an empire is an immense egotism
so said ralph waldo emerson. but he couldn’t have been talking about the cat empire, because these guys are about as selfless as they come. their music is, stylistically speaking, wide-ranging and all-encompassing. and they invite the crowd to share in the fun from the opening sonic salvo.
2006 was a great year for live music in san francisco, but the cat empire has already set the bar pretty high for 2007. (admittedly, it’s still way too early to call favorites, especially considering some of the upcoming shows on my calendar: sparklehorse, jesse sykes, the mountain goats, tv on the radio, apples in stereo, and the gourds.)
but back to the cats. i had stumbled (almost literally) upon these guys last year at bonnaroo. when i saw the show listing earlier this month, i decided to see if my first impression would hold up under further scrutiny. it did. in fact, they were even better than i hazily remembered.
the cat empire is a 6-piece band from australia with no guitars. yep, no guitars. there’s an incredible rhythm section, two frontmen—one sings and plays percussion, the other sings and plays trumpet—an androgynous keyboard player, and a turntablist/percussionist. the songs are all over the place, everything from dub to cuban to sing-along-chorus pop. the trumpet bursts are the most consistent element, providing everything from percussive stabs to primary melody lines… it’s like herb albert and the marijuana brash.
anyway, buy the new CD “two shoes” (which is actually a re-release—but their first US release—of a 2005 australian album) if you like the clip below. fun stuff, and we need to make sure these guys make enough money to come back to the states on a regular basis.
take a listen to their song “lullaby” from last night’s show.
