Most of the time, while talking about Fat Cat, the word "pretentious" pops in the discussion. You can try it at home. And to be frank, I understand the reaction. Fat Cat are probably the biggest indie label out there, constantly providing yuppies with new material to speak about during lunch. As I said in a former review, it is more the label's target audience than the label itself that looks pretentious. Because, apart from Sylvain Chauveau's hilariously self-indulgent press release and Sigur Ros' latest album, nothing's shocking, as Perry Farrell used to yell. 

American lo-fi indie rock has never sold well, if you were planning on calling the fat cat dudes pretentious capitalistic whores, just get a hold of yourself, dammit. This is american rock 'n roll reminiscent of post punk influenced bands, the whole straight edge DC clique, except a little less straight. Shotgun Funeral, the a-side, features a great punk chorus sung nonchalantly. Jenga, the b-side, is less oppressive yet still nonchalantly punk. This single makes me curious to hear their debut album, out sometime in april.  

-Vsevolod

/mar 15th 2003/