Strange Effect

Since their first shows a decade ago, Howlin' Jaws have become an urban legend. Sexy as Elvis, with the melodies of 60's English pop and the cutting energy of American garage rock. The magic is finally captured by the trio in a long-awaited debut album that delivers on all its promises. A debut album is special, and Howlin' Jaws took their time to perfect theirs. Friends since kindergarten and high school, the three boys officially formed the band about ten years ago. They were very young, not even 15, and looked like three Elvis look-alikes in 55. They took the rock'n'roll road (rockabilly option), paved with concerts, parties, energy, passion, meetings and recordings. It all came together and went off at the speed of a Cliff Gallup solo - the guitarist of Gene Vincent And The Blue Caps. In ten years, they have come a long way. They now look like Elvis in '56, but have moved musically from the '50s to the '60s, from rockabilly to electric blues and pop melodies. They record in London with the illustrious Liam Watson, owner of the Toe Rag studio, where a totem of contemporary rock was recorded, the White Stripes' Elephant album. Liam shows them how to get to the bottom of each song, to simplify and intensify. In the end, it's a short album, with no dead time, which is in the middle of the pre-psychedelic 60's (Beatles, Kinks, Zombies), from which they only kept the best. The pulsation of the blues for the roots, the melodies and the choruses which take the sun, the fuzz guitars to make the whole circulate. With its Chuck Berry-like riff caught on Route 66, the single "Heartbreaker" leads to a romantic date. Swampy bluesy guitars in front, "She Lies", "Long Gone" and "Sugar Mummy" go south. "Dust" sets the mood for an eastern spaghetti western. Everywhere, the vocals (with one, two or three voices) and the melodic loops evoke three boys in the wind and everywhere, the group advances like a gang of sexy felines, the street belongs to them, nothing seems to be able to stop them. Today, as ten years ago, the music of Howlin' Jaws is a fantasy, a journey throughthespace-timeofrocklikeahoneymoon,adeclarationoflove!