Member Since: 6/3/2007
Band Website: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5028798483
Band Members: Gertjie Besselsen: Vocals, Guitar, Accordion, Bouzouki, Kalimba, etc.
Jacques Du Plessis: Vocals, Guitar, Lap Slide, Xylophones, Melodica, etc.
JC Visser: Bass.
Pierre Theron: Drums, Percussion.
Bernard Willemse: Percussion.
Influences: Tom Waits, The doors, Ben Harper, Robert Johnson, Primus, and so on...
Sounds Like: Levi's Original Music Magazine
Mr Cat & The Jackal. Laughing at their nine lives.
Jess Henson - 28 Jul 2008, 00:00
Editor rating: Nine
Eeeeeyargh! For a change, a band with BALLS! And PERSONALITY! I was starting to get tired of the tight-fisted handful of local musos who actually know how to put on a show. This is fresh meat. This is good stiff whiskey – neat; in a messy, frilly frock. This is Mr Cat & The Jackal. This is Cult-Crunchy-Rock.
They’re going to be called everything from Mr Hat And The Hackles to futuristic hillbilly renegades, and smile sardonically right through it. Why? Coz they’re the new cool. Carefully unkempt, musically gifted, and unperturbed by idiots. They’re mixing up musically manicured, hip urban hymns and hurrs with touching, timeless folk flow. They’re writing songs they like for women they love about things like working 9 to 5, and getting away with it. Okay, everybody does that. But not everybody does that WELL . And while you’re still rolling their name around, they have already started tapping, slapping and strumming their acoustic set at the Waiting Room.
Unplugged, Mr Cat And The Jackal are something like a buncha piss-taking pirates meets Crosby, Stills, Nash (and Young). If you don’t know why the last name is in parentheses, it’s because you’re too young. I forgive you - on behalf of ageing folk fans everywhere. Gutsy guttural grunt and feathery hollers alternate with incredibly delicate and feminine harmonies couched inside every sort of instrumentation you can carry up The Waiting Room’s narrow, swaying staircase. (It isn’t really a staircase, I know, it’s one of those hangy things they can pull up quickly if they want to. And I bet there’s a trapdoor into the underworld underneath, eh?) Anyway - instruments! Lap Steel, Accordion, Wooden frog (you know, that toy with three tones, sounds like an amphibian going ‘rebbit, rebbit’? That one) – they use them all - Bongo drums, guitar, and pauses.
Yes! They know about silence in composition. About measure in full song. They know about dropping you in the middle of a raucous acoustic rant. They know about pulling up abruptly so that you let that breath you’ve been holding for the last thirty seconds out. They know about spiralling melodies, building tension, and breaking it. They’re fun, they’re wry, they’re wiser than they let on, and they’re going to be cult heroes before very long.
But it won’t change their hairdos or their whiskers. I guarantee you. Watch out for the next review of them fully plugged. And watch your step while you’re Waiting!
http://www.levi.co.za/musicmag/Category/Detail/Detail.aspx?I
D=691
MR. CAT & THE JACKAL - THEMES & VARIATIONS
You can buy the 'Themes & Variations' Album at rhythmrecords online:
http://www.rhythmrecords.co.za/music/1357/Mr.-Cat-&-The-
Jackal/Themes-&-Variations
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: Indie