The Jaguar Club

New York indie five-piece The Jaguar Club have unveiled a new video for their track 'Hard Cider', which first reached people's ears in March of this year via the self-released Close EP - take a look at it above. The video's an oddball black and white animation, interspersed with still images of woodland and various styles of hand-drawn dynamics. Just like all the band's videos (save for 'Stringer', directed by New York-based musician and film-maker Manny Nomikos; watch that below), it was made entirely by the band themselves. - The Quietus

The track's an '80s-tinged piece of skewiff indie-rock, with jagged guitars, off-kilter synths and soaring vocal harmonies. It's a punchy cut, and offers plenty of earworms; the band verge on anthemic stadium noises and intimate whispered ditties, carefully striking a balance between the two.

Speaking about the track and video, the band's Will Popadic said:

"Stringer is a song that, for me, really represents the whole reason we reuinted the band. It started as a little chirpy all synth demo I made by myself, but once the full band got their hands on it the song became something wlse entirely. I think its a good mix between the electronic leaning and indie rock sides of our collective personality. The video was directed by our good friend Manny Nomikos over a wacky weekend on Long Island NY. Manny is a longtime The Jaguar Club fan, and really took to the song, so we basically let him run wild with it. It was a lot of fun to make!"

"Stringer" features on the band's Close EP, which is out now on Sleepwalking.

Stream the "Stringer" video below. - The Line Of Best Fit

This week, in another break with tradition, we’ve got another US band gracing the UK Artist Of The Week (because that’s where they’re making waves at the moment, and give us a break—you’re not our real dad).

The Jaguar Club are New York band who have headed across the atlantic to unveil two stunning videos. The first one they teased the UK with is the fast paced and euphoric “Stringer,” which is a love letter to ’80s new wave, complete with reverb soaked live instruments mixed with stabbing synths and New Order-esque vocals from founding member and frontman William Popadic.



Their next video for “Hard Cider” is a lot more laid back and captures a beautiful sadness in both the music and visuals. There are a number of animation styles used, including claymation and rotoscoping, and the tenderness of the track is really brought home as you witness a lovers’ first embrace in the midst of nature, or an elderly couple dealing with illness and loss followed by a viking funeral. Words don’t really do it justice—let’s just say we were left with a lump in our throat towards the end.




Both of these tracks are featured on the band’s EP “Close,” which saw founding members William Popadic (vocals and guitar) and Yoichiro Fujita (bass and vocals) join forces with newbies Nadia Brittingham (keys, guitar, and vocals), Gavin Dunaway (guitar), and Patrick Eager (drums) to elevate themselves beyond their electronic roots to create more of a band experience for themselves and the listener.

Well, they’ve got no complaints from us and we eagerly await their full album, which is due to drop in 2016. - The Vinyl District

Check out the driven dream-pop sounds of Brooklyn band, The Jaguar Club. They are debuting their new track 'The Last of Night' with Gigwise, check it out below.

Throwing themselves head-first into the new wave racket, The Jaguar Club's latest single is a driven and unkempt blend of indie and 80s synth-rock. Think Future Islands and Savages with the uplifting gravitas of My Morning Jacket.

The Jaguar Club released their EP Close this year. The New York based five piece are heading over to the UK for a short tour before returning to America to support Idlewild on the US leg of their world tour at the end of October.

Having been a band for nine years now, it's about time The Jaguar Club are given the adoration they deserve. You can do your part by checking out their awesome new track, 'The Last of Night', below.



If you like what you hear and want to catch The Jaguar Club, check out their UK tour dates below. Information regarding tickets can be found via their Facebook.

8 October - MANCHESTER, Castle Hotel
9 October - LONDON, The Hope and Anchor
10 October - LONDON, New Cross Inn
11 October - BOGNOR REGIS, Rockaway Beach Festival

Learn more about your new favourite band, The Jaguar Club, by checking out their social channels below: - Gigwise

After four years and the Long Distance EP, which was a result of the actual long distance between a few of the members, the Jaguar Club is back and making more music. The band’s newest effort is the six-song Close EP, which will be out March 3, but for now the Jaguar Club offers a free download of first single “Stringer.” It’s an energetic and heavily electronic track, but it’s also calm and atmospheric. We are proud to premiere today on magnetmagazine.com. Download it below. - magnetmagazine.com

“I have always bought vinyl and I’m embarrassed for my bandmates when I say that I am the only one of us (5 adults!) who has the passion. Growing up I was introduced to the format, as many kids my age were, by Disney and Sesame Street records. My sister is older than me by enough that we still had these around the house when most people had moved on to cassettes. I was also strongly influenced at a tender age by an Alf flexidisc I received with my kid’s meal from Burger King.”

“Eventually we no longer had a turntable in the house and the stash of family records was moved to a shelf in the basement where they sat for roughly a decade until I did what every late ’90s teenager worth his piercings did and decided to become a DJ. Inspired by Beck lyrics, that first actually-really-good Fatboy Slim album (you know, with Santa Cruz on it?), and DJ Shadow’s Entroducing, I obtained some turntables and a grossly-underpowered little DJ sampler. The pile of mildewed vinyl was rescued from my brother’s friends’ frisbee games and I started exploring.



In addition to kids albums there was a lot of show tune stuff and classical albums, as well as my personal favorite at the time—the soundtrack to the TV show Mission Impossible. I tried, in vain, to make my terrible 8 second Gemini sampler do the impossible while drooling over MPCs in the Musicians Friend catalog. I never got to the point of making songs from samples like Mr. Cook or DJ Shadow (I don’t think I even really knew how they did it then) but I did develop some basic DJing ability and could eventually match beats and was mixing bits of my parents’ old collection in with current 12”s I was buying.


Like all good stories about American teenagers, this one ends at a High School dance. Enjoying our positions as seniors, my friend Dave and I obtained the position of DJs for the big annual Halloween dance. Dave was armed with a CD player and various hits of the day, and I was on the decks (and that cursed little sampler) stocked with a selection including Underworld, Orbital, 808 State, Chemical Brothers, Air, Boards Of Canada, Moby, and the like. This was not universally popular music in my suburban Massachusetts school but I stuck to the uptempo and better known songs, Dave tossed in some crowd pleasers, and between us we kept the dance floor full.



After a while I felt confident enough to take a “risk” and put on ‘Teardrop” from Massive Attack’s Mezzanine, my favorite song from my favorite album at that particular moment (and it’s still great!). It is, of course, a very slooooow song. I knew this but for some reason I was shocked when, instead of staying in the moment with me and admiring this slice of pure sonic beauty, every single teenager in the room headed for the food. I literally cleared the dance floor. It was traumatic at the time. I’ll never forget the image of one lone kid, a good friend of mine with fine taste, spinning slowly under the disco lights on an otherwise empty dance floor. Aware of the disaster at hand, Dave flipped the channel to his CD deck. And with the first notes of “Rappers Delight” the dance floor was suddenly filled with screaming kids again. I just hung my head in shame.

These days I still collect vinyl and one of my turntables is a fixture in our living room, but the second turntable lives in the basement waiting to be used for spare parts. I turned more towards the guitar, my voice, and synthesizers to fulfill my musical urges—though I did finally learn how to sample properly as technology became more obtainable. The Mission Impossible soundtrack is still there on my ever-expanding record shelf though, filed right next to Jane Fonda’s Workout, “Born Slippy,” and all the other classics from my brief high school DJ career.”
—William Popadic, vocals, guitar - The Vinyl District

The Jaguar Club have returned with a new line-up and a new sound. Originally starting out as a trio, founding members William Popadic and Yoichiro Fujita have now been joined by Nadia Brittingham, Gavin Dunaway and Patrick Eager to create the full band sound you hear today. The Jaguar Club are oozing with 80s new wave vibes taken from their overflowing love of the likes of Johnny Marr and Morrisey.

Who are The Jaguar Club?
The Jaguar Club is: Will, lead singer who plays guitars/synths and has a large supply of crustacean themed boxer shorts; Yoi our bassist who sometimes sings and has really impressive hair; Nadia who plays synths, guitar and sometimes sings and can be accredited for giving Gavin the nickname "Dadvin"; Gavin, lead guitarist and also known as "Dadvin" due to his tendency to make terrible dad jokes; and Pat the drummer who is often topless, showcasing a giant tree tattoo, usually obscured by chest hair.

You're from New York but have a very British sound in some ways, which UK bands have been an influence on your sound?
There are more than a few anglophiles in the band, and therefore more than a few UK influences. But definitely the Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen, Suede, Pulp, Ride.

You were sending each other songs online long before you starting making the latest EP, how did you keep a cohesive sound throughout this time?
The songs were somewhat skeletons when we sent them back and forth, with the structure mostly there, but sounds and parts as more ideas than anything final. During the few months before recording, we spent a lot more time together in rehearsal bringing them to life. Gavin joined shortly before recording, and his guitar parts added a new energetic dynamic that really made the songs feel complete.

The EP 'Close' came out in March, what is the EP about?
Well, the name itself is kind of a double entendre. The last Medals album was called 'Long Distance', based on our having to travel between Boston and NYC to put together that collection of songs. The majority of that was written emailing versions back and forth, each of us adding parts to demos, which isn't the most intimate method of songwriting. We were also sans Pat, a drum machine band, so there was less of a "live energy to capture". So, logically enough, the new album was named 'Close' because with the addition of Pat and Gavin, we actually felt like a real band again and we think that dramatically changed the feel of the music. So, 'Close' in terms of proximity, but also a "close" in terms of the end of an era. That era being Medals, the mostly electronic three piece band.

ADVERTISING

Your video for 'Stringer' is out now, are there any themes behind the video or the track?
Well, the video is really the brainchild of our good friend Manny Nomikos who directed it. We shot it over a weekend in Long Island, running around by a campfire with a bottle of whiskey and a very large amount of Taco Bells. It was very cold, we were thankful for the fire as a narrative device. I think the video is about relinquishing responsibilities and day to day dullness, and embracing the joie de vivre! And driving around a muscle car with your best friends/bandmates. I suppose the song itself is about all of those things too, especially the part about driving a muscle car.

What's it like making music in NYC?
It's a pretty fun scene and a huge one at that, which makes it pretty competitive, at least more so than if we were in a smaller city with a more close-knit community. Perhaps we will all move to Beverly, Massachusetts where Will lives and really blow up that music scene. I'm sure Will would prefer it to driving down here all the time.

What have been your best and worst gigs and why?
From my experience, the worst gig we ever played was actually when we were in Medals and doing a week long tour that involved playing a show in Chicago to a mostly empty room and then driving overnight to Atlanta. I shouldn't complain too much, because I got the best leg of driving (the last one that allowed me to sleep the most and wake up in a Waffle House parking lot in Kentucky). So, needless to say, we were all pretty miserable and exhausted by the time we had to play Atlanta. It was a pretty well attended show, but very DIY. So these were the drum machine years and our "drums" sounded more like loud farting over the PA.

I wasn't in the Jaguar Club during its first formation, but I am going to speak for my 14-year-old self that the best gig the JC ever played was opening for Ash at Santo's Party House. Because, Ash!

What would you say are the hardest things about being in an independent band these days?
It's extremely expensive and feels thankless at times. But then we write a song and get really excited about it, or play a great show and hear some very nice feedback from our fans and it makes it all better.

What are your plans after the summer - any dates in the UK?
We are in the midst of putting together our very first UK tour, which at the moment will end with the new Rockaway Beach Festival in Bognor Regis in early October. Super excited to play that as there are some amazing headliners on that festival like Echo and the Bunnymen, Johnny Marr and Spiritualized.

If you could sum up the band in one sentence, what would that be?
This wheel's on fire, rolling down the road! - Contact Music

The Jaguar Club reunites, plays Pianos residency + announces new March release

Reuniting this past summer after a four year break to work on other projects, Massachusetts and Brooklyn based The Jaguar Club prepare to release their latest EP “Close” on March 3rd. Currently hosting a weekly Wednesday night residency at Pianos, the band has recently released digitally some new tracks that continue to expand on its signature sound. “Heat Of The Sun” (streaming) pairs crooner vocals with distinct guitar lines, echoing the Morrissey/Marr relationship. The lyrical mood is more positive, however, as heartache goes “bouncing off the ceiling,” giving way to the appreciation of the light (and heat) produced by the sun. Spacious instrumental interludes emphasize ambient keyboards, jingly tambourine and brightly strummed guitar chords. The Jaguar Club's residency show on February 11 also features Leave The Planet, Mariko, Cosmonaut & Night Squirrel. - Dave Cromwell - thedelimagazine.com

Review by Sean Lynch

RIYL: Patrick Wolf, Youth Lagoon, and The Drums

Recommended Tracks: All, including “Stringer”, “Hard Cider” and “Cold Medicine”

Four years is a long time for a hiatus, but The Jaguar Club proves that time is only a number through the release of their EP Close. The Jaguar Club originally hail from Brooklyn, New York, but now call Beverly, Massachusetts their domain because their frontman Will Popadic has made his new home there. The Jaguar Club have put in the work to help make 22 minutes of great pop music.

“Stringer” is a song that has pure energy. The vocals are light, but they sound shallow without the help of any backing vocals. The song has a peppy synth that bounces around with the vocals. The drums have a bite to them and help lay the foundation of strong energy in the song. Hard Cider” is a song that has an atmospheric sound to it. The use of synths and the alterations to the vocals of Popadic creates a spacey feeling to them.

The Jaguar Club really utilized their time away by maturing and crafting their own sound on Close. The band really accomplished what they wanted from this EP and it shows through the dedication they had for this EP. For being four years away, The Jaguar Club sounds like they never left the stage. - WSBUfm.com

In the summer of 2014 The Jaguar Club has reunited after four years. The original lineup of Yoichiro Fujita (bass), Jeremiah Joyce (drums), and Will Popadic (vocals/guitar) was born in Brooklyn NY in early 2006. The band played some 100 shows over the next four years, touring regularly throughout the Eastern U.S. and honing a razor sharp live show. Bills were shared with many fine bands including such notables as: Ash, Bear In Heaven, The Joy Formidable, Ra Ra Riot, The Duke Spirit, The Veils, A Sunny Day In Glasgow, Mobius Band, Pela, Teleman, etc.

The band spent the summer of 2014 in the studio with producer Nick Stumpf (French Kicks, Caveman. etc) to record their new six-track EP, titled Close, set for release on March 3 with distribution through INGrooves / Fontana.

Ghettoblaster recently caught up with Popadic to discuss the effort. This is what he said about it.

When did you begin writing the material for Close?

Summer 2013 or so, about a year before we hit the studio. We got much more serious about it this past Spring though, which is also when we decided to make it a Jaguar Club record. We were originally going to make another Medals album (the project Yoi and I started working on when The Jaguar Club broke up in 2010) but having live drums and more guitar in the band took us in a different direction. The result is some combination of the old Jaguar Club sound and what we had been doing in Medals.

What was the most difficult song to take from the initial writing stage through recording and mixing? Why was it so troublesome?

I wouldn’t describe any as too difficult. There was some 11th hour re-arranging of ‘Fall Apart’ in the studio, that was probably the closest. I lost my voice before we started recording so I ended up tracking my own vocals in my basement and emailing them to Nick for the mix. I was freaking out about it while we were win the studio, but it ended up being completely fine. I like recording my own singing parts, I can obsess in private.

Which of the songs on the record is most different from your original concept for the song?

Maybe ‘Stringer.’ The demo for that one was very synth pop, with a glitchy beat. I made the whole thing on this little keyboard. It became more of a rocker once we started working on it together. We ditched most of the sequenced elements in favor of live playing. But they all changed to some degree once the full band got involved. For this record all of the songs started with 1 or 2 people writing them, so when everyone else got their hands in there things changed and started to sound more like ‘us.’ Lots of riffs.

Did you have any guest musicians play or sing on the record?

No, though Pat and Gavin both ended up singing on ‘Hard Cider’ which was a spur of the moment thing. A real childrens’ choir vibe.

Who produced the record? What input did that person have that changed the face of the record?

Nick Stumpf produced it, he was the singer in French Kicks and he’s been producing records as of late. He also recorded it and mixed it so he was pretty thoroughly involved. French Kicks were one of my favorite bands and we were all big fans of the Caveman albums he produced, so we were all pretty happy to link up with him.

Nick gave it all a nice cohesive sound, which was great since the songs have different singers and different primary writers behind them. Our last couple of records (the Medals stuff) was self produced and recorded. Put together in a lot of different places with whatever equipment was around, various makeshift studios, so it was tough to make it gel together as one record. He also had some nice arrangement input and encouraged us to not be afraid of emphasizing the pop aspect of the songs – really focusing on what the hooks were, doubling choruses, that kind of thing.

Is there an overarching concept behind your new album that ties the record together?

We set out to make a record that was sort of stripped back, more or less true to what they five of us sound like in a room. Which we stuck to – it was recorded live with very few overdubs – but it ended up sounding much more full and lush than we initially envisioned. Not that there were tons and tons of layers and tracks, more that we really tried to make each sound the best sound it could be rather than adding additional layers or parts.

This is your first recorded output in five years. Why so long?

We sort of never went anywhere. We originally broke up in 2010, and were in the midst of writing songs for a new album even as our drummer Jeremiah was slowly moving onto new things (we were a trio in those days.) Even as we knew we were breaking up Yoi and I just naturally kept writing and by the time The Jaguar Club (version 1) played its last show had a more or less finished album in the can.

We then made the hasty and ill-advised decision to release it as a new band called Medals, which grew to include Nadia and Pat. Medals put out an LP in 2011 and an EP in 2013. That material was much more electronic oriented so when Pat joined (on real drums replacing sequenced elements) we started to gradually come around to guitars again it seemed pretty natural to make it a Jaguar Club album. We brought Gavin back in (he played live guitar for a few years in the original lineup) and everything seemed to fall into place. It’s been fun playing the older songs again and re-working some Medals material with the full band.

Have you begun playing these songs live and which songs have elicited the strongest reaction from your fans?

We’ve been playing all of the songs from the new EP live, some more frequently than others. ‘Milk and Cookies,’ which Nadia sings, just got a rare airing the other night when we played an acoustic set. People tend to respond to the upbeat songs, as they should, so ‘Stringer,’ ‘Fall Apart,’ and ‘Heat Of The Sun’ have all been going over pretty well. - Ghetto Blaster

THE JAGUAR CLUB with Incredible Change – Saturday, March 28 @ DC9

There’s something delightfully “80s” about The Jaguar Club’s music. Perhaps its the synthesizer-keyboard or the at-times almost Duran Duran-esque vocals… Regardless, The Jaguar Club puts a fresh new spin on these 80s tropes, so get to DC9 early enough to catch such an excellent first act! - Brightest Young Things DC

"Most of the press Jaguar Club have gotten make reference to new wave or new-new wave which I think must come from them listing Echo & the Bunnymen, The Smiths and Talking Heads as influences on their MySpace. Apart from the new romantic singing style of frontman Will Popadic, I don't think there's anything overtly retro about Jaguar Club's sound. They're doing their own thing."
- May 2009 - Brooklyn Vegan

At first mention of The Jaguar Club to a friend, she responded with the question, “Where is that? In The [West] Village? Can you get us in?” While I don’t typically audibly laugh in people’s faces, these multiple follies weren’t what she prided herself on: 1. Her automatic assumption that The Jaguar Club was a trendy bar in an expensive part of town, 2. Her borderline surreptitious smile at the prospect of attending such a place was oh-so un-endearing, and finally 3. Her not knowing the Brooklyn trio and their debut, And We Wake Up Slowly, was not a good thing to admit as a fellow music writer. In contrast to their album name, And We Wake Up Slowly is anything but something to sleep on.

Written in “a Brooklyn basement” and recorded upstate, The Jaguar Club presents a frightening creation to “the scene” around here: an amalgamation of classic construction, brilliant musicianship, and just enough indie-quirk to keep them hip.

I should point out that “indie-quirk” isn’t used here to highlight falsetto vocals and your typical dance-able, sample-able beats. Singer Will Popadic’s vocals sound like a cross between Paul Banks’s of Interpol and that feeling you get when you’re inebriated and watching an eagle swoop down to a river to catch fish on the Discovery channel. Yeah, it’s that epic.

The album kicks off with a slightly contrived, but all-around satisfying gentle ode to the album title. It, fortunately, segueways with massively reverberating guitars and a snake-like tambourine to the low-end-driven, bouncing, “Sleepwalking.” This is the first showcase of Yoichiro Fujita’s work; he’s epically talented at bass and seems to understand just as well when to drive a song home from the back end as when to back off.

“Where No Wild Things Are” is another testament to the authenticity of the band. When I would normally find myself rolling my eyes at lines like the repeated, “There’s an ocean to cross/There’s an island in our way,” the outright burly delivery by Popadic gives me shivers. The complete lack of indie-wimp is backed up throughout the rest of the album and it’s more pleasant than anything “castrated-rock” can hope to turn out.

The rest of the album stomps along in the delicate space of rock-noir and U2-esque guitar work. Think The National but with more infectious grooves; earworms that amusingly settle in your head, agreeably, for days. The band has breadth, though. “Blood Pressure” brings to mind the bouncy, plucky sounds of The Walkmen while “In The Leaves” presents an instrumental track that showcases drummer Jeremiah Joyce’s ability, much like Yoichiro’s, to know when to back off – the result being one of a brilliantly-accomplished atmosphere.

It’d be wrong to not point out a fault in the album. While I appreciate the cohesion throughout, sometimes the songs blend too much together. If it isn’t a track that hits you in the stomach, then it falls into the background and it’s easy to forget you even heard the song. Nonetheless, this is a great album, full of promise for the band. The final track, “Perfect Timing,” sums up the band pretty nicely: “I will take you on my back to see/The future looks better.” This is a band that can support themselves and any amount of critique that comes their way, and there’s nothing but good things up ahead. If you were looking for a new crew, consider The Jaguar Club. This debut album is sure to convert you and, with a tour starting up across the East coast and the Midwest, they’ll surely be recruiting an army of fans. - Heave Media

Familiarize yourself with this name: The Jaguar Club. You'll be hearing a lot more from them soon. I caught them recently at Mercury Lounge and it was a rare case of a band's live show backing up, perhaps surpassing, an excellent studio recording...There are no wimpy, whiny tunes here, just a rich and expanding sound that grows to fill the space around you...Their music has a richness and fullness that will carry through to an arena - picture them opening for Kings of Leon and holding their own - that's where the Jaguar Club are headed."
- WNEW.com

"When we first heard this song we were like, "Okay, cool, it opens with guitar feedback, always a good look." Then the bass line started–a chunky stumble down the fretboard–and we thought, "Guess these dudes aren't playing around." Finally the drums came in, the verse started, and we kind of coasted until 1:47, when the word "growing" gets belched so wildly we were finally sold...[T]heir rusty, Smiths-gleaning garage rock (people have been calling them new wave, but that's frankly inaccurate) has been one of our better random finds."
- June 2009 - RCRD LBL

L Magazine Music Editor and bearded indie rock dude extraordinaire Mike Conklin flagged these guys in the daily listings of the current issue, so don't give me credit or anything, but: The Jaguar Club, who play at Luna Lounge tonight, are quite good. Aside from having a pretty awesome name (who doesn't want to be a member of "The Jaguar Club," I mean come on), they play the sort of moody new wave-inflected, sub-Interpol keys-n-bass indie rock melodies that make you feel really detached and goth; imagine what you would have thought of Editors, if you hadn't figured out by the time you listened to them that it wasn't cool to like Editors.

thelmagazine.com
7/5/07



"The Jaguar Club is a Brooklyn band we're pretty excited about. They've got all the right 80's influences, and they put 'em all together in a way that's sparse and upbeat like Felt. The band not the material.
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- The L magazine, NYC (July 3rd 2007) - the L Magazine blog

When young bands employ a pleading, even emotional sound, that which results far too often sounds like emo, but somehow The Jaguar Club avoid such a dastardly fate on their impressive debut, And We Wake Up Slowly. The New York band honed their approach in tours up-and-down the whole East Coast in 2006 & 2007 before heading to the Catskills to write Wake Up, but the sound hews more towards the English grandeur of the alternative scene across the pond back in the eighties, before anyone shorted ‘emotional’ to ‘emo’ – yet still seems fresh.

After the titular intro, Wake Up manages to be both catchy and haunting on the interesting “Sleepwalking”, which also introduces The Jaguar Club’s first Anglophonics. However, it is a pressing nature, without going overboard, that really characterizes the record, a nature that helps ground the band’s grander aspirations on pieces like the following “Where No Wild Things Are”, as well as “Corks Pop”, “This Summer”, “Antarctica”, and finisher “Perfect Timing”. Any of those could be called the standout, but it is just maybe “Corks Pop”, with its ‘glasses raised at the end of the party’ that is the most memorable.

The Jaguar Club also nicely cross over into a more dance rhythm on “Blood Pressure” and “Out of the City”, the former like eighties New Wave-dance, the latter possessing a disco wa-wa. However, And We Wake Up Slowly doesn’t feel like a retread of New Wave or even of the New Wave-revival earlier this decade (actually, the only middling piece is the emo-plead “Future Sounds”…), as The Jaguar Club are lighter than the likes of Morrissey (QRO album review) or Interpol (QRO album review), catchier. There’s still space for at least one more interesting and original band from Brooklyn…
8.1

- QRO Magazine

"The Jaguar Club’s music is best described as controlled chaos. It doesn’t necessarily sound like a mess, but there are always a lot of (noisy) things going on at one given time. This isn’t a bad thing either. In fact, it’s a very good thing. Take the first single, “Sleepwalking” for example. Sift through the collective noise, and you’ll find many parts that together make this beautiful mess. The punk bassline, the almost U2-like guitar line, and the distinct vocals all getting louder and louder in perfect unison."
- The Tape is Not Sticky

"Somewhat hastily slapped with the “New Wave” tag, this band churns out plenty of uptempo rhythms, angular riffs, and dark-but-soaring melodies to compliment vocalist Will Popadic’s inimitable yowl. But the Jaguar Club is working with much more than just a compendium of 1980s influences and Brooklyn scenester bravado; indeed, they have the chops to match their considerable charisma."
June 2009 - Limewire Music Blog

"A little bit new wave, a little bit Beach Boys, a little bit hipster blog-rock; their album manages to cut through the indie-rock haze with songs interesting enough to rave about and listen to more than once."

- -WXPN 88.5 Philadelphia

“Brooklyn's arty, new-new-wavers, The Jaguar Club kept the momentum going, opening with thumping percussion on the aptly titled "Beat of My Heart," from their new EP, Ceci n'est pas le Club de Jaguar. It's easy to see why the band garners comparisons to the Smiths: bassist Yoichiru Fujita channels Andy Rourke's lush echo sound, and singer Will Popadic has Morrisey's ability to turn "goodbye" into a five-syllable word. The Jaguar Club's punchy, danceable rhythms belie some pretty somber lyrics, most notably on their best song, "The Sirens," which seems to be an oblique reference to former bandmates dealing with substance abuse. As for their name, we can only surmise that they wanted the word "Jaguar" in there as an excuse for some really cool album artwork. It should also be noted that Fujita was sporting the best rock-star haircut we've seen in recent memory.”

-Abby Lavin, DCist.com - Review of Six Points performance @ DC9 (April 2007) - DCist.com

“It’s like listening back to the sound of the 80’s, but it’s absolutely rooted in THE NOW… one of my favorite releases of the year so far!”

- DJ Chuck P., “Dead Air” Indie 103.1FM Los Angeles, (April 2007) - Inide 103.1fm

"...The Jaguar Club, who play at Luna Lounge tonight, are quite good. Aside from having a pretty awesome name (who doesn't want to be a member of "The Jaguar Club," i mean come on)...imagine what you would have thought of Editors, if you hadn't figured out by the time you listened to them that it wasn't cool to like Editors."
- thelmagazine.com, NYC (July 007) - The L Magazine blog

I dig The Jaguar Club. I dig how Will Popadic’s voice trembles with fervor. His voice is like a new breed of Ian Curtis, passionate and mature. I still can’t get over “Out of the City,” from their album "And We Wake Up Slowly". which I listened to over 20 times today.. Popadic’s yummy voice mixed with the surf-esque guitar sounds (they definitely have a Beach Boys quality about them) featured in their most recent album is equally delightful. Hearing it is like receiving a first kiss. It creates excitement and evokes a hyper nature that only the truly musically talented are capable of creating in a 4-minute song. - CS - Deli Magazine blog

Leo Maymind and Will Popadic, frontmen of Spanish Prisoners and the Jaguar Club respectively, met on a cloudy Sunday morning over coffee and bagels in Williamsburg (where else?) to discuss each other’s music, bands, inspirations, guitar dreams, and more. See both perform this Saturday at the Spicy Times Presents show at Union Hall. Their interview is below.
Q: Spanish Prisoners / A: the Jaguar Club

L: Hey Will! Ready to start interviewing each other?

W: Yeah definitely, fire away.

L: Okay. So, to begin, how do you guys identify as a New York City band? What NYC band of the past do you feel the most connection to?

W: Once on tour somewhere I was told that we were “obviously a New York band” and I’m not sure what the person was trying to express aside from being amazed at how quickly we could set up our gear. We do have a pretty serious work ethic, which I think is a common thread among bands from New York… at least the ones who accomplish anything.

We don’t really have a lot of bands that we’re friends with and have never really felt like we were part of any kind of larger music scene here. Though that’s starting to change… we’ve been meeting some good people lately.

L: So, as a guitar player who seems to be playing outside of the realm of just strumming chords, who are some of your influences?

W: Yeah I guess I don’t play many chords, I have more or less zero music theory in me – I have to ask Yoi (bassist Yoichiro Fujita) what notes I am playing. My favorite players are either guys who use a lot of effects and use them really artfully – Graham Coxon, Nick McCabe form the Verve, Isaac Brock – or the straightforward magic of Pete Townshend and Neil Young. When I was growing up I wanted to be a combo of Neil Young and David Gilmour and I learned Dave’s solos from The Wall note-for-note out of a book and played them for kids from boy scouts. I also have a big place in my heart for both Johnny Marr and Peter Buck. How come high school kids of any generation have Pink Floyd and Led Zep phases? I definitely wore a Zeppelin shirt to Cross Country practices, which I had ordered out of the back of some crappy guitar magazine.

L: I too totally went through a huge Pink Floyd phase. I remember listening to “Wish You Were Here” almost every night before going to bed. Graham, Isaac, Johnny Marr, and Neil Young are all huge for me too.

W: Wow! Maybe we should start a side project. Like a better Libertines.

L: Yes! The Jaguar Prisoners? Spanish Club? Sounds like some sort of extra-curricular activity. Anyway, what is your favorite effect on your pedal board? Would you play a show if you didn’t have your pedals?

W: I have a nice pink Maxon analog delay that’s my jam, but it’s currently broken. I love delay and reverb in all forms. Our album has a crazy amount of delay on it, like a guitar part played through 3 different speed echoes going to 3 different amps. I’m not sure anyone but me cares about these things.

L: Will, I care. Your parents do too.

W: (laughs) I’m sure we could make it happen without the effects. Yoi and I did an acoustic show last month and it was one of my favorite shows we’ve ever done… just the essence of the songs. I play more acoustic than electric these days I think. I’ve been going through a weird folky/hippie phase lately.

L: Cool. Your music has been described as “New Romantic.” What the hell do you think that means?

W: That was said by Manny from Pittsburgh who wrote that in a strange review once. He has since become a buddy of ours though and I forgive him. Visit his place Garfield Artworks when you’re in the Steel City. I believe it is a reference to a 1980’s musical/fashion type movement in the UK. Basically, it all comes down to the choice to wear suits in a press photo, which led to a hard-learned lesson about band image.

L: So, what was it like recording with Kevin McMahon? Describe the process of the recording of this album. How was it different than the previous EP’s?

W: Kevin is great! He’s a bit of a sonic pioneer/mad scientist character – which was just what we needed at the time. We recorded in his barn studio upstate. We spent a year going up and doing chunks when we had money and time. We intended to do a 4 song EP and ended up recording 13 songs. Our EPs were each recorded in a single day with no overdubs or anything. We knew we wanted to go big this time. We spent a lot of time layering songs once we had the basic tracks down, trying different keyboards and guitars and amps. I think Jere added 4 tracks of additional percussion to every song. It was a great way to make a record… the perfect way for us at that time. We just needed to open up our minds a little and just let ourselves go.

L: That sounds like quite the experience. I’m excited to hear the whole thing.

Q: the Jaguar Club / A: Spanish Prisoners

W: Glad to hear it. Leo, I will now commence interviewing you! Explain the connection, if any, between your band name and the 1997 David Mamet motion picture…. or is it a reference to the scam from which that film takes its cue?

L: Will, yes it is true. I saw the movie not long after it came out and was inspired to name my band after it. I didn’t actually know that the Spanish Prisoner was the name of a scam until I saw the movie.

W: Steve Martin in a serious role… Tell me about a time you conned someone.

L: I can’t think of the last time I purposely conned someone, honestly. I joke around a lot and I’m sure I’ve conned people just by kidding with them and making them think I’m serious. I’m a “jokester.”

W: Does that mean I can’t believe your answers? This interview must be based on trust Leo! Was the new EP recorded with the current lineup of the band? There’s a really great variety of sounds and textures covered in 3 songs, while still maintaining a pleasantly cohesive feel that makes you want to hear all 3 tracks together as one… can you shed some light?

L: The new EP was recorded in a transition period for both the band and myself. While recording it, I moved to a different apartment, switched recording platforms (from PC to Mac), and had a few different people join the band. These things made the process take a little longer than it would have normally. I recorded most of it myself, but I did get some help from friends for various things. Michael Lerner from the Antlers played drums on 2 of the 3 songs, Alex Foote from Diane Birch’s band played bass on two songs, and Tony Maimone (ex Pere Ubu, runs Studio G in Brooklyn) played bass and helped me with some of the preliminary mixes. Our keyboardist Amberly Hungerford sang harmonies and some lead parts, which is the biggest difference from the past recordings, which mostly just featured my singing. Other than that, I played and recorded all the other instruments at home.

W: You’ve done a Daytrotter session, which impresses me because I’m that kind of a nerd. Can you briefly discuss the experience?

L: The Daytrotter session was fun, but also kind of grueling. We had been asked to open a few shows by John Vanderslice, and at the same time, I had been talking to Sean Moeller about setting up a session. The farthest show west we were playing with JV was Columbus, Ohio, which coincidentally was where I lived for ten years before moving to Brooklyn. The band for that tour was just a two-piece, so we decided that after the Columbus show, we would wake up early, drive the ten or so hours to Rock Island City, record the session, and then drive straight across the country all the way back to Brooklyn. Suffice to say, a lot of coffee was consumed on that trip. However the Daytrotter guys were super great and made recording the session really fun.

W: That’s crazy! What is your connection to Los Angeles, if any? I get a certain West Coast “vibe” as they say from the new EP tunes, and your voice reminds me of Arthur Lee from Love sometimes…. then again it also reminds me of the dude form Tears For Fears a bit as well and I think they are British.

L: My girlfriend lived in LA for a few months. I went out to stay with her for a few weeks in the summer and it was a really weird time for me. She would be at work all day and I would just drive around LA by myself trying to find things to do since I didn’t know very many people. It was kind of a bittersweet experience since it was sort of lonely. I think on one of those drives the phrase “Los Angeles Guitar Dream” popped into my head and I really liked how those words looked together. It just seemed fitting for that time I was there. I really like Love, though I haven’t really listened to Tears for Fears.

W: Yeah, I lived in LA for 2 years where I had plenty of friends and family and still found it lonely. Weird town. Star Trek is all the rage again… are you/were you a fan? Or, feel free to go into Sci Fi in general… is the future going to be an OK place?

L: I have never once seen an episode of Star Trek. I don’t think I’m going to be seeing the movie either, though I have heard good things. I’ve also never really been much into sci-fi, though Isaac Asimov is one of my father’s favorite authors, which is why he was on my mind during the writing of the song “Ask Isaac Asimov.”

W: What if Isaac Asimov was here next to us- what’s one thing you’d want to actually ask him?

L: Isaac, whatever happened with that science fiction movie musical you were writing for Paul McCartney’s Wings??

W: That’s real!? I’d love to watch that. Leo, it’s been a pleasure. See you on Saturday!

L: Sounds great, Will. Let’s interview each other again soon! - Ear Farm

The Jaguar Club’s music owes a lot to 80's new wave, but then again 80's new wave should owe a lot to the Jaguar Club. A lot of bands mine the genre for inspiration and somehow throttle the life out of it at the same time. The Jaguar Club’s spare three piece set up, of Yoichiro Fujita on bass, Jeremiah Joyce on drums, and Will Popadic on guitar and vocals, make new wave listenable again, without a hint of kitsch. They’re more Joy Division than New Order. Although the band is actively seeking to add to their line-up, the band gets a lot of sound from their three instruments. Popadic mimics piano and synthesizer parts on his guitar, especially on “This Year” from their EP “C’est Ci N’est Pas le Club de Jaguar.” Fujita and Joyce’s rapid, precise playing helps make songs like “The Sirens” innately danceable without sounding like dance music. Like their best predessecors, The Jaguar Club makes songs that are deceptively smart and stealthily fun.

Do any of you play any other instruments? Have you thought about adding any more instruments/members to your line-up?

We all play a few different things, we're writing new music now and we're hoping to get more of those sounds onto our next record. We've never spent long enough in the studio to really flesh things out the way we want to, so that's our main priority this time around.

Jera is a skilled classically trained pianist, We want to invent a way to suspend a keyboard over his drumkit, and he can play French horn and as well. Yoi plays some fine drums and guitar. Will can play enough piano to entertain the other guys by writing fake TV theme songs and used to know how to play the saxophone.

The Jaguar Club seems unanimous in their love for '80s new wave, are there some bands/musical genres that really divide you guys? What draws you to new wave?

At the time, when we first started playing together as a group, it was just the common ground that we had, without ever discussing it or even realizing that the music we were making had a new wave-y sound. We were aware that we had a sort of robotic or electronic sound in there, but we were always trying to just write pop songs. It's tough to listen to your own stuff with outside ears enough to really make that kind of judgment, we knew enough to think it was pretty good and to want people to hear it.

Now that we've got that batch of songs we've definitely started to go off in different directions. We each have a million different tastes, only one of which is the New Order/Smiths/Talking Heads thing, so it's been exciting to explore more of that in the last few months. We've been taking it easy on live shows and just trying to give ourselves time to write and to develop. We all love the classic Britpop bands, we're pretty into The Walkmen, The National, and Radiohead - bands that have managed to have some longevity. We've got a wealth of interests and influences that we were using in more subtle way before that I think we're now exploring more fully. We're getting a softer side and a harder side at the same time.

Your lyrics are pretty dark for the melodies they accompany. Is this intentional? What is the songwriting process like?

Will: I guess it's intentional in that I generally know what I want to sing about, which includes some subject matter that is a bit dark, and that i'm putting these lyrics to what is basically 'pop' music. But i think that's cool, the catchy pop song can be a great vehicle for any lyrical idea, and kind of forces you to work within certain constraints and make it concise. I just don't like music with throwaway kinds of lyrics. There's got to be some thought and some passion, or else why bother having a singer.

As far as the songwriting process goes, that's another element of the band that's sort of in flux right now. We've been experimenting with different methods of songwriting which has been good, another way to open up some more sounds. But, that said, we mostly write the initial music as a group. The 3, or 4, of us standing in the rehearsal room trading ideas and building something up off of that. We want what we do to be hook driven and catchy because that's what excites us, and there's a real challenge in writing this kind of music.


- Deli Magazine

A hardworking band that thrives on live performances, The Jaguar Club are no strangers to the road. “A touring lesson we’ve learned is that we do not do Delaware,” says Will Popadic, lead singer and guitarist of the Brooklyn-based trio. “We’re pretty loyal to the good people at Motel 6 around the country, however we do always cheat them by booking a room for one person and then sneaking the other two in (we feel that our very repeat business offsets this in some karmic way) and this has never been a problem except in Delaware where we stopped one night very, very late coming home from DC. This particular Motel 6 had a security guard who caught Yoi and myself in the van while Jere was checking in. So Jere stayed there and Yoi and the van of gear and I went across the street to a by-the-hour place where the guy at the desk told us ‘you guys had better take the room next to the office,’ as if we were a couple of little kids. But the place was crawling with strange individuals and hookers, so we were slightly sketched out. We laid in our shared bed wide awake, afraid to sleep in case the van would get busted into. We were only there for like four hours anyway. It was a very large, nice motel room actually, with a kitchenette in case you wanted to cook dinner for your hooker I guess.”

Popadic (vocals, guitar) is from Massachusetts, Yoichiro Fujita (bass) is from Greenwich CT, “though born someplace in Japan,” and Jeremiah Joyce (drums) is from western Michigan, but it’s Brooklyn The Jaguar Club has called home since they formed in 2006. During this time, the band has released two EP’s of self-proclaimed “danceable pop tunes,” and played a laundry list of East coast shows from Maine to Florida, with bands including The Duke Spirit, The Cinematics, Scissors For Lefty, Mobius Band, Pela, Bear Hands, The Shaky Hands and Love Of Diagrams.

Although recording allows them to hone their sound, The Jaguar Club can’t fully express themselves unless they’re onstage. “In the end the boys in the band still love putting on a good show more than anything,” the band’s bio reads, “with energy, and sweat, unmatched by many of their contemporaries.” “We’re just excited to get out there and play a lot and hopefully reach some people with our new album, and then make another one,” says Popadic.

The majority of the band’s activity in 2008 was spent in a Hudson Valley barn recording their first full-length album with producer Kevin McMahon (French Kicks, The Walkmen, Titus Andronicus, DieDieDie, Frightened Rabbit). The album finds the band stepping away from their New Wave influences and employing more varied dynamics, but maintains their vital energy. “The album was written in a basement with no fresh air and recorded in a huge barn in the mountains, so it’s a nice mix of the two hopefully… We finish mixing it this month. We’re really, really excited to finally get it out there. We think it’s excellent.”

The Jaguar Club has always been a pure collaboration between its three members, fleshing out songs around basic sparks of ideas as they come. “We write as a group, the three of us in our practice space,” Popadic says. “We get a song close to finished instrumentally and then I take it home on my own and write vocals and lyrics to that, sometimes with minor changes to song structure but usually not… Because our writing really is truly collaborative and democratic, there’s a big chunk of each person’s personality in every song. Yoi will tell me a crazy story about what he thinks a bass line is about, or what it sounds like, that is so far off from what was in my own mind working out guitar and vocal parts but in the end that’s what makes us, us. We’re all invested in every moment of every song.”

Although each member of the band draws musical influences from different sources, they can agree on “90’s Britpop, 60’s Brit Invasion bands, 80’s American ‘college rock,’ some Post Punk and New Wave stuff, some electronic music,” and modern bands such as “The National, Idlewild, Band Of Horses, The Walkmen, Radiohead, British Sea Power and The Doves.” (Popadic’s “holy trinity” is Blur, Pavement, and Neil Young.) Lyrically, Popadic is inspired by David Byrne and Bob Dylan, books by Haruki Murakami, Herman Hesse and Charles Dickens, National Geographic, nature, forests, oceans, animals, dreams, New Wave and Owen Wilson movies. “The usual stuff I suppose.”

“The songs tend to be about somewhat general things expressed through details that are personal to me – mostly me wrestling with the necessary evils of technology and modern life,” explains Popadic. “I use the lyrics to clear my head of whatever is stuck in it. I have high blood pressure which occasionally freaks me out and makes me imagine I’m having a heart attack, and of course this anxiety is probably half the reason I have high blood pressure, so one of the new songs is quite literally about having high blood pressure but from the angle of being a pretty serious hypochondriac… It’s fair to say that I fall into the David Byrne school of lyric writing: he’s a guy who always just seems to write what’s on his mind however grand or mundane that topic may be.”

The Jaguar Club are at their most creative during the day. Popadic points out, “Midnight practices after working a ten hour day are not the best time to be creative.” A successful music career for the singer, guitarist and lyricist is “really just the ability to pay my bills by being in the band, which is a tall order these days, but practicing and writing during the day is pretty great so I’d love to have that be our regular day: get a coffee and a bagel at 11am on my way to the rehearsal space. And actually see our girlfriends some nights of the week.”

The Jaguar Club have a very clear, direct view of the music industry. “Bands now have to have really good minds toward business and self-promotion,” Popadic believes. “It’s equally as important as musical or songwriting ability if your band is going to go anywhere. We’re trying to get better at things like selling merch online, doing a certain amount of our own recording to cut costs, etc. But I am no longer hoping to sign to Capitol like I might have been when I was 18. Though they can still feel free to wine and dine us. And if Matador wants us they just need to ask.”

by Dan D’Ippolito - Jezebel Music

“[This] Brooklyn trio plays bouncy post-punk in the vein of early Echo & the Bunnymenand Chameleons UK, with sweaty bass lines and the detached vocals of Club leader Will Popadic. It's a must-see, and one of Brooklyn's finest exports.”

-Michael Marotta, Boston Herald, January 2007. - Boston Herald

"When plaintive crooner Will Popadic sings over Yoichiro Fujita's echo-laden basslines and Jeremiah Joyce's solid beats, it's a brooding New Romantic sentiment that few should be able to resist.”

- Manny Theiner, Pittsburgh City Paper - Pittsburgh City Paper

The Jaguar Club unveils video for "The Last of the Night" + plays The Knit on 12.15

If you've never been on tour, the new video from Brooklyn quintet, The Jaguar Club, might offer some insight into the vibrant, audacious, and, at times, exhausting intricacies of time spent on the road with your best friends, playing music every night. The visuals for their song, "The Last of the Night," a new single following last year's debut album CLOSE, were shot, and, consequentially directed by the band, on tour in July and August of this year, including England, a few festivals, and full slew of US dates in support of Idlewild. Shots alternate in schizophrenic juggling fashion between hotel rooms and lobbies, parking lots, gorgeous city shots, bridges and roads, and breathtaking beachscapes, with tons of footage of the band in their various car rentals thrown in between. Aside from appearing like an absolute blast, the video depicts five friends who know each other better than most, travel together, spend countless hours together, and still manage to play energetically the music that they love, every night, thus speaking volumes for the binding power of life on tour, both for camaraderie, and musicianship.

The track itself is a lush ballad of catchy hooks and driving, shakeable rhythms, with enough synth fills and vocal reverb to instill that inspirational mysticism mirrored in the Kerouac romance of the road. Included in the visuals are plenty of shots of hometown favorite spot, The Knitting Factory, where The Jaguar Club will be headlining a pretty stacked bill on December 15th. Playing alongside them will be Dead Leaf Echo, Dinowalrus, and Decorum. It should be a fine time! -JP Basileo - Deli Maagazine