Bloggerhythms

The Cat Empire , from Melbourne, Australia is currently all the rage in their homeland. Two Shoes , which went double platinum in the land down under, was recorded in Havana, Cuba in late 2004 at the famous Estudio Egrem where The Buena Vista Social Club laid down many of their tracks. It's not easy to label The Cat Empire. The band plays a lot of ska and reggae, a little hip-hop, and they even work a turntable into their act, but where Two Shoes really shines is with their excellent Latin jazz arrangements. If you must apply a label to the Aussie sextet call them a rock band even though there is nothing traditionally rock 'n roll about them. There is no guitarist on the album but there is a three piece Cuban horn section. The Cat Empire are not only versatile composers they also write imaginative lyrics. The CD opens with these great lines from the song "Sly": If frizzy hair was a metaphor for festival time/Then this woman is a goddess of that festival shrine....

Stone of Sisyphus (SOS) , the infamous, mysterious, unreleased, and widely bootlegged CD from Chicago recorded in 1993 is a major improvement over their 1980's escapades into male diva territory. It is great to see the band taking pride in their work again, but despite claims on the Internet that this lost album ranks with their greatest and most renowned works one should take note: Stone of Sisyphus is not the second coming of CTA . How could it be? Jimi Hendrix’s idol, Terry Kath, is long dead, and the wildly interesting times that both spawned and had a major influence on their early music are gone with him. That said, SOS is their best and most eclectic set of original songs since their mid-70s heyday. It offers a mix of styles in which the band tries everything. The title track and "Get On This" are loud, straight-ahead, 90s arena rock primarily written by and featuring their former guitarist Dawayne Bailey . The latter song offers some of the most off the wall ...