The Great Kats!
Here we have a band that have tapped in perfectly to the current music trends mixing up Indie/Pop and New Wave with a slight passing resemblance to the Ting Tings. On their debut single we have two versions of, ‘This Is A Bust’, then E.B.O.T.D.F. (Everybody On The Dancefloor) & finally ‘Just A Little Bit (Meet Me In The Bathroom). The band comprise of Toronto-born lead-screamer Ali Cat (?!), a spunky girl who had led a Punk band previous, Dan Gamble on guitar who grew up between England and Japan, Chris Massey on bass who was a former Pro-Skater, and Etienne Bellot on drums from France that met the rest of the band at a Halloween party dressed as a mummy…
The lead single is a surprising single insomuch as I really like it. I’m not a major lover of Electro-Indie, or New Wave, or whatever you want to call it, however this is as catchy as hell. With a big chunky (some might say phat) backbeat and snotty female vocals it’s a nice angst-ridden tune harking back to the likes of Blondie and Siouxsie And The Banshees, mixed with a smidgen of Avril Lavigne and the aforementioned Ting Tings. The remix version basically tells you that whilst in the radio version you, “Put your hands up // Put your hands up”, we now understand that our hands are overly familiar with our mothers…
Now on E.B.O.T.D.F. we have a groovy disco beat with the odd cowbell, and this reminds me of early 80’s pop music, or various entrants to the Eurovision Contest over the previous 25 years. It’s not quite as memorable as ‘This Is A Bust’, but is repetitive enough to become annoying! However, ‘Just A Little Bit’ is a nice track with fuzzy guitars and the vocals of Ali Cat, are a cross between Madonna and Cyndi Lauper from back in the mid 80’s. It’s a Pop/Rock song that is again catchy, and this is the strength of Ghostcat.
Never more so has the background of the band members shaped and moulded a band so well, and this is what give them the edge along side bands flipping coins to decide what genre to play. Ghostcat may not play my type of music, but it is catchy and memorable and that is exactly what the music buying public want. Good work!