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Felix Riebl / vocals, chariotti, percussion
Harry James Angus / vocals, trumpet
Oliver McGill / piano, keyboards, backing vocals
Ryan Monro / bass, backing vocals
Jamshid ‘Jumps’ Khadiwala / turntable, clave
Will Hull-Brown / drums

The Cat Empire has already stretched across Australia, taking over that hotbed of house-rockin’ bands one club at a time. And now that their chart-topping smash Two Shoes has gone double-platinum, they’ve set their sites on their next and greatest triumph.

But is America ready for six guys who apparently never sleep, who play nearly every night of the week, often drawing up to 30 performers onto the stage to feed from their limitless energy? Can we fully appreciate a group whose sound is a joyful collision of reggae, pub-rock, hip-hop, acid jazz, ska, R&B, and whatever else is in the air that evening, all of it packed into tight songs that threaten at any moment to explode into dazzling jams?

Well, actually … yeah, if we judge by the reaction they got the night they electrified 15,000 believers at Bonnaroo ’06. Josh Baron, for example, staggered back to his office at Relix in New York to rave, “Cat Empire F@#CKING ROCKED Bonnaroo!” Brian Mansfield of USA Today reported that the Aussie visitors “performed with the pacing of an old-school R&B revue.” And Jeff Tamarkin, writing for AMG, confirmed that “the fuss was justified: The Cat Empire is a wholly engaging, genre-splicing band … clever and brainy, danceable and absorbing.”

They do it all, by the way, without guitars. Check the credits (above): It’s true.

How’d they pull it off? The secret’s in the sound of Two Shoes. From the first moments of “Sly,” the groove is ferocious, the brass is sassy. The trumpet and keyboard feel like they’re blasting in your living room; Felix’s vocal is, well, sly, but it also swoops and falls and hyper-ventilates and pretty much leads you right into “In My Pocket,” whose island flavor and sing-along hook make it clear that this is a ride to remember.

But actually, make that plural, because the sounds of The Cat Empire spill all over the map. As the music rolls on, through manic scratches, Memphis horn licks, and innocent indolence (“The Car Song”), a ska-sizzle tribute to terpsichorean pleasure (“Two Shoes”), a body-moving message, part salsa and part skank, aimed at the militarily minded (“The Chariot”), music-hall, Cockney-inflected swagger and surreal existentialism (“Protons, Neutrons, Electrons”), klezmer swirl (“The Night That Never End”), and all that Two Shoes has to offer, the meaning of this band becomes clear.

Fact is, they are far more complex than they sound, if you want to break what they do down to the basics. But tempting as that is, the best way to appreciate The Cat Empire is to do what fans have been doing in Australia, from the band’s eyebrow-raising set years ago at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival up to the ARIA Award that the national recording industry bestowed on Two Shoes last October.

In other words, crank it up. Make it loud. Let it rip. Save the analysis for later. Dance!

The only common denominator threading through Two Shoes is that it’s all irresistible. It is, in fact, dangerous to listen to this stuff sitting down, as fans back home in Melbourne have known since the group began there as a trio. Momentum from their first EP, Live at Adelphia, carried them all the way to California the following summer for a string of club gigs, followed by a show-stopping triumph at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, where they stunned everyone who managed to stay awake for the “Late ‘n’ Live” program – every consecutive day for more than two weeks.

Momentum built throughout ’03 as their first album, The Cat Empire, took just two months to go gold; its first single, “Hello,” broke into the Aussie charts at #20. Appearances on BBC and at the WOMAD Festival, and as opening act during James Brown’s Down Under tour in ’04, primed the band for its most explosive performance yet.

Recorded in Havana, Cuba, at Egrem Studios, Two Shoes documents The Cat Empire’s paradoxical evolution toward an even wider range yet a tighter, more high-impact feel. In the same space where Josephine Baker and Nat “King” Cole cut historic tracks, the band teamed with producer Jerry Boys (Buena Vista Social Club, R.E.M., Billy Bragg, Wilco) to create that rare project that feels like it was cut not in a studio but at some block party that’s poppin’ long past curfew.

With Two Shoes dropping in February ’07, The Cat Empire has already begun its conquest of the New World, having played sold-out sets at the Bowery in New York, the Troubadour in L.A., and other venues. “It’s great to play for people who experience us for the first time,” insists singer Felix Riebl. “It’s like a new romance, so I don’t know about all this ‘conquering’ stuff.”

Well, assuming that America does fall under The Cat Empire’s spell, what’s next? “Kazakhstan,” deadpans drummer Will Hull-Brown.

You heard it here first …

Download The Cat Empire One-Sheet (PDF)




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