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Jaguar Love

MusicBlog

Location: Spain

Website: http://www.myspace.com/jaguarloveband

Bio: For over a decade, Johnny Whitney and Cody Votolato were members of the Seattle
aggregate The Blood Brothers, a band whose immolation of the hardcore blueprint ... (more) and a forward-
in-all-directions aesthetic gained them a league of ardent fans. As a member of Pretty Girls Make
Graves, J Clark brought noise, texture and pop sensibilities over the course of three albums
before the band adjourned two years ago.
When The Blood Brothers went out on what would be their final European tour, Clark
accompanied the band as a stage tech. As stress fractures were becoming apparent in the Blood
camp, the three struck up a friendship, a "new rocking alliance", if you will. Eschewing such
antiquated concepts as the farewell tour, posthumous releases and specially designed
commemorative laminates, singer Whitney and guitarist Votolato began writing songs in the
spring of 2007, and were soon joined in the new venture by multi-instrumentalist Clark. "Jaguar
Love was a name we could all agree on," Whitney says. "We wanted to find a name that had a
positive feel without being corny."
Whitney describes the winter 2008 recording sessions for Take Me To The Sea as "insular and
liberating." In addition to their respective roles, Whitney contributed keyboards and Votolato
played some bass. But for all intents and purposes, Clark was the ship's captain, playing drums,
bass and keyboards, as well as supervising all of the recording, mixing and engineering for the
disc at Seattle's Two Sticks Audio (producer John Goodmanson was called in to assist with
recording the drums).
When new groups are spawned from the members of respected ones, the results can be
somewhat tenuous (ask any aging prog-rocker who bought that first Asia album). Sure, as Blood
Brothers, WhitneyÂ’s idiosyncratic vocals were jarring and exhausting, while Votolato generated
six-stringed righteousness that seemingly channeled Greg Ginn, Captain Beefheart or Andy Gill
(sometimes all in one song). Likewise, Clark's guitar and keyboard work lifted Pretty Girls past
expected 'indie' signifiers. With resumes that are completely above reproach. It was essential
that Jaguar Love find a balance between their new music as well as reconciling listeners' pre-
conceived notions of how said music should/could sound. (less)