The Kats
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The Kats first came to Los Angeles in 1976, from Minneapolis, as the band Skogie. In 1978 they formed The Kats by adding guitar hero Pete McRae to the band, debuting at the Troubadour's Hoot Night in late September of 1978 after sweltering through myriad gigs at The Rock Corporation. Opening dates with The Police, The Knack, The Motels, Oingo Boingo... followed. Then, later, attendance records at The Starwood, Whisky, The Troubadour and Madame Wongs.
The Kats recorded an LP with Tom Petty's producers Noah Shark and Max Reese at Shelter Studio, Hollywood, for Infinity Records 1979, and contributed the 1st track to the Rhino Records LP "L.A. In".
The Kats were renamed The Nu Kats, just before Pete McRae departed.
The Nu Kats continued as a 4-piece unit and went on to record and release 'Plastic Facts' and 'Yes Nukes' on Rhino Records in 1980. The "It's Not A Rumor" video (shot by Jan de Bont, starring Freddy's wfie Demi Moore) was in rotation on MTV. The Nu Kats also contributed several new songs to various film soundtracks.
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[edit] Members
- Freddy Moore (Rick 'Skogie' Moore): Composer, Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar (July 1977 - March 1980).
- Bobbyzio Moore (Robert Moore): Tenor Sax, Percussion, Rhythm Guitar, Composer (July 1977 - March 1980).
- Pete McRae (Robert F. McRae: Lead Guitar, Composer (June 1978 - March 1980).
- Dennis Peters (Dennis Peterson): Bass Guitar, Vocals (July 1977 - March 1980).
- Al Galles: Drums, Vocals (July 1977 - March 1980).
[edit] Previous members
- Mark Goldstein: Piano (July 1977 - February 1978).
- Gary Dunn: Lead Guitar, Vocal (February 1978 - June 1978).
- Guido Charles: Alto Sax, Vocal (February 1978 - June 1978).
[edit] Discography
- L.A. In (1979) Rhino Records
- Get Modern (1979) Infinity Records
[edit] Filmography
- I'm A Kat (1979) United Artists Pictures - Using an experimental 70mm 3D filming technique.
[edit] Videography
- Lost My TV (1979) Hollywood Heartbeat - Pre-MTV rock television series.
[edit] Audio
[edit] Related web sites
[edit] Related groups
[edit] Musical critique
Their music was mostly accessible rock, although many writer's noted:
"At one point The Kats snuck subtly into a jazz fusion riff for about a minute that really surprised the hell out of me; they took a complete 180 degree turn in direction. They pulled it off so effortlessly that it got a nice round of applause from the audience." - Music Connection.
"...rock and roll with a touch of bebop jazz thrown in." - Orange County Magazine.
"Musically, the Kats have a lot in common with the spiritedness of the '50s sax-influenced groups stretching clear back to Bill Haley & His Comets; they've also digested the mid '60s first generation punk and have a clear understanding of the technical advances made in the '70s. - Daily News (Los Angeles)
Lead guitarist Pete McRae, always spiffed out in leopard-print regalia from hatband to guitar strap, Dennis Peters on bass/vocal and Al Galles on drums/vocal constituted a flashy group of instrumentalists, laying down tightly structured backing patterns complete with jazzy jitterbug rhythms.
Songwriter, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Freddy Moore's robust sense of theatrics was complimented by his brother Bobbyzio's unbridled passion on saxophone and rhythm guitar; it's as though they performed for each other as they might have when they were kids in their bedroom, egging each other on with energetic abandon. The sense that one was peering in on intensely private theatre provoked either strong pro or con responses from audiences.
Bobbyzio and brother Freddy, were the most colorful cats onstage. Once he shed his guitar, front man Freddy slinked about the stage and into the audience radiating the sort of cool assurance one associates with an aggressive tomcat.
Although Freddy Moore was slenderly built along the lines of a Mick Jagger, he quickly demonstrated that housed in his slight body are a pair of superman lungs.
He was a first-rate singer who punctuated his solid gutsy vocal delivery with earthy growls.
On stage, Freddy was the focal point, pouncing about the stage with feline deftness, vamping atop the amps, cowering from the railing.
His voice soared, never wavering.
Offstage, his colorful stage persona swiftly changed to bespectacled, shy, gracious.
He is a down-to-earth midwesterner, with much of his innocence only glimpsed when he sang "California Here I Come."
When it came to everyday life, Moore's nervous system sliped into a relaxing lower gear.
Stripped of his flamboyant stage mannerisms, he comes across as an affable fellow, who looks rather intellectual due to the thick black rimmed glasses he wears when not performing.
And it soon becomes apparent that his appearance was not deceiving since Moore's conversational wit revealed a sharp mind.
It has always been fashionable for rock bands and songwriters to claim The City as their place of origin and the spawning ground for their music.
To admit that one was the product of the suburbs was tantamount to heresy, even though the travails of adolescence (the stuff of which great rock is made) and the progressions therein remain an almost mathematical constant whether the environment is urban or suburban.
The Kats, who originally hailed from the wilds of suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota and Marin County, California, not only admitted to their roots, but sang about them. (Trivia: McRae and the Moore brothers lived in the Terra Linda High School District, in Marin County during the mid sixties, but never met, the Moores returned to Minneapolis in 1966).
Their music and lyrics reflect the adolescent suburbia, not the belabored vacuousness oftimes associated with the parents of said sub adults.
"I'd like to call the band's sound an urban sound, but it's really a more suburban sound, I guess. Lyrically it's very suburban because we all grew up in a kind of suburban environment. And rather than go 'Yeah man, we're street guys from the city' we decided to be more honest," confessed Kats spokesman Freddy Moore.
"If I got up on stage and tried to be like David Lee Roth or someone, it just wouldn't work 'cause I'm just a wimpy-little, punky-looking guy, and so when I wrote the songs I just thought about the stuff that really happened, so most of the stuff is true and has really happened to me. It's all based on who we really are."
The songs reflect the suburban ennui that views the city streets as the place where the action happens. In "Street Life," the protagonist complains:
I'm a part of the culture
Read it in Rolling Stone
But I'm stuck out in the suburbs
So don't leave me all alone...
Street Life, that's what I need. Before The Kats were transplanted in a warmer clime, they played throughout the continent under the unlikely appellation of Skogie (at first "[[Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos]]").
About their transition to a So Cal band, [[Freddy Moore]] explained: "We were regional stars in the Midwest; we were on all the TV shows and whatnot. We had a good chance of getting a recording deal except that we were located in Minneapolis. A rep from Atlantic Records was behind us, the representative for the Midwest. He called up the people on the coast and they said, 'Who needs a band from Minnesota no matter how good they are?'
That's one of the reasons we eventually moved out here. When we worked with The Tubes, they recommended that we come out here. We finally decided to move when we played with them. Then, when we came out here, we decided to revamp the whole thing and really get something super-solid, something unique, something real that would have longevity, something that is just totally us. So we came up with The Kats.
The change of climate brought with it a change in the band's music.
| Moore: "For about the last year and a half we just stopped working-playing original music-and just woodshedded, really come up with something unique and identifiable, thematic; we really soul
searched asking 'what can we do' and 'who am I and what can I portray?' so I wrote the material from that aspect rather 'Let's do something like Boston and try to sell.' |
Whereas the sights and sounds of the Skogie band of Minnesota could be described as Tubesque, the sound of The Kats was something else entirely, the closet parallel being the sound of Steely Dan meets The Who, but also sharply differentiated from them.
In a word, unique. The members of the band have somewhat changed roles in their transformation into The Kats.
| Moore: "Musically, we've decided who does what best. My brother Bobbyzio, plays saxophone, but he basically started as a guitarist and a bass player. He plays keyboards and all other instruments, but we decided to concentrate on his sax because he can get a really unique sax sound, and he can do a lot of expressive moves on sax. Dennis Peters and Al Galles have been together for fifteen years so they're a real tight unit, rhythmically, so we use a lot of rhythmic punches, and they have a magic way of communicating with each other. I've always been the main Songwriter--so I wrote the songs for me as the lead singer and them as the background. |
As far as performing -gone were the trappings of the Skogie days, but there was still the commitment to the audience.
| Moore: "Audiences react to energy. I
mean, you can have a really shitty band that's putting out the right energy to the audience, and the audience will love them, and you can have a band that's out there playing great but look really bummed out, and the people won't get it. |
On stage, The Kats were a rock band with musical cleverness and humor permeating their every move. Freddy Moore would dip his rubbery body into a sea of dancing girls, only to bounce right up again onto the stage with maniacal glee. He's singing "Alley cats may act like thugs but I stay home and spray my rugs," gesturing with a finger from his crotch. Freddy, star of The Kats, was confident that his almost masturbatory antics would go over delightedly with a crowd, convinced that he would uninhibitedly do anything to communicate.
Moore has a kind of unabashed, burgeoning star quality one either loves or hates.
There are those who love them. The Kats' enthusiastic fans matched their heroes' frenetic excitement, no matter how many times theyed heard "The Kats (Theme Song)," meowing right along, some wearing black kitten-ears, letting go with the tune's New Orleans-style jazziness.
