|
“I’m always rubbing my wings together/can’t you hear what I say?,” Cat Scientist ask their listeners on their newest release, Cicada. Sure� sure, we can. We’re just not sure what the heck you mean. Cat Scientist are five whimsy-obsessed, keyboard playing (that’s right, all five of them are on “keys,” and three of those five also play your standard guitar/bass/drums), nature-freak popsters, and I’ve heard their music compared to that of early Talking Heads spinoff combo The Tom Tom Club. There’s some truth to that, of course, as Cat Scientist also trade in funk rhythms and employ similar Bernie Worrell-like whizzing synth textures at times. The first tune on their new release, “I Saved An Airplane,” begins with a propulsive, immensely enveloping bass/keyboard/drum rhythm—the same sort of thing that fills dance-floors on Ibiza year after year. But then the words come in: “I saved an airplane/lowered it down safely with my powers/I am concerned about their safety/I’ve worked on the problem for many hours/using claws, mind, teeth and magic.” What?
I don’t know if co-vocalists Rae Craig and Brant Bingamon are romantically linked or not, but there is, without a doubt, something that Cat Scientist shares with many couple-headed bands: Tom-Tom Club, Yo La Tengo and Octopus Project among them. That is, their music generally rocks, but there’s also quite a bit of insular-homebody love in their words—it’s not so much “a dance party for you people out there,” but more of a “come dance with us in our strange little world and listen to our wacky stories.” Listening to this release is like going to a house party at the home of a very tight, very fun couple who know how to get you moving, but who have been together for so long that they trade in-jokes with one another all night—and that means that you are either on their trip or you aren’t. As they put it on “Rocks and Trees”: “I’m having sex at this very moment/with this pale young rock/with a block of congealed sediment that formed at the bottom of my ocean fifty billion years ago.” Starting to catch a pattern here? “I’m doing this;” “I did this;” “I’m having this�” Um� folks, you’ve got guests over tonight. Is there any beer left?
Despite such naval-gazing, the environmental/communal vibe from the five-some gets fairly entrancing at times, even on such Neu-like instrumental excursions as “Drone In G Major” (which is just what it sounds like), or on the most anomalous track, the “first-its-acoustic, then-it’s-anthemic” shout-out, “Church Bus.” Cat Scientist are your neighbors, and they want you to come on over and be part of the fun evening they’ve got planned. It’s a great party to go to, as well, and your hosts have a great sense of humor. Just make sure that you’ve got a ride home, as those hosts are having so much fun with one another that they sometimes forget that they invited you over in the first place.
Mp3’s from Cicada:
I Saved An Airplane
Pink Dress
Websites:
www.catscientist.com
Myspace
