without ever losing its initial rhythmic feel. Then, about three and a half minutes in, there’s a small break, then back to the original intent from the beginning. Even the keyboard heavy ending is more than welcomed, and it never feels like the band is straying away from their initial purpose on the song.



It wasn’t really a surprise for me that I liked this album, as it’s catchy sound and surprises are a welcomed change for a band that has always grown. I don’t think there’s really anything about “Alto Seco” that you could find to dislike. In a little over thirty minutes, Young Mammals embraces change and keeps their core sound intact, leaving us listeners with something we can jam out to for a long time to come. You can catch Young Mammals live on Friday October 3rd, when they play at the Coog Radio Fifth Birthday Bash. And, you can pick up your own physical copy of “Alto Seco” when they perform at Fitzgerald’s on October 11th, with Wild Moccasins, Hooked Rugs, Toast, and DJ’s Andy V & JE. - Free Press Houston

Alto Seco, the newest album by Young Mammals, features clear vocals that ensnare anyone who gives the album a listen.

With an amazing talent, Young Mammals expertly sets and maintains various atmospheric tones throughout the album. Listeners are smoothly lured deeper into the music to find out what attitude the next song will take. The lyrics and vocals seamlessly flow with the melodies, creating a full experience within each song. Dynamic instrumentation prevents Alto Seco from becoming monotonous, a trap that often sets in for guitar centric music.

The opening song is a little jarring at times over ear phones, but overall Alto Seco has enough variety to fit any mood.

Rating: Bad-Ass - That Music Magazie

"Public Assembly’s front room saw a rollicking run from Houston’s Young Mammals late Sunday, the four energetic lads powering through some 90s-tinged indie with full-throttle intent so infectious every note I tried to take is complete scribble." - New York Press, 06/29/10

"Carrots is full of atmospheric indie rock, in the vein of Broken Social Scene and the Flaming Lips. Pop melodies swirl with lush, reverb-heavy guitars. It’s noisy but not abrasive; a garage band melting in the summer heat." - True Genius Requires Insanity, 06/17/10

"Young Mammals' debut showcases the group's impressive knack for writing hummable indie pop nuggets featuring experimental, Animal Collective-esque detours." - Amie Street Editors, 06/22/10