Nigel Templeman, Rhiann Dunkley, and I worked with Howler in 2011 just after the release of the debut EP ‘This One’s Different’ having just been signed to Rough Trade Records. Almost immediately, we got them onto The Vaccines first UK tour as support and it all started to build in a positive way after that. The band played some decent headline shows and festivals, both in the UK and around the world, and were receiving some positive radio play and press features around the America Give Up album, when, unfortunately, just as quickly, it all went to tits (but we don’t need to go into that here).
Working with the Rough Trade team made up of Geoff, Jeannette, Paul, Jamie, Camille, Ben and Ruth, on the America Give Up campaign was a lot of fun, and the album achieved some positive results. In October 2012, Geoff Travis and Paul Jones arranged for Jordan Gatesmith from the band to record with Jon Spencer (Blues Explosion) which we were all really excited about.
On the final day of recording in New York, I was lucky enough to be able to witness Jon’s consummate skills amongst the analogue equipment he was using. The end results were a song called ‘Louise’ and this blog’s featured track ‘Ipecac’. Ipecac, as the name almost suggests, is a high-powered and rapid-acting emetic, which for a reason unbeknownst to anyone but him, Jordan from the band was quite fascinated by and so naturally, he decided to write a song about it! The results on both songs were fantastic but for some reason, Jordan and his producer didn’t want them to be used and they remained unreleased. This is, as far as I am aware, the first time that the track has been made available and I hope that people who loved the band, like we did, will enjoy it.
The band decided to stop working with us before the release of the truly awful and ironically titled second album ‘World of Joy’ but the three years that we had with them remain incredibly special. ‘Ipecac’ remains one of my favourite tracks recorded by the band and I still think it deserves to be thrown up into the light of day! ***note the small child theme with the photos!***
Edited by Claire Linfield
Dedicated to Nigel, Rhiann, Rough Trade Records, Jordan, Ian, France Camp (Jay), Brent, Max, Barney, and Waynne.