Jaguar Love -‘Take me To The Sea.’ (Matador)

Jaguar Love are the three piece formed from the ashes of two of Alternative music’s favourites early noughties favourites, Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves. Whilst there are echoes of those bands, this is something new on its’ own, which should see them win plenty of new fans. This album has been played several times since Matador sent it to me, and like all the best albums, each time I play it, I hear something new.

Initially, it sounds like a very exciting noise, perhaps like the Mars Volta (themselves formed from the ashes of a much-loved earlier band) but easier to get into. But with every play, forty minutes worth of music becomes more thrilling, more exciting, more infectious and more necessary.

Songs like ‘Bats Over The Pacific Ocean’ and the first single ‘Highways Of Gold’ draw you in. It’s not dance music, but it makes you want to dance. And there’s an interesting hint of…bloody hell, it’s GLAM ROCK! Not the 80s Sunset/LA metal variety, but the 70s Real mcCoy, as pioneered by Marc Bolan, whose influence is all over this album.

Jaguar Love have been touring with Queens Of the Stone Age in America this year. But while they seem to have gone off the boil, to these ears at least, this trio from Portland, Oregon sound like an unstoppable force. Expect to see this clear up in those end of year polls.

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Take Me To The Sea is relased by Matador on August 18.

Jaguar Love -‘Bats Over The Pacific Ocean.’ mp3

Jaguar Love -‘Highways Of Gold (single edit).’ mp3

Jaguar Love at Matador Records/ Jaguar Love’s MySpace page

Jaguar Love are a new indie ‘supergroup’ to use a very seventies phrase referring to bands made up of people who are quite well known. In this case, former Blood Brothers guitarist Cody Votalato and singer Johnny Whitney, and drummer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jay Clark, formerly of Pretty Girls Make Graves.

So what do they sound like? Well, remember how Battles’ debut LP last year scorched and charred our musical brains with its’ other wordliness? This is set to do the same on its’ own terms. Imagine Captain Beefheart jamming with Marc Bolan, and the aforementioned Battles, and this is pretty close.

Matador, their achingly cool label sent me a copy of their debut EP, cunningly entitled the Jaguar Love EP, which is brilliant and serves as a taster for their debut LP Take Me To The Sea, which is out on August 18, and hopefully Matador will also furnsih me with a copy of that. Here is a track from the aforementioned, forthcoming debut:

Jaguar Love -‘Bats Over The Pacific Ocean.’ mp3

Jaguar Love’s mySpace

Oh, and as ever, please let me know what you think!