Having been collecting records since about the age of 14 or so, the idea of trading friends for lps that I'd rather have was something that never seemed to cross my mind. Maybe it was the fact that a lot of my friends throughout my teen years weren't as avid about buying records as I was. It wasn't until recently that I made my first record trade for a JFA 7 inch to a close friend who had been wanting the record for quite sometime and because it had sentimental value to him growing up in Arizona. The trade was a-ok by me, in return I received the Clockcleaner 'Babylon Rules' LP and a 7 inch on Hozac Records of a band I was unfamiliar with called Wizard Sleeve from Alabama, that I ended up enjoying quite a bit for it's cold-wave/psych elements.
This very same friend traded another pal for a record I can't seem to remember and this pal ended up with the self-titled LP from a band out of Cali called CAT PARTY. Running into a string of bittersweet misfortunes, I've been calling this pal's couch home for the last few weeks and what with simultaneously being unemployed, I've set up a little station in front of his turntable. Listening, taping, recording and reviewing to pass my misguided time.
I'd heard a song from this LP called "Entitled" and fell in love with it. Somehow it's taken a few weeks for me to actually sit down with the record and enjoy it in it's entirety. The results found me blown away. It has all of my favorite ingredients. Dark melodic pop, desperate vocals, driving bass lines, surf-esque guitars and an atmospheric production quality. Songs about disappointment, turmoil, alienation and being unforgiving. It's obviously influenced by the likes of The Wipers and Husker Du while also incorporating some British post-punk elements within it. The mid-tempo range at which the songs are played spills out with such frustration it instantly grabs you by the gut. You can definitely hear a Jeffrey Lee Pierce influence through the vocals, lyrical content and structure as well.
Highlights include the build up opening track "Tar & Feathers", the detached and deprived "Further Into The Ordinary" which is one of the album's most lyrically memorable songs, the hardest hitting track on the record, " Product of the Eighties" and the closer to side A, "Entitled" which remains my personal favorite.
Check out the disheartened sounds of Cat Party here :
http://www.myspace.com/birdsofpreymusic
wizzard sleeve is funny!
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