Howler

From the city that brought you the Replacements and the ears that brought the world The Strokes, Rough Trade Records is excited to announce the forthcoming debut album from HOWLER. America Give Up is set for release on January 17, 2012.
Howler is the brainchild of the band’s 19-year-old frontman Jordan Gatesmith. Last winter, Gatesmith had been playing guitar for the Minneapolis band, Total Babe. But the overwhelming desire to create his own songs, in his own band, prompted him to hole up with his laptop and a guitar and within weeks he had written the tracks that became the genesis for the band’s debut EP This One’s Different. Almost just as quickly he found the people to play them with. Joining Jordan in Howler are Ian Nygaard (guitar), France Camp (bass), Max Petrek (keyboards) and Brent Mayes (drums).
“Howler (is) a delightfully disaffected surf-punk quartet… If a handful of promising MP3s are any indication, there’s a high ceiling for these little punks.” - The Onions’ AV Club
The band began playing out in Minneapolis and it wasn’t long before Rough Trade Records owner Geoff Travis heard about Howler, saw them play, and signed them to the label.
This sudden onslaught of attention did not hamper the flow of Jordan’s songwriting. Before actually signing the deal and before the release of This One’s Different, the tracks for what have now become the band’s debut album were already written. “Irreverent and drenched in the classics” is how Travis describes them. America Give Up was recorded this past summer with Chris Heidman serving as producer. After sitting with it for a few weeks the band decided the end result wasn’t “trashy” enough and retracked the entire thing in an “insane last minute ten day marathon” in September.
“This One’s Different EP plays like an experiment to balance the loud and dirty qualities of Husker Du and the Replacements with the poppy hooks of the Ronettes and Shangri-Las.” - CMJ
With America Give Up completed and the EP actually in hand, October saw the band tour the US for the first time. On stage Howler are incredibly tight and play with the swagger of a band that has been around for much longer than their 11-month history (let alone Jordan’s 19 years). From the dark love song “Back to the Grave” to the Manchester punk sounding “This One’s Different”, to the hook-filled “Back Of Your Neck” and anthemic “I Told You Once (which appears on the EP and was re-recorded for America Give Up the songs have won over all who have seen them play. They are now set to cross the Atlantic and show off their skills as they tour the UK with the Vaccines later this month (tour dates listed below). Prior to the tour Howler will be supporting tUnE-yArDs at Minneapolis’ famed First Avenue on November 12.