Some song titles are throwaways. Others grow into their own meaning organically. Some, like Nirvana's onomatopoetic "Dive," perfectly capture the mood and energy of the lyrics and music. Catherine's Mark Rew knows the importance of a title, so he says he waits until a song is finished to bestow it with a surname. "The title should set the mood for the song," he says. A song's name should prepare you for the short trip you're about to take. On Catherine's new CD, "Hot Saki and Bedtime Stories" (TVT), Rew manages to pull of this trick on almost half of the fourteen songs. "Whisper" is retro arena rock with whispy vocals that float in like a salacious bit of gossip overheard at an intimate club. "Cotton Candy High " is poppyglam that leaves that familiar sugary, gritty glaze between your teeth, reminding you where you've been and what you ate. "Vegas Glam" is self-explanatory, as is the universe-in-your-navel gazing of "Pink Floyd Poster."

The glammy sound of "Hot Saki" represents a slight change in direction for Catherine, not the least of which is due to the departure of original members Jerome Brown and Neil Jendon, both of whom play only on select tracks of the new CD. "We didn't set out trying to write a glam record or a theme record," says Rew. If Catherine's new CD has a theme, it's the pleasingly out-of-control excesses of last night, last month or last year. "A lot of the sound coming out has to do with a new insight into our music and being influenced by the music we grew up with," he says, explaining the seventies power-chord feel of songs such as "Make Me Smile" and "Don't Touch Me There." Hinting at previous disharmony, Rew says the band sought a more unified vision, but Brown and especially Jendon---who previously wrote a majority of the songs---apparently were no longer comfortable and left. Reverting to a four-member line-up, the latest incarnation of Catherine is augmented by guitarist Scott Evers, who insists that even band members call him Fever. That recent touring gig with Urge Overkill must've gotten to him.

The new sound is lighter, more pop-oriented, and in many ways, the most simply elegant music the band has recorded. Still, much as Rew battles against it, his tunes are not completely unlike a certain melancholy Chicago band whose bass player trades lines with him on the first single, "Four Leaf Clover." "I don't listen to the Pumpkins' music and I get tired of people making that comparison," says Rew indignantly. "I'd never even heard 'Gish' until last year." But Billy Corgan produced Catherine's EP, "Sleepy" three years ago, and Rew admits the head Pumpkin impressed upon the band the importance of playing really tight arrangements. "If we weren't from Chicago or if Billy hadn't produced that CD, I don't think it would come up a much," says Rew, already fed up with the insinuations a month before the record's release date.

Having Pumpkin bassist D'Arcy Brown sing a duet on the first single isn't exactly going to help squelch the talk. "We were about halfway into recording the disc and there were a few songs that had me on backing vocals that were good, but could have used something else," says Rew. The band decided that something else was a female backing vocal, and since D'Arcy was around anyway (the CD was recorded on the apple farm in Michigan she shares with her husband, drummer Kerry Brown), the bassist was the obvious choice. Once the band members heard the tapes, the gig was upgraded from backing vocals to duet, with Rew and Brown trading lines. Seemingly over the band's objection, the song was tagged as the first single by the record company. "I have mixed feelings about that," says Rew. "It's not necessarily the best single, but I know how hard it is to get on the radio if you're not established, and maybe this will help us break through."

If anything helps differentiate Catherine from the Pumpkins, it is the feeling of whimsically downbeat good tidings on songs such as "Punch Me Out" and "Blacklight." Created over many months in what Rew describes as a no-pressure atmosphere where the band would "get a pitcher of margaritas and something else and have power writing sessions and record when we wanted to," the songs are newly nostalgic without falling into saccharine kitsch. "Hot Saki & Bedtime Stories" comes out September 17, and the band plays Metro September 28.

Article From - NewCity

Date - September 12, 1996

Article By - Gil Kaufman

Thanks To Jenny