The Jackets

Rising out of the ashes of the Swiss garage-punk scene come The Jackets!
Despite being formed in the Spring of 2007, The Jackets are not new to the European garage/rock/punk scene. Jack Torera had been playing guitar and singing for the Bernese girl group 'The Mad Cowgirl Disease' and fronting the Zürich combo 'The Fox', who after several years were gaining some success around Switzerland and Germany along with releasing a record on Noi Recordings (Zürich) in 2004. Severin Erni had been playing bass for Bern's 'Low Income Entertainment Group' and more notably Thun, Switzerland's 'Tight Finks' for many years. The Tight Finks played over 200 concerts in 16 countries and released two albums on Subversive Records (Bern). Chris Rosales, an American who moved to Switzerland in 1994 from Los Angeles, had been touring and recording for over ten years with several Voodoo Rhythm Records bands such as Lightning Beat-Man and the Never Heard of 'Ems, The Super Supers, Reverend Beat-Man and the Unbelievers and The Get Lost (with ex Miracle Workers Gerry Mohr and Robert Butler).
After moving from Zürich to Bern in 2005, Jack Torera teamed up with Chris Rosales to form 'The Trash Department', a two-piece, low-fi noise band. After a year of false starts they joined forces with Severin Erni who was just back in Switzerland after a year in Mexico and The Jackets were born. Combining their love for sixties garage, mod, '77 punk rock, and even hard rock acts like MC5, AC/DC and The Stooges, The Jackets bring a dynamic recipe to the garage rock 'menu'.
The Jackets sound is a product of the band's three distinct personalities. Jack Torera's shimmering, ghost-like, vibrato vocal style wailing above Severin's Mod-like, Freak-Beatish, bass accents held together by Chris's classic sixties-type rimshot-flam-a-diddles drive the band into the realm of sixties garage but the road they travel is much broader. At one moment we are go-going to a Kinks-inspired number and before we can say 'yeah-yeah-yeah' the tone has changed to something more punk '77 followed by a trip into psychedelia.
What is important to note is that the Jackets play songs; their own original compositions that deal with anything from broken hearts (Get Back With You) or popping pills (Vitamin 25) to stories about lost souls (Sadie) and homages to literature (Mr. Stranger- Camus?). All this analysis aside, the Jackets rock and roll!! And it is the 'roll' that makes the 'rock' part just that little bit better!
-- Ludwig Von Effingerstrasse