This Shakin’ House is catl’s fourth release and I believe the first as a bonafide two-piece, with “catl” (aka Jamie Fleming) on guitar and vocals and Sarah Kirkpatrick on vocals and drums (plus some signature corny dad jokes of which she pulled out a couple in Indy). It’s a honky-tonk blues stomping album with some really excellent tracks: my favorites are the Bo-Diddley-esque “Gateway Blues,” the hypnotic Junior Kimbrough-styled “Shakin’ House Blues” that has some great blues harmonica and the floor-shaking “Save Myself.”  “Save Myself” is a great example of the comparison I’ve made between Jamie and Jon Spencer – lots of great “YEAH!” lyrical punctuations; I believe catl performed with Spencer recently while he was on tour with his HITMakers.

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CATL “Bide My Time Until I Die” 2018. Romanus Records, custom tricolored variant (limited edition) vinyl. We saw catl perform last night at one of my favorite local bars, Boone & Crockett and the venue was perfect for the Toronto duo’s punk-blues, southern-fried Americana rockin’ rhythm and blues (ie taxidermy, super-dim lighting – hence the less-than-stellar photos – wooden barrel tables, etc).

CATL are Jamie Fleming on guitar and vocals and Sarah Kirkpatrick on drums, vocals and “shakin’ around” awesomeness. Their overall sound reminds me of Boss Hog (like Jon Spencer and Cristina Martinez, they are also a couple and share vocals; Jamie often punctuating Sarah’s singing with a “YEAH”) mixed with some Southern Culture on the Sklds humorous juke joint honky-tonk. Complete with some choice groan-level dad jokes (example: “What’s the opposite of irony? Wrinkly.”)

Bide My Time Before I Die is catl’s fifth album, and – I think – their third since becoming a two-piece around 2012. They played several tracks from the LP last night including (I hope I’m getting this right!) “Drive,” “Cocaine Blues,” “Sundown and Slow,” “Misunderstand” (an awesome mid-tempo stomper on which Sarah takes the vocal lead) and a great audience participation song “Hot Baked Cornbread and Spice.” I remember that one especially from their performance at last summer’s Romanus Fest in Indianapolis, the first time we saw catl. On the LP there’s a lot of harmonica (though none last night) on several of the tracks which, combined with the raucous punked-up energy (see “Superfly Lady in particular), reminds me of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (always a good thing). All songs on Bide My Time Before I Die are written by catl except the last track, “Keys to the Kingdom,” a traditional gospel blues song, the first (maybe) variant was recorded back in 1929 by Washington Philips or by Bessie Johnson and the Sanctified Singers, also 1929 (not sure which was released first).

CATL are on a brief tour through the Midwest: they play tonight in Minneapolis and will play Chicago on May 4th. I highly recommend seeing them. They put on an absolutely excellent and high-energy show and are also really nice people.

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We saw catl play last summer in Indianapolis at Romanus Records Fest (their latest album, Bide My Time Until I Die, came out on Romanus) and we were blown away: I’m a huge fan of women on rhythm and percussionist Sarah K. not only beats the shit out of her drums (and tambourine, maracas, organ, accordion), she does it standing/dancing which provides an even more dynamic live experience. She takes the lead vocals on several tracks and occasionally shares vocals with singer/guitarist Jamie, whose voice is exactly the right tone for punk-blues: a little nasal sneer. I think their April performance will be their first time in Milwaukee (though I’m not totally sure) and I can’t wait to see them again.


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