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 debut album from HOWLER, America Give Up. Howler is the brainchild of 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 guitar and within weeks he had written the tracks that became the genesis for the band’s debut EP This One’s Different. Almost 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). The band began playing in Minneapolis and it wasn’t long before Rough Trade Records founder Geoff Travis heard about Howler, saw them play, and signed them to the label.

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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 during summer 2011 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. 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).