Kackala

"WHIPPING GOOD FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY" - "KACKALA VAM PRINASI SVA VZTEKLA SLOVA MOUDROSTI V PISNICH KOVBOJSKYCH HOLEK, V NAPEVECH O OSVOBOZENI A NEKOLIKA MORBIDITACH NAVRCH." .......WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE'VE DONE : KACKALA is the Czech-American all-women's a capella group, which brings furious words of wisdom to you in their cowgirl tunes, liberation songs and a few morbid numbers thrown in for good measure. Through a mix of mad girl, bad girl, and sad girl original compositions and a dash of homemade choreography, Kackala creates dynamic and entertaining performances. -----The work of Kackala is based on original authorial material that reflects the distinctive personalities of particular members of the group. Since its beginning, Kackala members have stylized themselves into typified personas in the manner of cowgirls whose musical acts are at the same time theatrical performances. -----Kackala originally formed as an ad hoc addition to the Theatre 7 festival in Tábor in 1999. The need to fill a gap in the festival program fortuitously provided Hilary Binder (later known as Backdoor Bobbi) the opportunity to realize an old idea: start an all-female a cappella band. She asked a few of her female friends to come together and after the first rehearsal, the core of the group felicitously crystallized around the first and founding members – Hilary Binder, Petra Podlahová, Lexa Walsh, Stacey Rubin and Katerina Kubesová. Soon we had a name - the only thing missing was the repertoire. With the little time left before the festival, we rehearsed a few sure-to-be-hit cover songs and Stacey Rubin (Rawcuss Ruby) wrote the very first original Kackala song, Have You Seen . Within a week, we had a total set length of 11 and half minutes. Armed with this and some confidence, our improvised act impressed the audience at the festival. Subsequently, our international quintet receded to all the corners of the world, only to come together again at the beginning of the summer in 2000 to work on new material. The future direction and face of Kackala had been set. -----As our repertoire increased, so did the desire to present the fruits of our labor. What to do? Go on tour. From 2001 – 2008 we went on 7 European tours performing in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and, of course, the Czech republic. Our audiences on those tours were surprisingly diverse, including parents and children at an afternoon matinee in Geneva as well as bikers at a motorcycle festival in Salaise sur Sanne, France . On tour, we have met many gorgeous and, over the years, faithful fans. We have also explored musical collaborations, for example with the Hamburg-based group Cow or our Tábor brethren Deverova Chyba. ----- In 2003 we self-published our demo WANTED, to be followed by our first full-length CD, VOX, co-released in 2006 with the Czech independent label Silver Rocket. VOX has been widely reviewed and was nominated in 2007 for the Czech national musical award Andel in the “alternative music” category. -2006 saw another change for Kackala when Eva Kubesová (Luscious Lucille) joined us. Finally, we were able to play concerts throughout most of the year, something that used to be practically impossible due to the intercontinental nature of the band. -----At present Kackala's members are Hilary, Katerina (Pretty Pink Pussy) and Eva, who spend most of their time in the Czech Republic, Lexa (Black Belt Betty), who lives and works in Oakland, California, hopping in before every tour, and Stacey (Ruby Royale) who lives and works in the US, but contributed towards the VOX recording and rejoined the group in 2008 for its France residency and work on the new recording. Petra (Saddlesore Sadie) left the group in 2007, she lives in Tabor and is a memebr of the band Gaffa (see http://www.myspace.com/ggaaffaa). In 2005, Naomi Potter (Rambling Rose) joined and strengthened the group for one year, and is currently working as a curator of the BANFF multicultural centre in Banff , Canada (see http://www.banffcentre.ca).I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.1