The Cat Empire

Two Shoes

(Velour)

Record Review by Sarah Jane

Whenever I hear “six-piece band,” I think Brady Six and their hit “It’s a Sunshine Day.” Listening to the Black Eyed Peas identity crises rivaling, jazz-trained, salsa-inspired, ska-skewed rock of Two Shoes, I see (Greg) Ollie McGill, (Peter) Ryan Monro, (Bobby) Felix Riebl, (Marcia) Harry Angus, (Jan) Will Brown and (little mixmaster Cindy) Jamshid Khadiwala in coordinated costumes dancing in unison. Not subscribers of ska’s typical rude boy image (although their dancers are), Cat Empire’s Nambassa-style laid back with a conscience vibe, and Two Shoes’ pogostemon cablin thematic splendor, is as ‘young Clash’ as it is Ryan Phillippe’s five-year plan (“To be living in the Caribbean, writing, living off the land, eating from the ocean and probably smoking herb.”)

After the success of their platinum-selling (translates to 70,000 albums in their homeland Australia, compared to 1,000,000 in the U.S.) funkadelic eponym, Cat Empire had choice recording options, picking Havana to record/p-a-r-t-y with the locals (“Sly”) between the wood-paneled walls where the Buena Vista Social Club made history. In the coro-pregón happy “Protons, Neutrons, Electrons,” Harry “I Am The Walrus” Angus sings (his two dads are Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Ringo) of the meaninglessness of life and the comfort he finds in Colonel Sanders fried chicken. After a listen to “Saltwater,” one deduces that Angus is a huge fan of Todd Rundgren’s “Bang The Drum All Day.”

Felix Riebl’s - his voice a doppelganger for Mick Jones’ - broken English tale of self-destruction, “The Night That Never Ends,” rises to Cat Empire’s “No Woman, No Cry” aspirations. In “Car Song,” the instrumentals say “Yo La Tengo,” but the words and hack scratching – which also mars the young E Street Band quality of “Lullaby” – say “Len” (“Steal My Sunshine”). Surprisingly, Rieble’s ode to the cocktail “Sol y Sombra” (made of brandy and the Spanish liquor Anís de Chinchón) comes across as the most inspired piece—a swingy, Spanish language Timba.

The definition of ska used to be, adj. Unrequited Love for Tony Kanal. No more. Two Shoes, previously platinum in Australia, spurred Cat Empire on a Boratesque pilgrimage to America, beginning with an appearance on vanilla face David Letterman Feb. 13.