Cat Jams Label is based out of Columbia, Missouri. Founded in late 2002 by Blanche Braden, a small brown cat, and managed by her owner Channing Kennedy, Cat Jams concentrates on rule-based and outsider music. While mostly a small-run (1-100) CDR label, works have also been released on VHS, audio cassette, dubbed-over audio cassette, data DVD-R, mini-CDR, VCD, and floppy diskette. Packaging concepts are unique for each release or series, and include: random defaced books (OBELISK, Hot Beats / Cool Treats; small sewn-shit snack-filled pillows (OBELISK, Now I OBELIXTape my nuts to ev'ry ho); ziplocked 'kits' including a colorable activity placemat, a crayon, a condiment packet, a floppy diskette, with two CDs silkscreened to resemble a flattened cat head in a spatula-fried clamshell case (Digiki feat. MC Cat Genius, Channing Kennedy, and Sarbochron, Pancaked); black felt sleeves with an unscrolling flap containing a silkscreened black construction-paper insert (Entei, Entei; jewelcases with a unique handwritten note under the CD tray (Bob Dynamite vs. Tape Store, Polyvinyl Chloride; and many other great ideas. There is currently no interest in releasing on pressed CDs or vinyl. Cat Jams artists and collaborators hail from the United States, Japan, France, and the United Kingdom, and range in age from 3 to 56; many Cat Jams releases are by weird high school students.
While holding to its own aethetics, Cat Jams seeks the reformation of music and entertainment via challenging, hilarious, inauthentic, and inspirational fresh voices; hence the slogan "Everyone can make a terrible album." Self-imposed arbitrary rules are a commonly-used tool for exploring the value of corresponding rulesets present in popular music.
It should be noted that Cat Jams Label is home to Blanche's brother Piccolo, aka MC Cat Genius, who appeared on Japanese artist Cornelius's 2003 fanmix album PM (Point Mixes) by Humans.
The Cat Jams website slash blog is catjams.com . Every Cat Jams release, with art and explanations, can be freely downloaded from the Internet Archive . Videos by Cat Jams artists and friends are conveniently compiled at YouTube . There are two Cat Jams Flickr accounts for photo sharing. Channing also uses Bloglines and Last.fm .
