Send "Jaguar Love " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 First things first: though much of Hologram Jams sounds superficially similar to Jaguar Love's 2008 debut Take Me to the Sea, the band and the music have been through a few important changes. Or more specifically, given that these guys are known to shout themselves out like rappers, and lead singer Johnny Whitney runs his own fashion line (the new LP also comes with a limited edition wristband for folks who pre-ordered), it's probably better explained as a rebranding. Whitney became increasingly fond of writing songs on a drum machine, which led to the release of drummer Jay Clark, and Whitney and Cody Votolato (both formerly of the Blood Brothers) reappeared as a duo with more of a dance flavor and switched labels from Matador to Fat Possum.Take Me to the Sea is still a good record, but its uniquely psychotic fusion of hardcore, heavy metal, glam, electro, and kitsch was also Jaguar Love's central problem: It's highly combustible and can't last forever. Instead of blowing up and starting over, however, Whitney and Votolato opted to slim down the band's concept along with its ranks. As an unfortunate side effect, they've more or less drained everything vital and exciting out of the first album, and replaced those ingredients with generic equivalents. Hologram Jams (that title remind you of Oracular Spectacular or Robotique Majestique?) is a vastly inferior record to Sea, replacing the dynamic punk psychedelia of their debut with sugary overstimulation and rank nostalgia....full text |
| Austintownhall |
| When the Jaguar Love project first came to fruition, it was initially 2 parts Blood Brothers and 1 part Pretty Girls Make Graves. They released an incredible single with “Highways of Gold.” That was then. Now the band is 2 parts Blood Brothers and no parts PGMG; will this affect the sound of Hologram Jams? The answer is yes, and you’ll be surprised how much. Take Me to the Sea, the group’s first album was fueled with the energy you would expect from Blood Brothers, but this new band doesn’t even really resemble anything of that, other than that you can always recognize Johnny Whitney’s vocals. That’s about the only thing remaining that you will find on Hologram Jams. Unfortunately, the missing percussionist Jay Clark really leaves a huge gaping whole in the music. Instead of turning to another drummer, the remaining duo went straight to a drum machine. The Nylon Tour in 09′ featured the group as such, but many hoped that this was just a temporary solution. Without Clark, the beats seem really uninspired, and the guitars of Cody Votalato don’t really add an extra dimension. If you take “Cherry Soda,” it just sounds like programmed beats with auto-tune. ...full text |
| Underthegunreview |
| When we interviewed Jaguar Love vocalist Johnny Whitney last Summer, he compared writing songs for the now defunct Blood Brothers to writing for Jaguar Love by saying The Blood Brothers wrote stories set to music and that Jaguar Love was more like a series of haikus. If that’s the case, Jaguar Love’s new album, Hologram Jams, is a poetic rave of artistic expression with enough synth and hooks to keep the party going for weeks. Where their first release, Take Me To The Sea found the group taking a more indie rock approach to music and including quite a few elements of The Blood Brothers, Hologram Jams finds the group completely separating themselves from 95% of music out right now by creating a dance driven niche all their own that I think has a lot of promise. Forget songs about finding romance and loss in car accidents or riding skeletal lightning, Johnny Whitney has moved on to bigger and [mainly] more positive things. Evident throughout the duration of Hologram Jams, Whitney seems to have finally found his comfort zone creatively while maintaining the lyrical wit that’s got him to this point in the industry. The album’s apparent anthem, “Cherry Soda,” serves as a perfect example with Whitney exclaiming he “rode a motherf*cking mastodon” to his prom and that he almost died due to a battle with an octopus. It’s this kind of visual and creative approach to storytelling and songwriting that really takes what would be a throwaway dance rock record to a level all it’s own. Even the simplest songs ["Up All Night," "Everything Is Awesome," and "Sad Parade"] feel exponentially more intricate as Whitney weavs a twisted web of words throughout each song with ease and an imagination that’s second to none. It’s not all about the lyrics however, especially on a release of this nature. The people want, no NEED, to dance. Going it without a drummer or any backing musicians outside of Cody Votolato and his guitar, Jaguar Love’s sound has changed quite a bit with this release. The album is driven almost entirely by continuously catchy, albeit a bit obvious in terms of choice, drum loops, but it’s really the mixture of guitar and bass lines that Votolato lays down that sonically makes the album. Whereas the beats may feel a bit like worn territory, the overall atmostphere the group is able to create takes the listener on an emotional journey of rave-like excitement to heartache and promise/hope....full text |
Jaguar Love lyrics
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