Elsewise we’ve been brainstorming ideas for visuals to go with the new sounds, and have settled on a lovely Paul Fox original which combines lyrical elements from the new songs with his own perennial obsessions (woodland critters, cityscapes and bad architecture- his journals are full of ‘em). In his own words:

“it’s the first time I’ve created a piece of ’serious’ art solely on computer. I slipped in some secret stuff, hidden shapes, etc. as well as some tenuous Kite, Golden Triangle and Pentagram compositional allusions, for those with time on their hands. I love a good bit of mysticism in artwork, I do.”

We’re so pleased with the new visuals that we will be rebooting the whole shebang, myspace, site etc. the better to express where we feel we’re at at the moment. To top things off we’ll be setting up our own record label (as yet unnamed, your suggestions welcome!) to tie everything together.

We will also be making a brief return to the Belfast stage this week on Tuesday August 17th in Auntie Annies, on the invitation of Katie and the Carnival, and that’ll cost ye a more than reasonable £5 in. The lovely Niamh O’Hagan will be playing too, and you’ll get a sneak peak of the new stuff for your trouble.

In the meantime we’re trying to get a photoshoot organised for this weekend, and giving Paul’s English friend Annie a guided tour of Aul Beal Feirste. Maybe we could combine the two… (funny how these ideas come about sometimes)

chat soon;)

KATCO.

Spending these weekends holed up in Ghost Noise Studios (Paul Fox’s bedroom) in the spookyily remote Crumlin countryside has been an eye opener for myself, Scottzer and Ms O’Neill. We’ve have had the pleasure of helping the Fantastic Mr Fox, our drummer cum producer, corner a distinctly Kittys flavour to the music.

Deciding that home recording was the best way to capture our sound, we decided to break with our record label last April. So successful have the sessions been we have abandoned the initial plan to re-record some of the old stuff with the current line-up- the record will consist of all new material, with contributions from each member of the band, much of it written on the spot.

Expect a more studio orientated sound than last time, but don’t fret; we’ll be keeping it intimate and handmade as ever. We’ve got a release date too- 29th September in Charlie’s Cafe. Unlike most EP Launches, we will not be charging in and as ever with Charlies, you can bring your own booze, confection, whatever.

In other news our Empire show in August has been postponed to October/November time, which is handy because by then we’ll have a CD to flog! We’ve been scaling back on our live performances lately in favour of recording, reflecting, writing and sometimes just old fashioned hanging out- being all part of the process, we hope the new record will reflect some of the fun we’ve been having!

Talk to yas soon

KATCO xx.

Why are all the best songs about the end of the year? November by Tom Waits, Through December by Laura Veirs, and that wonderful Halloween theme by John Carpenter which would suit for October, although it doesn’t have any words, just goes de de de, de de de, duh duh, de de de, de de de, duh duh, which is hardly that arresting on a page.

We are presented with a similar dilemma for the month of March, and as such have entitled this post simply blogpost. Say what you like we’re saving our originality for the studio thank you very much,
and as such the recording of our album remains and will remain our main priority for the next wee while.

We are not adverse to putting in a few bread and butter appearances here and there, however. Some of you may have spotted us hauling our gear down Gt George’s Street in Dublin for a Song Room session last month, and we helped open the Ad Hoc gallery in Belfast in January.

We also popped up on Bandwidth’s Valentines Day compilation with our cover of The Cure’s Lovecats. We could run a spot-KATCO competition, kind of like The Knitted Character out of Harry Hill, the prize would be little knitted versions of ourselves, which would only be distributed on a waiver assuring us that the recipient does not practice vodoo.

Not that we don’t trust you, but you can’t be too careful these days.

That aside, we are happy to advertise our second appearance with the awesome chamber pop duo and Balcony TV Music Video Awards nominees The Candides next Saturday March 13th, which will be a vodoo free zone.

We also have a new track up on our facebook page (click here), a demo of a brand new O’Neill composition and a taster of things to come. You can download the Valentines  compilation (including tracks from Heliopause, The Flora, The Fauna and A Plastic Rose, and us, among others) from the Bandwidth website by clicking here.

That’s all for now, keep your ears to the ground and we’ll see you around,

de de de, de de de, duh, duh.. damn it’s stuck in my head,

KATCO xx

By sheer felicity however we got a reasonable deal and will be appearing at The Enterprise, Camden, next Saturday December 12th and on the Friday Forum Show with Recharged Radio the Friday Dec 11th at seven, which you’ll be able to listen to here. On the Thursday 10th we’ll be playing at the legendary Hope and Anchor in Islington.

When we return we will be appearing at Gifted in The Belfast Empire Thursday December 17th, the second of our two Belfast shows this month, the first being Blast:Live at Laverys Bunker this Friday the fourth at about eight, which will be broadcast on Blast 106.4 (a new student radio station) the following week while we’re kicking it in capital city.

Also keep an eye out for The Great Dame, a new alternative pantomime from the Men of The Hour crowd, with whom we did a couple of gigs in the summer. It’ll be playing in The Black Box, Belfast, Sunday 20th December through December 23th, and will feature music from your favourite folk-pop Belfastians.

Many thanks to all those at BBC Radio Ulster and Gerry Anderson’s production team for going out of their way to make us feel at home, and to the man himself who,  as you can see from above,  was the picture of avuncularity- stick that in your pipe Stephan Nolan!

We were also pleasantly surprised to learn that Gerry’s producer is none other than Michael Bradley from the Undertones, and he in turn was surprised that we had covered one of his songs for a punk nostalgia project earlier in the year, remarking that we had actually improved the track. We beg to differ of course but thanks anyway!

We’ll be taking a short break for Christmas and by and large will be keeping our live appearances to a minimum this January to hopefully finish our new EP.  There may be one or two little things here and there however- we’ll keep you posted as ever.

In the meantime good luck hauling those shopping bags around and hopefully see you before the big C,

KATCO XX.

This month has mostly been spent organising our first mini-tour, which will kick off in Dundalk’s Spirit Store, (one of our favourite haunts), and will see us setting foot in London for the first time as a band when we hit the Gibson Centre on Dec 10th. The London jaunt will encompass a weekend of gigs and radio slots, so keep an eye out for updates on the myspace if you’re coming from that direction.

October saw us return to The Globe in Dublin for more open mike night frolics, and as such nights go the Song Room ranks highly in that regard. The crowd are ever cheerful and appreciative and it’s such a pity we have to pick up and rush back to the K-mobile immediately afterwards but we gotta get up on Thursday mornings. We love you anyway!

For those of you in Northern Ireland who had your ears glued to the radio last October 9th, we got bumped due to an unfortunate diary malfunction, but not to worry as we received a sincerely apologetic phone call from Gerry Anderson himself, and have been felicitously rescheduled to November 20th- Children in Need day. Don’t expect to see us in a bath of baked beans or anything though- it is the radio after all.

Anyway we hope you have a fantastic November wherever you are. It must be said the sky has been unforgiving in Belfast, but we hit the road on November 28th so keep an eye out for stop-offs in your town and maybe we can cheer you up, or at least share your pain!

BOO!

KATCO XX.

Disclaimer: Kitty and the Can Openers do not sleep in the same bed together, nor do they nor have they ever shared a bath,  of water, baked beans or otherwise.

it was the month when Kitty and the Can Openers played the City of Song Festival in Derry, and Ciara and Ronan had two simultaneous but completely subjective epiphanies on the City walls:

where Paul Scott was photographed looked very large,

and very, very small

where we retired to Innnishowen Peninsula between festival slots for a bit of scenic diving

and, amongst our most singular gigs, played Derry’s Delacroix, amidst the Sunday-dinner smelling carpets and avuncular clientelle of the classic Irish local.

We took to the stage and rocked most eloquently while a single drunk  danced. And Ciara had a Coke…which she soon drank.

It was the month where we played in a circus tent (The Bosco Theatre) at the Dublin Fringe, and did a set with Shane Todd on West Belfast’s Feile FM

-here he is:

and savoured an elegiac last day of summer at the Botanic Arts Festival with John Shelley and the Creatures and the Greeters, encountering the most beautiful Saint Bernard we ever sawed;

October will see us venturing further into the mine field of  whizz kid Paul Fox’s twisted sonic imagination

and his personal portable recording studio (currently in residence in the front room of Fernwood St.) as we juggle  duties between home recording and Audio-Ill’s new studio in Belfast centre,

Additionally, KATCO will appear on The Gerry Anderson Show on Friday October 9th for a bit of banter and  a few numbers, whereupon yet another lifetime ambition will be fulfilled.

For all you Belfast ones, we’ll be doing an all day event in Laverys Bunker on the 25th- we’ve missed playing the old home town to be sure,

keep on keeping on,

Caio KATCO xx.

The new line-up debuted at Charlies Coffee Shop in Belfast at the beginning of August, and since then has been busy recording. As you may be aware the band recently signed a contract to that effect with the folks at Audio-Ill records, and have been filling their weekends since down at Earth Studios in Carryduff, listening to the countryside and making up songs about the weather in between takes…

…much of our time has been taken up by traveling to and from Dublin, and with a decent selection on one’s iPod, the late night journeys become an unexpected pleasure… we played Bruxelles two weeks ago, (beside the Phil Lynott statue) and received an encore at The Globe on Gt George’s St just last Wednesday. We finally managed to bag a gig in the beautiful Spirit Store down by the docks in Dundalk, where we spent time between sound-checks dangling our feet off the pier and sampling the local delicacies (burger and chips, that is).. here’s Ciara on the ocarina in said venue,

the upcoming month sees us similarly engaged,

…on Wednesday 9th September, we return to Charlies Coffee Shop, Bradbury Place, Belfast, to play a set, where the atmosphere routinely spills out onto the street, and occasionally goes on a little later than expected… the following Friday 11th September, Feile FM 103.2 will be chatting with us and letting us play a few numbers on their Friday evening show, 8-9 pm, after which we will be heading to bed early to prepare ourselves for The Botanic Art Festival, Saturday 12th September, an open style market event which will take place on Lower Crescent Park off Botanic Avenue, which, free of charge of course, will feature designers, musicians, artists, circus entertainers, children’s face painting and the like.

We’ll be on at about 3:30 in Marquee 2 and will be followed by John Shelly and the Creatures, The Greeters; and Mother Nature, who will hopefully give us a break and let the sun shine forth. We’re off to Dublin again the next day, being Sunday 13th September, to play Sunday Roast @ The Globe, at 9pm, immediately afterward being whisked off to The Docklands to do a set at The Bosco Theatre as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival. That’ll be happening at about 11pm.

What follows will be a week off, rounded off with a set at the Sunday Strip Club, The Pavillion Sunday 20th September, leading up to our appearance at The City of Song Festival, Derry… and here is a list of our bookings therein:

The Delcroix Bar, Buncrana Rd at 5:45 pm Friday 25th September, where we will be joined by our Belfast buddies Jackson Cage, afterward hauling our carcasses southward to play…

Bound for Boston, Waterloo St, at 11:45, with Pocket Promise…

…then its off to a friend’s house (hopefully!) to rest up for the evening, whereon we will be returning to Masons, Magazine St. that Saturday 26th September at 5:00 to round off the festival in the company of Matt McGinn and Jackson Cage once again,

at which point we will return to Belfast, sleep for about two hours, and return to our day jobs as if all had been a bizzare dream. And maybe then we’ll start working on a mail out for all the engagements we have planned for October (and their name is Legion…)

all the best with your adventures and endeavours

here we are being interviewed by Dundalk’s finest, Highway 67, at the Spirit Store,

KATCO XX

please welcome Paul Fox (who we will be calling Fox Johnson from now on to distinguish him from the eminent Paul Scott).

Take a good look… those eyes, smoldering,

scepter in hand, like some diamond God-

look ye mighty, and despair..

When you’re done despairing you can have a gander at some of these lovely photies taken in and around our neighbourhood in South Belfast:

here’s us tempting fate;

and doing what we do;

here’s us apparently worshiping some kind of nether deity in the backroom of a squat we found somewhere;

…some more smoldering,

awwww;

there’s oodles more photos on the myspace!

caio

KATCO XX.

photography by Adrian Knight.  (not the hypnotist)

Involved in the agreement is a two year recording contract, as well as a tie-in with Audio-Ill’s sister company, Grand Parade Music Publishing, based in London.

What this essentially amounts to is that debut album which has been gestating over the past few years.  More than likely the record will serve as a document of our miscellaneous adventures since we put this show on the road, accompanied by a tour to promote the album and a few singles, just for kicks! This time round we’ll have Earth Studios at our disposal, so unfettered by budget restrictions (the bane of many an up and coming act) we can expect a truly unique sound to do justice to our songs.

Many thanks to all of you for your  exemplary and ever-patient support, for all who gave us our early breaks and heads-up along the way, including but not limited to AU magazine, Rigsy and the gang at ATL, Rory McConnell of Radio 1 fame, Joe Dougan, and Andy and Scott of deadon music.  Special significance should be singled out to some of our earliest acolytes, Tom McShane, Geoff Gatt not the least amongst them, who have given us lots of support during the long process of refining our sound and finding our creative direction.

Also to any of you, far too many to mention, who have handed over your hard earned cash for our music,  attended our gigs or indeed simply expressed your enjoyment of our music,  for reminding us that someone is listening.

Regards must also go out to the Delawares, who inspired us to start a band in the first place.

Otherwise it’ll all be business as usual , except now we have a piece of paper to justify our work!

cheerios!

KATCO XX