A chat with Cats and Jammers

Kelly Dobos and Hannah Blumenfeld caught up with Chicago-based band, Cats & Jammers, after their rockin' show Thursday night at the Euclid Tavern in Cleveland.

The band consists of: Brad Hunter (Bassist), Scott Anthony (Vocalist/Guitarist), and Addison (Drummer).

Kelly: Why don't you tell me a little about yourselves?

Cats and Jammers: We have to go way back until two weeks ago. The way we like to explain it is when we were grade schoolers together we, uh, had an immense love of that British guy, Maynard Fergusen ... Peter Frampton's gleaming eyes were enough to make us want to become the rock stars that we are today.

Kelly: When did the band start?

C and J: Oh, are they gonna ask us serious questions? Do they require serious answers?

Hannah: Not at all.

C and J: It just started. It was. It was an idea that became.

Kelly: What are your future plans? And what have you done so far?

C and J: Well the new record is out. We want to record another one real soon. Play out as often as people want to hear us. As much as they'll tolerate us. We can bombard the sound waves as much as we're possibly able to. The more opportunities the better. We're getting the feeling that people aren't ready for us. We're really a bit more futuristic, like Bladerunner. We're kind of retro-futurists, we're old new wave. (arguing amongst themselves) I thought we were new old wave!

Hannah: How would you guys characterize your sound?

C and J: Naughty, garage-y, pop-y... if a garage were very large that would be our sound. Instead of a garage band we are more of a silo band. We like the silos, too.

Hannah: Have you seen many in Ohio?

C and J: Yeah but that kinda implies that we sound like a midwestern Iowa rock band. Silo is not such a good adjective. We refuse to take things too seriously, because there are too many serious things to be taken. So we just try to have fun and write good music that people will like.

Kelly: What are some of your musical inspirations?

C and J: Uh, the Go-go's? Link Ray rocks. Do they even know who the hell Link Ray is? He's old. The silos and the Link Ray thing, that would totally mislead people. That's true, but we like misleading people. Don't we? We don't really sound like anything that we listen too. We listen to a billion types of music. The best way to put it is that we like to sweat a lot and put a lot of energy into it. Lyrical content is really important because we don't think too many bands are very interesting when they put words together.

Kelly: So explain some of the lyrics from one of your songs.

C and J: There's a song called "Good As Dead" with very clever lyrics. Instead of being crass and saying "she fucked me," somehow I came up with the idea of saying "she plucked me." "Holdin' my head peacock proud, and then she plucked me." I thought that was kinda clever. One way to characterize our value system is quality over mediocrity. And we appreciate a little bit of humor without going overboard. Without being too goofy and taking away something that the crowd can relate to on a personal level. If you can something basically funny about something that might be serious and it connects with somebody then you've managed to do something.

Kelly: Considering you guys are from Chicago, what do you think of Ohio?

C and J: Ohio's great actually. Chicago can get pretty dull and it's a new and different experience to get out of the city.

Hannah: When I wrote the album review, I basically said it was punk rock music and pop vocals. Would you agree with this?

C and J: The word punk can mean so many things. The attitude is more punk rock than the music although some songs may sound that way. It's definitely pop music. We play music that you can sing to and sing along with. It's more melodic than your average punk song. We'd be honored for anyone to consider us a punk rock band, although we don't necessarily sound like one. An aesthetic that we follow is to keep the production low and not put too many things into the mix and basically try to keep it as raw sounding as if you were hearing a band right in front of you. Basically it comes out of guys and girls hanging around and playing music for pleasure and getting rid of some angst. We're more about singing about common stuff that people can relate to than with being to highbrow.

Hannah: So where does the band name come from?

C and J: Well, there's a restaurant in Bloomington, Il., that serves very bad food and that has pretty bad service. Subsequently we discovered that there is a German word, katzenjammer, which can be translated into the English word hungover.

The boys in the band: Ladies and gentlemen, they are Cats and Jammers. (photos by Hannah Blumenfeld)

Hep Cat: Vocalist Scott Anthony performed with his bandmates last night at Cleveland's Euclid Tavern.