13 Cats: Too cool for planet Earth
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As formidable as that gallery might appear in print, it devastated when behind mics.
A felicitously aberrant rascal mission whose storied big beat-ministers hailed from glory-scribed walks the Polecats, Rockats, and Stray Cats, 13 Cats flickered brilliantly, albeit shortly.
They crafted stunningly novel admixtures of literate, fantastic lyricism and burly roots musics jetted up into tomorrow. Much-loved Rockabilly nuggets, newly drunk on adrenaline joy juice, were catapulted through flick-knife Punk and Psycho back alleys. And self-penned, splintered reflector tableaus reeled crazily amidst jubilant uproar.
One brief lyrical citation illustrates sufficiently:
She walks the Information Highway, he's on vine from Monday to Friday. They get together when the weekend comes. She digs Sinatra, he beats his drums.
Jungle Man and Robot Girl, victims of the modern world.
Sadly, waxings are sparse. 2001's in the beginning (Revel Yell Music) preserved studio reanimations of Charlie Feathers, the Rockin' R's, and Bill Allen and the Backbeats' shout/jump standards, as well as band originals (including "Teddy Boy Kung Fu Weapon" and "Flesh for Andy Warhol") captured on radio and at live spectacles.
2003's full-length 13 Tracks (Raucous) presented nearly all freshly-coined jaunts -- like "Leather Straitjacket," "Jungle Man, Robot Girl," and "Snap, Crackle, and Hiss" -- the sole exception being 13 Cats' conflagratory take on Bill Allen and the Backbeats' 1958 "Please Give Me Something."
The swaggering supergroup's irregular brainstorming was further typified by originals "Poison Candy," "Chanting for Cadillacs," "Sex Hex," and "Hell Bop." In each, raceway rocketing that likely stole committed witnesses' oxygen proved the equal of message uncanniness.
(Two other selections, "13 Cats" and "Teddy Boy Kung Fu Weapon," had turned up in 1999 film The Rage: Carrie 2.)
Subsequent years brought two or three repackagings, rarities compendiums, and a performance DVD. But by that time, members had dispersed and discovered crisp attractions. New individual glories were mined.
But, oh -- what was!
Eruptive, scintillating guitar-led Neo-Rockabilly that spanned Blues, Country, and primal Rock'n'Roll. Flamboyantly idiosyncratic gestures colluded with flabbergasting instrumentation, in rave-up flammables of adventurous mien.
Modern-day Sci-Fi/ fantasy was grafted onto vintage rompings to father a bloodshot-eyed creation full of verve, strut and cat-styled swell.
We had 13 Cats for what seemed but a twinkling. One tilted moment. They'd rocked headfirst into a topsy-turvy and taboo delirium dear to senses-fevered apostles. Perhaps from blueprinting, theirs had been envisioned as a fleeting escapade.
Whatever the case, recorded portraits and gray-matter snapshots are all we have left of the wonder that was.
Videos: "Sex Hex" "Snap, Crackle, and Hiss" "Teddy Boy Kung Fu Weapon" live in Vegas (36:27)
Bandcamp (in the beginning)
Bandcamp (13 Tracks)
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