New British Sounds: Jaws

The name: Jaws.

The deal: Hailing from Digbeth in Birmingham, Connor, Alex, Eddy and Jake have been creating music as Jaws since 2012. One of many extremely promising products of the B-Town indie scene, their peers Peace and Swim Deep have already released their debut albums with Peace’s In Love impressively peaking at number 16 in the English album charts. So far Jaws has released six singles, most of which are collected on the Milkshake EP released in April 2013. The NME gave the EP a positive review, stating that Jaws made “laziness look and sound good”. Jaws are currently on tour throughout the UK and plan to record and release their debut album this year.

The sound: Poppy, dreamy, with a touch of reverb and echo.

Growing up my dad would regularly admonish me for being so laid back I was horizontal. Jaws wrote the soundtrack to that teenage boy’s epic laziness. These boys never muster a pace greater than mid tempo but this is never to their detriment. The music itself is warm and hazy, somewhat like a smiley, happy version of the Madchester scene or if My Bloody Valentine wrote infectious pop tunes. Imagine The Stone Roses by way of a hippy commune. With occasional synth.

Their latest single “Think Too Much, Feel Too Little” ups the ante. It’s a bone fide pop gem. It details the classic tale of unrequited love wherein a young suitor spots the girl he fancies across a crowded room/pub but can’t muster the bravery to actually go and talk to her. Hopefully this track indicates the direction of their debut album.

For your aural and visual pleasure the link for “Think Too Much, Feel Too Little” has been provided below. Enjoy the hand claps.

They say: ”When I write music, though, I tend to think about a certain scene from a film or something in my head and put music to it, if that makes any sense.” – from this A Music Blog, Yeah? interview.

I say: There’s something fresh, innocent and even naive about Jaws. Refreshing, poppy shoegaze.

For lovers of: Slowdive, The Cure (Poppy version), Madchester.

In a word: Playful

What now? Stream their music here, and wait with baited breath until they get off their asses and record an actual album and/or announce an Irish tour!
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Like: Jaws on Facebook.
Follow: @JAWSJAWSJAWS on Twitter.
Tagged: Jaws, Peace, Swim Deep, Slowdive, The Stone Roses, My Bloody Valentine, The Cure.

Future Islands

At first I presumed that this was completely tongue in cheek. That is until I witnessed the manic glint in Herring’s eye, his obvious sincerity and his charmingly earnest chest-beating performance.

I watched this with my housemate and he dubbed the front-man, Samuel Herring, “The David Brent of indie music”, but I’m oddly enamoured by this endearingly honest performance in a music world drowned in self conscious irony. Catchy as hell too.